Buhari Inaugurates Nigeria’s First High-level Advisory Committee to empower Women, Girls

By Doosuur Iwambe

President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated a 56-member national advisory committee on women’s economic empowerment, H-LAC for the support of women, girls and economic economic development in the country.

Applauding president Buhari over the initiative, the Executive Director and Coordinator, PAWED project, Judith-Ann Walker, who represents the dRPC in H-LAC said, the development will bring inclusiveness in governance in Nigeria.

Dr Walker who also commended the minister of Women’s Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen for the setting up of the committee said, the country has in the past recorded failed attempts to pass gender-focused laws to redress economic, political, and social imbalances against women and girls.

Inaugurated on the wings of the 2023 General Elections by President Muhammadu Buhari, and under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, H-LAC is non-political and expected to cross over into the next administration.

She explain in a statement that the committee has been set up to serve as a veritable bridge between administrations on key development issues affecting women and girls.

She listed some of the issues to 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 program.

She said that 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”, Dr Walker said.

She said, 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 will 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 organizations 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.

“The development research and projects center, dRPC will provide technical expertise to H-LAC around issues of inclusive and accountable implementation of WEE programs at national and sub-national levels”, she added.