By Odimmegwa Johnpeter, Abuja
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq says Gender equality is not a struggle or an attempt to highlight the superiority of one sex over another.
The minister made the remark in a keynote address at the launch of the NAPTIP Gender Policy document and Implementation Strategy held in Abuja on Monday.
Umar Farouq stated that Gender equality has always been wrongly perceived whereas the recent emphasis in addressing gender concerns is to ensure the integration of all in programming at all levels.
She said that the launching of the Gender Policy Document will ensure that policy makers are encouraged to analyze society critically and recognize discriminatory practices against women and men generally.
“Women have mostly been in the frontline of gender matters. However, with recent efforts to enlighten the public, a broader understanding of gender equality through gender equity is being mainstreamed.
“The NAPTIP Gender Policy which we are here to launch today aims at institutionalizing an internal gender mainstreaming strategy in NAPTIP and to ensure its operationalization in all entirety, to address gender gaps and contribute to the realization of the central goals of the National Gender Policy (2008).
“I believe that the launch of NAPTIP’s Gender Policy will complement the Agency’s operational strategies to curb gender-based violence and address gender gaps where they exist within the Agency’s internal operations. It will also chart a new course in the management of the Agency’s relationships with its various partners and clients”.
The minister called on other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to emulate the process by adopting and strengthening measures to mainstream gender concerns in all their activities and programmes.
Earlier, the Director-General of the National Agency For Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim explained that the policy document was part of a project declaration between the Government of Italy and UN Women, under the two-year programme on prevention of forced migration and trafficking in women and girls in Nigeria.
”It is my belief that this document will promote a gender-sensitive environment that addresses forced migration and trafficking, among others.
“The policy we are set to launch and disseminate today is to ensure Inclusion of gender clauses and mainstreaming of gender into the policies, legislations, programmes, and operations of NAPTIP, Gender-based victim support with proper documentation and disaggregation of data and prosecution of male and female offenders with attention to their gender needs”.
According to the DG, the document will among others strengthen the network of stakeholders, groups, and individuals at all levels in Nigeria, and serve as a resource mobilization process for support to the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Trust Fund.
In attendance also was the Minister of State for Education Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba, the UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS Ms Comfort Lamptey, representatives of the Governments of Italy and France as well as representatives of wives of Governors.
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