BEVERLY HILLS, February 08, (THEWILL) – A multifaceted study team has been set up by the National Centre for Women Development(NCWD) to account for the rather poor and declining participation of Nigerian women in politics from 1999-2015.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Centre’s Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Mr. Sadeeq Omar and made available to newsmen in Abuja.
Inaugurating the team at the centre in Abuja, the Director General of NCWD, Onyeka Onwenu said that the poor representation and participation of women at both political and appointive positions at all levels of governance in Nigeria since 1999 should not only be discussed but also evidence based.
She said the development has become necessary, hence the setting up of the team on the collation of data in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Onwenu noted that for gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls to be achieved in line with the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is need for adequate data to provide impartial and comparable basis for evaluating progress towards the goals agreed upon at various world conferences to improve the situation of women.
She further stressed that the project is informed by the reality that today’s world is driven by evidence especially derived from data, noting that there can not be real development without the representation and utilization of the skills and resources of half of Nigeria’s population.
The key objective of the project is to provide evidence and baseline for the implementation of the new SDGs and the promotion of women’s involvement in governance.
It is expected that the project will create a comprehensive and up to date data on women in politics and governance and improve evidence based planning and programming for the involvement of women in decision making in Nigeria.
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