From Esther Akaa, Lafia
The Nasarawa State Network on Environment and Climate Justice (NASNECJ) has called on the state government to domesticate the National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change to address the challenges confronting women in the state.
NASNECJ made the call when members of the group paid an advocacy to the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in Lafia on Thursday.
Speaking during the visit, the spokesperson of the delegation, Hadiza Umar -Attah said the association was at the ministry to ask for the domestication of the Gender Action Plan which is available at the national level in order to increase women participation in issues that affect them.
Umar-Attah pointed out that the gender action plan was created with specific elements including equal access to skill training, higher income, and financial stability.
She said: ” Women do not have equal access to education, employment, health care services, among others compared to the men in the society and what has even increased the marginalisation is the effects of climate change which has great negative impacts on women and girls.
“In recent time, there has been an increase in flooding in which many houses have been submerged by flooding and unfortunately women , girls and the people living with disabilities are the most affected when the disaster occurs.
“The impacts of climate change which is caused by our actions and inactions have exposed women and girls to violence, sexual abuses which leads to some of our girls dropping out of school due to those abuses.
” The long term consequences of these issues are; unemployment, lack of inclusion in policy making processes of government among others.”
She, therefore called on the state government and other relevant stakeholders to ensure the domestication of action plan for the overall good of the state and country at large.
Responding, the Director of Women Affairs at the Ministry, Matayashi Aselema said plans were already on the way to domesticate the action plan and solicited for the support of the group to enable them succeed.
Aselema, however, stated that the state had not made any budgetary provisions for 2023 and urged collaboration from relevant stakeholders to domesticate the plan.
On his part, the Chief Social Welfare Officer (CSWO) of the Ministry, Ahmed Abubakar said the ministry in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology has trained women on how to mitigate the effects of climate change in their environment.
He commended the group for the visit and pledged and assured of their support.
Similarly, the group visited the State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and advocated for the domestication of the Climate Change Act that seeks to achieve low greenhouse gas emissions, green and sustainable growth by providing the framework to set a target to reach net zero between 2050 and 2070.
The NASNECJ also visited the State Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and solicited for the support to be given youth platforms such as the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) , Nigeria Youth Parliament (NYP) and the Nigerian Youth Congress (NYC) to raise awareness on climate change and its impacts.
