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By Sunday Ani
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday inaugurated a 56-member national advisory committee on women’s economic empowerment, H-LAC, to support Nigerian women and girls in economic development.
The H-LAC, according to a member of the committee, Dr. Judith-Ann Walker, is significant and important, especially in the context of recent failed attempts to pass gender-focused laws to redress economic, political, and social imbalances against women and girls in the country.
Inaugurated on the wings of the 2023 general elections by President Muhammadu Buhari, and under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the H-LAC is non-political, and is expected to cross over into the next administration.
Dr. Walker disclosed that the committee had been set up to serve as a veritable bridge between administrations on key development issues affecting women and girls. Such issues include girls’ education, technical and life skills as contained in the Adolescent Girls Initiatives for Learning and Empowerment, AGILE project; and women’s economic empowerment, as contained in Nigeria for Women Scale-up programme. The current AGILE and NFWP projects as well as new projects of the incoming administration will find policy backing in the soon-to-be-launched Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) national policy.
‘’The High-level Advisory Council seems set to emerge as Nigeria’s first multi-stakeholder; a non-political advisory body, bridging political administrations on an issue for which all Nigerians are united, ending poverty, vulnerability, and the struggles of Nigerian women and girls. With representation from key government MDAs in H-LAC and with the H-LAC secretariat structured around an Inter-ministerial Working Group (IWG), the Council is well institutionalized within the government,” she said
While explaining that H-LAC’s strong roots within government is complemented by representation from the private sector, civil society, as well as social and technical experts, Dr. Walker added that social and technical experts would bring skills and information to loop learning and interaction between the women’s economic empowerment policy and the women’s economic empowerment projects such as the Nigerian for women empowerment initiative.
‘’Civil society organisations, such as the development Research and Projects Center (dRPC), which is implementing the flagship Partnership for Advancing Women in Economic Development (PAWED), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will bring technical expertise to the H-LAC’,” she said
Dr. Walker added that the development research and projects center, dRPC would provide technical expertise to H-LAC around issues of inclusive and accountable implementation of WEE programmes at national and sub-national levels. The Centre’s Executive Director and Coordinator of the PAWED project, Judith-Ann Walker, represents the dRPC in H-LAC.
She commended President Buhari and the Women’s Affairs Minister, Dame Pauline Tallen, for setting up the committee, which she said, would bring inclusiveness in governance in Nigeria.
