Stakeholders seek alignment of gender, climate change in agric policies

Women collectives have called on the federal government to streamline issues of gender and climate change resilience in its agriculture policies for accelerated economic development in the sector, nutrition and enhanced food security.

Coordinator of the group and President of the Association of Women in Agriculture, (AWITA), Mrs Ruth Agbor, made the call at the maiden National Gender Policy in Agriculture Forum organized by the National Gender Steering Committee for the Implementation of the National Gender Policy in Agriculture, (NGSCINGPA), in partnership with the development Research and Projects Center, (dRPC), MacArthur Foundation, Leprosy Mission Nigeria, Plan International and ActionAid among others, yesterday in Abuja

Under the auspices of the Partnerships for the Advancement of Women’s Economic Act Development, (PAWED), led by dRPC, the group urged the federal government to allow women to be part of policy making in order to fully understand specific gender issues and how to effectively tackle them taking consideration of climate change.

“This forum is organized to also ramp up support as a Community of Practice for the implementation of the national gender policy in agriculture, enhance conversations and collaborative actions among key stakeholders from the government, academic and research institutions, Civil Society Organizations, (CSOs), development partners, private sector, farmers associations, and the media towards the successful implementation of the Policy and promotion of Food security across the country, she added.

Mrs Agbor also explained that the annual forum would continue to provide a strategic platform for stakeholders to learn and share best practices and discuss how to leverage the National Gender Policy in Agriculture to strengthen their interventions across Nigeria.

While describing the forum as one of the first and the most significant forums that will provide a guide for stakeholders in the agriculture and climate change sector, she commended the dRPC and the National Steering Committee on Gender in Agriculture for collaborating with the federal ministry of agriculture and other partners to organize the maiden edition of the forum.

Giving insight on the importance of the forum, Director of Projects dRPC, Dr. Stanley Ukpai, said the programme is a platform where stakeholders come together to discuss alignment between gender, climate change and agriculture.

“I know everybody is with the alignment that there needs to be more collaboration between the various ministries that have bearings on these key things.

“dRPC is currently providing felt needs of women’s voices by bringing women’s economic collectives to the table to dialogue with government and tell them what their real needs are because over time we found out that there is a divide between government processes and the women at the grassroots level.

“So we are trying to bridge that gap haven supported them to integrate gender into the agriculture policy. We are trying to bridge that gap by bringing women to the table to let government know what their problems are as well as government telling them what they have in stock for the women,” he said

Director, Human Resource Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Food Security, Oluwatoyin Alade, who spoke for the minister, Abubakar Kyari, said the development of the national gender policy in agriculture is a great stride and an evidence of the collective efforts of partners including the dRPC in the effort to enshrine gender in national policy of the ministry.

He said “The force of today’s workshop hinges on charting a roadmap in terms of wider synergy for the implementation of policy.