Groups move to empower women in Enugu

Efforts to ensure the success and sustainability of the economic empowerment policy for women in Enugu State deepened over the weekend. This came with the inauguration of a Technical Working Group (TWG) to facilitate the process of domesticating the National Women Economic Empowerment Policy in the state

The policy provides a robust template for meeting vulnerable women’s needs and a robust planning tool for coordinating women-focused programmes, projects and activities under one roof.

Executive Director of South Sahara Social Development Organisation (SSDO), Dr Stanley Illechukwu, stated that the project, which is being implemented in partnership with the Development Research and Projects Centre (DRPC) and the Enugu State government, will lift women out of poverty and enable them to contribute to the development of the society.

Illechukwu said that officials in the state’s Ministries of Children, Gender Affairs and Social Development, Agriculture, Industry, Trade and Investment, Labour and Employment, and the State Bureau of Statistics and Rural Electrification Board are helping to domesticate the policy.

He stressed that when women are adequately empowered, it will have a multiplier effect, improving their lives and broadening economic growth and community development.

Also, Enugu State Commissioner for Children, Gender Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Ngozi Eni (represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Nkechi Beatrice Ewoh), noted that women ought to be economically empowered for a better society.

She said that the Enugu State Government has done a lot to better the many women in the state through intervention programmes for women, children, and people with disabilities.