Chioma Umeha
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and
Empowerment of Women (UN Women) has urged private sector and civil society
organisations(SDGs) to partner with government to ensure the advancement of
Nigerian women and girls in line with Sustainable Development Goals 5.
The call came from Ms Comfort Lamptey, UN Women
Country, Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, at a news briefing held after a
Private Sector CEOs breakfast meeting on “Implementing the Sustainable
Development Goals for Women’s Empowerment in Nigeria” in Lagos.
Lamptey said that the private sector in Nigeria
was well-positioned to bring funding and new solutions to achieving the SDG-5
by 2030 with its on-the-ground networks and its ability to innovate.
She said the Nigerian private sector was similarly
positioned to advance transformation by harnessing the power of the SDGs to
promote the empowerment of women and girls in the country.
“Cultural barriers and early marriage are some of
the challenges that hinder women from effectively participating in the economic
and political space of the country.
“Our work in Nigeria is centrally driven by the
objective of supporting the Federal Government of Nigeria to create
opportunities for women and girls to access quality education, healthcare,
nurture and protection, as well as accelerate progress towards their
empowerment.
“The collaboration will help us to harness the
institutional power of the government, the passion and expertise of civil
society and the creativity of private sector to achieve gender equality, equity
and the empowerment of women and girls in Nigeria.
“It is our hope that we can utilise this meeting
to accelerate Nigeria’s implementation of SDG- 5 by forging strategic
partnerships for resource mobilisation, technology transfer and capacity
building,’’ she said.
Ms Olajobi Makinwa, Chief, Africa Section, UN
Global Compact, called on private organisations to make a commitment to improve
women economic empowerment within their firms.
“Women rights and empowerment in Nigeria starts
from the private sector and this can be achieved via their policy agenda for
women.
“It would be a seed-action and the harvest will be
a future in which our daughters and sisters can thrive, grow and aspire to
becoming anything and everything they have the audacity to dream and reach
for,’’ Makinwa said.
Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Senior Special
Assistant to the President on SDGs, said that the government had been
strengthening efforts at achieving gender equality and women empowerment in the
country.
Orelope-Adefulire, who was represented by her
Special Assistant, Ms Rose Keffas, said there had been efforts towards enacting
the Gender Equality Bill at the National Assembly to eliminate all forms of
violence against women.
She said that the federal government was open to
partnerships to create awareness, achieve a mental shift and empower women and
youths to build a competitive economy.
In her presentation, Ms Thelma Ekiyor, UN Women
Consultant, said that the SDGs provided the private sector with a framework to
align its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives to long-term
sustainability objectives and goals, such as SDG-5 on gender equality.
Ekiyor said that investing in SDG-5 would
facilitate the implementation of all the SDGs in Nigeria, which would also
advance business and economic goals.
“UN Women can provide technical support to private
sector entities to guide the implementation and maximise the impact of their
CSR initiatives.
