At the capacity building training for MDAs on implementation of, compliance monitoring, and report of the 3rd National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325, the Programme Specialist-Women Peace and Security, Peter Mancha said that women are now contributing more in traditional councils in the North. According to him, barriers limiting women from being part of decision making should be broken time. In this interview with BENJAMIN UMUTEME, Mancha spoke on other issues.
I want to know, what are the expected outcomes from this meeting?
This workshop is prior to the launch of the NAP. The 3rd NAP has been finalized so we are about to lunch. But we felt that before we launch it we should bring relevant government ministries at both state and national level to really have a good understanding of NAP and the role the different MDAs can play in the monitoring and implementing. The expectation is that at the end of the three day workshop the different MDAs will look at the different pillars of the NAP and say ok, for instance, the ministry of education, I can play a role in pillars 1,2 or 3 based on my mandate, the same thing with ministry of health for instance. So, we expect that participants will now understand their role. We felt that if we just launch it, we have not really achieved the main goal which is the implementation. So, this capacity building will enhance the capacity to really understand what it entails to implement, to monitor and to report. After this training, the next is to launch it officially. We are still waiting for the President to fix a date. We anticipate that it will be launched between November to early December. Once it is officially launched the next thing is to ensure that it is not only the government, the CSOs, the media, security institutions, all sectors are able to adapt it and see how they can implement it at different levels. The development itself ensures that all stakeholders are engaged. We had the zonal consultations, we have engaged with the NASS who have also endorsed it. It’s a multi-sectoral consultation so that people can own it. And we learnt from the 1st and 2nd NAP. Part of the gap is that there was no wide consultation so people do not own it. But this time around, the consultation was wider and there is acceptability at different levels.
In terms of implementation of the first and second NAP, how would you access that generally?
The implementation of the first NAP was not as good as the second NAP. The second NAP was implemented to an extent but not to the way we anticipated. But I will tell you that in Africa, Nigeria is rated as a country that has done well. I remember, some few years ago, when they were to implement their NAP, they sent a high powered delegation to Nigeria to come and learn. They felt Nigeria was doing well, and I was also invited to Uganda some years back when they were also to develop their 3rd NAP, they said Nigeria is doing very well. I would say Nigeria is doing very well, slightly above average. Currently, 16 states in Nigeria have domesticated the NAP by developing what we call a state action plan. So, it shows that we still have a long way to go, the goal is to ensure that this plan is domesticated in all the 36 states. So, I will say the implementation was not too good but it wasn’t bad. This time around, we want it to go beyond average, to score at least 70 per cent.
In your remarks, you did talk about gender inclusion in traditional councils. Tell us, how were you able to achieve that result?
It’s one of the best practices for Nigeria. I remember when Mali came; they were really intrigued because they have a similar challenge-the challenge of patriarch. Nigeria is a highly patriarchal society where women are not involved in decision making. The traditional council is one of those sectors that do not involve women. And when we engaged the traditional rulers to know why they didn’t bring women on board, they told us that it’s a cultural heritage that women are not supposed to sit in the traditional council. But we noticed that in Gombe State, the Emir of Katungu, who is a first class traditional ruler, has 40 women in the traditional council. We searched to know why, we discovered that he lived all his life in the US, so he had that exposure that women had a role to play. So, when he came he brought 40 women. He told us conflicts that men could not resolve in decades; those women were able to resolve it. So, if women were able to do what men could not do, why won’t he carry them along? So, we used his case study as a best practice. We did a documentary; we took it to some states in the North where we were working. Of course, there was resistance. Like Plateau, in Adamawa there were no single women, they rejected it, but with that documentary, they decided to give it a tral. The chief of Ginjiri in Plateau was the first to give it a try, he appointed two women and when he saw that those women were doing well, he started increasing the number. And other traditional rulers started learning from it. And currently, if you go to Plateau, we have 107 women in the traditional council. The same thing in Adamawa State, we also use that documentary to sensitize traditional rulers, of course, they rejected it initially but when they saw what Plateau was doing, they said oh, let’s give it a try. That is how the number started increasing; now we have over 400 women. It shows us that culture is dynamic and is not static, it changes over time. And most times people do some things out of ignorance. Now the traditional council has seen that women should not just be seen as victims of violence but as individuals that contribute to decision making including conflict resolution and peace building. That is the story and I think many countries are now learning from Nigeria. If we can break that cultural barrier that limits women from being part of decision making, that they have it and it’s now yielding the desired result then they can also emulate it. So, that’s the story, it wasn’t easy, it didn’t occur within one year. It took two years for us to achieve this result but it took a lot of advocacy, capacity building, sensitization to traditional rulers to finally agree that look, we need to give women space in the traditional council. For the political position, we believe that the situation is very bad now but that it can change. But, we need to be very strategic and consistent.
Ends
Caption
Peter Mancha, Programme Specialist-Women, Peace and Security, UNWomen
We need to break barriers that limits women from decision making – Mancha
At the capacity building training for MDAs on implementation of, compliance monitoring, and report of the 3rd National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325, the Programme Specialist-Women Peace and Security, Peter Mancha said that women are now contributing more in traditional councils in the North. According to him, barriers limiting women from being part of decision making should be broken time. In this interview with BENJAMIN UMUTEME, Mancha spoke on other issues.
I want to know, what are the expected outcomes from this meeting?
This workshop is prior to the launch of the NAP. The 3rd NAP has been finalized so we are about to lunch. But we felt that before we launch it we should bring relevant government ministries at both state and national level to really have a good understanding of NAP and the role the different MDAs can play in the monitoring and implementing. The expectation is that at the end of the three day workshop the different MDAs will look at the different pillars of the NAP and say ok, for instance, the ministry of education, I can play a role in pillars 1,2 or 3 based on my mandate, the same thing with ministry of health for instance. So, we expect that participants will now understand their role. We felt that if we just launch it, we have not really achieved the main goal which is the implementation. So, this capacity building will enhance the capacity to really understand what it entails to implement, to monitor and to report. After this training, the next is to launch it officially. We are still waiting for the President to fix a date. We anticipate that it will be launched between November to early December. Once it is officially launched the next thing is to ensure that it is not only the government, the CSOs, the media, security institutions, all sectors are able to adapt it and see how they can implement it at different levels. The development itself ensures that all stakeholders are engaged. We had the zonal consultations, we have engaged with the NASS who have also endorsed it. It’s a multi-sectoral consultation so that people can own it. And we learnt from the 1st and 2nd NAP. Part of the gap is that there was no wide consultation so people do not own it. But this time around, the consultation was wider and there is acceptability at different levels.
In terms of implementation of the first and second NAP, how would you access that generally?
The implementation of the first NAP was not as good as the second NAP. The second NAP was implemented to an extent but not to the way we anticipated. But I will tell you that in Africa, Nigeria is rated as a country that has done well. I remember, some few years ago, when they were to implement their NAP, they sent a high powered delegation to Nigeria to come and learn. They felt Nigeria was doing well, and I was also invited to Uganda some years back when they were also to develop their 3rd NAP, they said Nigeria is doing very well. I would say Nigeria is doing very well, slightly above average. Currently, 16 states in Nigeria have domesticated the NAP by developing what we call a state action plan. So, it shows that we still have a long way to go, the goal is to ensure that this plan is domesticated in all the 36 states. So, I will say the implementation was not too good but it wasn’t bad. This time around, we want it to go beyond average, to score at least 70 per cent.
In your remarks, you did talk about gender inclusion in traditional councils. Tell us, how were you able to achieve that result?
It’s one of the best practices for Nigeria. I remember when Mali came; they were really intrigued because they have a similar challenge-the challenge of patriarch. Nigeria is a highly patriarchal society where women are not involved in decision making. The traditional council is one of those sectors that do not involve women. And when we engaged the traditional rulers to know why they didn’t bring women on board, they told us that it’s a cultural heritage that women are not supposed to sit in the traditional council. But we noticed that in Gombe State, the Emir of Katungu, who is a first class traditional ruler, has 40 women in the traditional council. We searched to know why, we discovered that he lived all his life in the US, so he had that exposure that women had a role to play. So, when he came he brought 40 women. He told us conflicts that men could not resolve in decades; those women were able to resolve it. So, if women were able to do what men could not do, why won’t he carry them along? So, we used his case study as a best practice. We did a documentary; we took it to some states in the North where we were working. Of course, there was resistance. Like Plateau, in Adamawa there were no single women, they rejected it, but with that documentary, they decided to give it a tral. The chief of Ginjiri in Plateau was the first to give it a try, he appointed two women and when he saw that those women were doing well, he started increasing the number. And other traditional rulers started learning from it. And currently, if you go to Plateau, we have 107 women in the traditional council. The same thing in Adamawa State, we also use that documentary to sensitize traditional rulers, of course, they rejected it initially but when they saw what Plateau was doing, they said oh, let’s give it a try. That is how the number started increasing; now we have over 400 women. It shows us that culture is dynamic and is not static, it changes over time. And most times people do some things out of ignorance. Now the traditional council has seen that women should not just be seen as victims of violence but as individuals that contribute to decision making including conflict resolution and peace building. That is the story and I think many countries are now learning from Nigeria. If we can break that cultural barrier that limits women from being part of decision making, that they have it and it’s now yielding the desired result then they can also emulate it. So, that’s the story, it wasn’t easy, it didn’t occur within one year. It took two years for us to achieve this result but it took a lot of advocacy, capacity building, sensitization to traditional rulers to finally agree that look, we need to give women space in the traditional council. For the political position, we believe that the situation is very bad now but that it can change. But, we need to be very strategic and consistent.
