By Ojonugwa Ugboja
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) The Nigeria Joint Response (NJR), a consortium of seven International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) partnering with Local Non-Governmental and Civil Society Organisations funded by the Dutch Government has called on the humanitarian community, including NGOs and Government Institutions to become more concerned about gender inclusion.
This was made known at an event organised by Save The Children organisation, OXFAM and other lead agencies of the NJR on Wednesday in Abuja at the Rockview Royale Hotel.
Speaking with Sundiata Post, the NJR Consortium Coordinator, Eta Mbong Ngole noted that if remarkable success must be achieved in the crisis torn Northeast, it is important that the disturbing gender gap is bridged.
He said: ‘’One of the priorities of the NJR is gender because we are conscious of the fact that to promote resilience and sustainable programming, you need to include everyone including men, women, boys and girls. Often, we have noticed that it is more of the men who are being carried along. The objective of this program and panel is to raise awareness in the humanitarian community about the need for gender sensitivity beginning from doing gender analysis and using the result of the analysis to know which programs are appropriate for women and girls and of course how to carry the men and boys along.’’
In the event, the NJR also launched a video documentary on the places and people who have benefitted from their humanitarian interventions in the Northeast. It was to show their partners and donors what has been done with donated funds and other resources.
The NJR have in the last four years been providing relief in the areas of water sanitation and hygiene, food provision, health and protection to persons affected by the crisis in the region.
‘’We did that video documentary last year (2017) and instead of just calling people to come see the video documentary alone, for value for money, we decided to kill two birds with same stone by including the panel discussion on gender,’’ said Ngole.
The NJR also used the eye opening panel discussion on gender during the event to honour women ahead of the International Women’s Day today, the 8th of March.
‘’I believe people are now more aware of gender and how to make their programs more gender sensitive,’’ commented Ngole.