The Japanese Government, through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced a partnership with the Delta State Government on the empowerment of women and girls in marginalized communities.
Receiving the Japan-UNESCO project team, the Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, commended UNESCO and the Japanese Government for the laudable initiative and expressed appreciation for the selection of Delta as one of the three pilot States for the project.
Aniagwu pledged the State Government’s support to make the project a success, emphasizing its aptness in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic which saw an upsurge in Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
‘’Over the years, UNESCO has played roles in advancing the cause of the child whether male or female. For the Japanese government to look in that direction in particularly underdeveloped/challenged countries, we will not take it for granted being one of the few States chosen for the project.
‘’As a government, we have always seen the need even before this time to pay particular attention to the girl-child. We have numerous empowerment programmes because we believe that empowering the female child means empowering the nation’’ he said.
Aniagwu frowned at the chauvinistic tendencies of the society, while siting targeted measures by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to broaden the political space for women as evidenced in the emergence of 17 vice-chairwomen in the March 6, 2021 Local Government elections in the State.
Earlier, UNESCO Partnerships Officer Mrs Magdalene Anene-Maidoh said that the project was structured along three pillars which she mentioned as education, psychosocial support and advocacy.
She further explained that the project is aimed at soliciting the support of government and all relevant partners, as well as promoting its buy-in by all stakeholders for sustainability.
‘’With the COVID-19 lockdown, we had more cases of GBV and that was why the Japanese Government, with technical support from UNESCO, came up with this project in Delta, Bauchi and Gombe States’’ she said.
