UN Women to Facilitate Seed Funding for Coordination Platforms Working on GEWE

Oluchi Chibuzor

The United Nations Women, Nigeria, has said it will provide seed funding for coordination platforms working on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE).

According to the UN body, this would help facilitate advocacy drives on gender related issues within the various regions of the country.

The Country Director, Country Representative to UN Women, Nigeria, and ECOWAS, Ms. Beatrice Eyong, disclosed this recently at the Southwest zonal coordination mechanism for GEWE Meeting series 2.0, held in Lagos.

She stressed that with the launch of the quarterly zonal coordination mechanism meeting for GEWE with all the commissioners and leaders of the state ministries of women affairs, networks and coalitions in 2023, more work was needed on critical issues that concerns women.

Eyong, represented by the National Programme Officer, Coordination and Partnership, UN Women, Mrs. Patience Ekeoba, said more coordinated efforts are needed to drive gender issues.

According to her, “We identified and mapped hundreds of coordination platforms working on various GEWE across various thematic areas and using a SWOT analysis we were able to garner information on the status of the existing coordination platforms.

“We brainstormed on how we could work together to get the groups functioning to facilitate the goal of GEWE, especially touching on critical issues that concerns women’s representation, relevant adoption of GEWE bills and funding for GEWE.

“We concluded by supporting states to develop plans that could help create coherence in the ways that GEWE is planned, implemented and coordinated.

“The fund will help to mobilize urgent and sustained action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment (GEWE) of all women and girls.”