BENIN CITY – Participants at a one-day stakeholders worshop on gender issues have agreed that there is an urgent need to address problems arising from gender inequality which is militating against the good health and well being of the populace.
The sensitization workshop which was organized by the Gender and Advocacy project of the Ministry of Information and Orientation in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), had participants drawn from National Association of Women Journalist (NAWOJ), Medical Women Association, Federation of Women Lawyers, IRRAG, Nurses, Teachers among others.
Gender Project Director, Hajia Nana Audu said gender equality was one of the objectives of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adding that the United Nations had identified imbalance in gender equality as major hinderances to population development and individual well being in many nations, including Nigeria.
Hajia Audu tasked the participants to use their roles as implementers to promote the objectives of ICPO and MDG as well as to enlighten the people on the devastations wrecked on families and the society by gender inequality.
On her part, the resource person, Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Isumah, maintained that empowering women and ensuring that they were equal partners in development, was an essential ingredient for sustainable development.
She emphasized that the convention on the elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) bill, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979, should be domesticated by the Nigerian government.
Also speaking. One of the participants, Barr (Mrs.) Irene Ododo Odaro thanked the organizers of the workshop for identifying with the need to sensitize Nigerian Women on issues pertaining to gender inequality in the country.
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