ACCOUNTABILITY: PS of Federal Ministry of Women Affairs Meets Development Partners 

Oru Leonard

To ensure maximum impact and accountability on issues concerning women, gender, children and other vulnerable groups, including oversights for stakeholders’ operations, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs in Nigeria, Engr. Funso Adebiyi has met with Development Partners and Private Sectors whose mandates have direct bearing on women, children and other vulnerable groups, Wednesday, 15th September, 2021, held at the Ministry’s Conference Room, 4th Floor of the Ministry’s Headquarters.

The Development Partners and Private Sector Organizations whose Representatives turned up for the meeting with the Permanent Secretary include: Sahel Consulting; Norwegian Embassy; World Health Organization; Action Aid International; the United Nations Funds for Population Activities (UNFPA); OXFAM; Save Our Soul (SOS) Children Villages; United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (NACCIMA); Fidelity Bank PLC; Federal Ministry of Health; Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS); Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO);   National Centre for Women Development (NCWD); National Democratic Institute (NDI); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Her World, Her Voice Project; UN Women; and others.

The Permanent Secretary, Engr. Funso Adebiyi disclosed the need for a joint look at areas of gap between investment and delivery and to proffer remedial actions with timelines given the fact that the year and the time involved on some agreements reached between some of the Partners and the Ministry on some programmes and projects which could benefit the target groups are running out.

Engr. Adebiyi expressed satisfaction with the turnout of the partners and private sector representatives given the fact that “An earlier dinner held at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State to meet with the Partners of the Ministry was not very successful” called on the Partners and the Private Sector as well as the Ministry’s Directors to candidly express views on the objectives of the meeting.

The Permanent Secretary further disclosed that he would like to see “more coordinated approach to efforts aimed at addressing the issues of women, children and the vulnerable, spread across the country and not concentrated at particular areas to the detriment of some others; through the works of the Ministry and the Partners.”    He stated that “At no time than now in the history of this country are women and their children more challenged and probably exploited; and the ways out of the challenges of our society and that of the nation is to properly address the issues of the women and empower them.”

Engr. Adebiyi, while urging the Partners to explore areas of more collaborations with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, made the observation that “Experiences have shown that when women get to position of leadership, they turn out to be better leaders because they are less distracted and are more accountable.”  “Let us wake up and run with this realization; let us collaborate and cooperate to empower women and address the problems of the society.  When you take care of the women, gender violence will reduce.  Let’s take the issues confronting our women as a project, our common enemy which we must conquer.  We need to define our work plan in this project, estimate our resources, determine our timelines and apply our resources realistically to achieve our goals”, he told the partners.

The Representative of Action Aids International, an organization which is the current chair of Development Partners on Gender Group (DPGG) disclosed in reaction to the challenge thrown by Engr. Funso Adebiyi that collectively and even individually, the Partners have Terms of Reference (T.O.R.) with signed Memoranda of Understanding which were agreed, to drive the works of the partners with the Ministry, “Except that Nigeria is a very broad, massive and complex entity; not that there have been overlapping and non-coordination.”

Another Representative of one of the UN Agencies disclosed that “At the beginning of every year, we develop a work plan which we sign with the Ministry.  Progress and reviews are done mid-yearly and annually, going forward.”  She suggested that the meeting should hear from the UN Agencies and see how the work plan can be progressed with.  “The Year is running to an end and some of the work plan for the year also; so, as far as the work plan and this year is concerned, it is almost a done deal.”

The Permanent Secretary further revealed that “There are projects and programmes which are time-bound and are pending for action.  There are some offers which some Partners made to the Ministry that were not accessed. Sometimes, a revised workplan is needed; I know there are agreements, M.O.U but some are not being implemented because we have not been having joint reviews of the areas of gap for us to proceed.”

To the challenge by the Permanent Secretary for joint review sessions, the suggestion is “Reviews with Individual Agencies and Partners may become necessary at some time.”

While the meeting progressed at the directive of the Permanent Secretary for the Directors of the professional Departments of the Ministry to brief on how far the Ministry has gone on the mandates with the Partners and Agencies viewed in the light of the Mandate given by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Honourable Minister for the Women Affairs Sector, a suggestion was generally agreed to that a 4-day retreat session was necessary to examine how much progress has been made; the challenges; the remaining grounds vis-à-vis the resources of the Partners and Agencies and their Mandates with the Ministry.

Engr. Funso Adebiyi also disclosed some of his findings on gaps in delivery on the mandates with the Partners and Agencies which may have to do with understanding and capacity of the implementers:  the key performance index of the Partners and Agencies might not have tallied with that of the Civil Servants.  He appealed for assistance of redress in this area while pledging that the ‘Federal Ministry of Women Affairs’ Magazine, copies of which were distributed to all partners will henceforth be more regular and report progress on implementation of mandates of the Partners and Agencies with the Ministry.

(FMWA Media)