AMB EKPA URGES UN WOMEN TO PRIORITIZE PROGRAMMES WITH THE FMWA

The United Nations Women (UN Women) have been charged to prioritize it’s programmes and work schedule with the Federal Ministry of Women Affiars for optimal result in the development of women and children in Nigeria.

The charge was made by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Anthonia Ekpa in an interactive session with the UN Women Programmes’ Officer Mrs Patience Ekoeba.

Mrs Ekoeba represented the UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, Ms Comfort Lamptey in a meeting between the UN Women and the Ministry’s officials which took place in the Permanent Secretary’s Office on Thursday, 11th March, 2021.

The Permanent Secretary said that the Ministry is to ensure that all donors agencies’ programmes billed for implemention in the Ministry are coordinated in order to reduce unintended results.

She said that the Ministry will no longer tolerate a situation where International Programmes such as the International Women Day Celebration and other development projects are carried out haphazardly.

Ambassador Anthonia Ekpa said that donor Agencies should first discuss their programmes with the Honourable Minister and the Permanent Secretary before engaging the Ministry’s Directors to avoid confusion.

The Permanent Secretary called for collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Women Affiars with development partners in the area of; data generation and staff training.

She said that staff training is critical in order sustain the achievements recorded in women and child development.

The Permanent Secretary said that staff of the Ministry should be trained in the areas of monitoring, research and evaluation of projects.

“There should be a deliberate succession planning for staff of the Ministry.

“Business in both public and private sphere, nowadays, are ITC driven.
There is the need for development partners to provide the Ministry with work tools to include, facility for conducting webinar, computers and laptops”, she emphasized.

In the area of communication, the Permanent Secretary called on development partners to work with the Ministry’s media team to develop videos clips and dramatization on the need for women to get involved in politics as is done in other cline.

The Permanent Secretary made a proposal for a retreat between development partners with staff of the Ministry to identify and iron out areas of collaboration.

The retreat will also carry staff of the National Center for Women Development on broad, she said.

She thanked all Development partners for all the support rendered to the Ministry over the years.

Earlier, Mrs Patience Ekoeba who represented the UN Women Country Representative said that the UN Women mandate in Nigeria could be categorized into three.

The first is to ensure and adopt best global practice and standard at place of work.

In this wise, the UN Women ensures that laws and regulations for doing government businesses are strictly adhered to and applied.

She said that the second mandate is to coordinate the activities of all development partners.. in the country.

In this wise the UN Women serves as the Secretariat for all development partners in Nigeria, she said.

We also ensure that Development partners do not waste time, resources and energy in duplicating development projects.

Our other mandate also have an operational aspect. In the pursuit of this, we execute projects such as the Spotlight Initiative, the security and peace programmes and the Women in Governance project.

The Project Manager said that for each of the projects undertaking by UN Women, we ensure that the Ministry of Women Affiars appoints a Project coordinator.

She said that the UN Women has a challenge in the area of the type and quantum of support it gets from donors.

She harped on the need for donor Agencies to streamline the areas of their contributions to a particular project.