UN Women: Six northern states selected for the second phase of WPS project.

Cross section of Stakeholders at the UN Women Consultative meeting in Bauchi

By Abubakar Baba Ahmad.

Six northern states have been selected to benefit from the second phase of the Women, Peace and Security Project in Nigeria WPS under UN Women.

The States are Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa.

The Programme Specialist UN Women Mr Peter Mancha stated this while speaking with Radio Nigeria at the end of a stakeholders consultative meeting held in Bauchi.

Mr Peter Mancha said the second phase seeks to consolidate on the successes recorded in the first stage to include women participation in decision making process, security architecture and conflict prevention.

He said the expansion would entail bringing onboard additional local governments, interstate exchange of ideas among beneficiaries as well as increasing the number of Heforshe Champions and Women Mediators.

The Programme Specialist disclosed that the project will also interface with Political Parties to see how women wings can be strengthened to ensure their robust participation in politicking.

A Stakeholder at the meeting, Chief Magistrate Shafa’u Ladan called for technical support from UN Women to ensure adequate representation of women in the state Shari’a Courts of appeal to ensure fairness and justice for them.

Shafa’u Ladan who commended the judicial arm under the stewardship of Justice Rabi Umar for being gender balanced, stressed the need for the transfer of women judicial officers to the Shari’a Courts of appeal considering that women are the larger litigants there.

The UN Women WPS project with funding from the government of Norway was first implemented between 2019 and 2021 in Benue and Bauchi States.