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A National Women’s Platform on Security Sector Reform and Governance (NWSSRG), has been unveiled to amplify the voices of women and advance gender inclusivity in the security sector.
The platform was established with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Nigeria Office in Abuja.
Dr. Daniel Mann, Resident Representative, FES said it was in pursuit of this objective that the women’s platform on security sector reform and governance in Nigeria was inaugurated.
According to Mann, FES has been working over the past five to 10 years to establish a space where practitioners from state agencies, civil society, and security agencies can synergize and exchange their own views on the different security challenges of Nigeria.
He said that another gap identified is the lack of female representation as a result of less room to develop their own democratically engineered solutions to security challenges.
“This was why FES together with other partners came together to specifically bring women in these spaces together.
“Today, we as an organization are very happy and very humbled by the fact that after so many years of work, we can now say this national platform of security sector reform and governance is established and brought to the interests of the public.”
“If there are any issues pertaining to security and specifically to women, there is a platform for exchange, there is also a platform where voices should be amplified, to make them heard,” he said.
Also speaking, the German Ambassador to Nigeria, Annett Gunther said the platform was piloted under an EU funded ‘Security for All Project’ in the wider ECOWAS region and is now part of FES’s Democratic Participation as a contribution to stabilization in Africa’s Conflict Regions’, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
Gunther said “the platform has already been instrumental in bringing together women in four out of the six geopolitical zones for a series women-only Civil-Military-Relation exchange programs.
This has highlighted the need for stronger collaboration between female actors in civil society and those working in state institutions and security outfits, be it military or police.
The overall goal of this cooperation between the Federal Foreign Office and FES is that “Civil society actors, parliaments, and political parties feed democratically developed courses of action and policy recommendations into national and regional processes of political decision-making, thereby strengthening democracies and reducing risks to stability,”
” We must ensure that women peace and security is advanced in policy documents, particularly in the new agenda for peace, and it is not enough for everyone to proclaim women peace and security as a priority. We have to make it one.
In future, this platform will ensure that “women’s voices and perspectives are integrated and amplified in the public debate on Nigeria security sector reform,” she said.
Also contributing, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, the Director-General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) commended FES and its partners for the initiative.
Represented by Dr. Bosede Awodola, Director, National Peace Academy, IPCR, said the platform would help women to be more active in finding solutions to the problem of insecurity in Nigeria.
He advised that the platform be opened to contributions from stakeholders as well as ensure internal inclusiveness by reaching those at the grassroots level.
He also called for awareness creation to encourage the participation of more stakeholders so that women would have the knowledge of what their responsibilities in the security sector.
Giving an overview of the SSRG platform, Dr. Asmau Leo, Coordinator of the women platform said SSRG is a coalition of women-only Nongovernmental, Non-partisan Organizations.
Leo said it was established on the basis and the need to contribute to filling the gaps that existed in terms of women’s participation and representation to ensure gender-sensitive security.
She added that it would also create alliances for lobbying towards the implementation of various policy frameworks on women, peace, and security agenda/sector reform and governance.
She said the platform would empower women groups with knowledge to help bridge the gaps through inclusive political dialogue that promotes mutual understanding.
She said it would improve monitoring and observation processes to ensure that women’s perspectives and needs are integrated in accordance with existing normative frameworks at the National, Global (United Nations), Continental (AU), and Sub-regional levels (ECOWAS) among others.