The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies(NIPSS) in collaboration with the Development Research and Project Center(dRPC) and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning(FMFBNP) on Tuesday inaugurated a Technical Working Group (TWG) to monitor budgetary implementations of Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) programmes .
The TWG which is conceived to monitor and evaluate the formulation and implementation of WEE programmes, is in recognition of the key importance of women’s economic empowerment to the economic development of the nation and this includes the ability of women to participate equally in existing markets; having access to and control over productive resources, access to decent work, control over their time and lives; and having increased voice as well as meaningful participation in economic decision-making at all levels from the household to international institutions.
In an event which held at the Bolton White Hotels, Abuja, had in attendance officials of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies(NIPSS), dPRC, MDAs
The TWG led by Dr Zakari Lawal (mni), is part of initiatives by the Bill and Melinda Gates’ Partnership for Advancing Women’s Economic Development, PAWED, and it aims at entrenching accountability in the implementation of women’s economic advancement programmes and the monitoring group is comprised of 10 MDAs from across Nigeria.
The group is to provide support in the areas of development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation frameworks and to track and rate women’s empowerment projects/policies/ interventions at both the national and sub national levels. The group is to also support the advocacy for and dissemination of the WEE Monitoring and Evaluation Framework; support NIPSS, FMFBNP and dRPC WEE outreach and it will function under the guidance and oversight of the NIPSS, FMFBNP and dRPC.
In his address, the DG NIPSS, represented at the event by Dr Nasrideen Usman, said that the TWG is constituted to foster the accountability components of the NIPSS strategies and added that there’s need for clarity especially in terms of the roles of stakeholders and, that it should be well articulated and clearly stated so that, every stakeholders like the NIPSS, dRPC TWG and the CBN would know what is expected of them and also guide in the implementation of the initiative.
He also said the TWG is expected to make recommendations to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), the development Research and Projects Center (dRPC) and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (FMFBNP) on the development of advocacy strategies for the affective implementation of WEE policies.
He further added that the monitoring group would also support NIPSS, FMFBNP & dRPC WEE outreach and engagement activities; submit reports of its activities to NIPSS, FMFBNP & dRPC WEE at regular intervals and carry out other ad hoc duties as requested by NIPSS, FMFBNP & the dRPC.
Dr Nasrideen remarked that women constitutes over 44.82% of the labour force and that empowering this segment of our population is not only key to achieving economic independence, but also, critical in sustaining the nation’s overall economic development’ therefore, the nation stands to gain when women are economically and adequately empowered as it will help in addressing some of its economic challenges .
He concluded by imploring the 20 committee members drawn from the CBN, the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, budget and National planning and other MDAs, to work hard in order to ensure transparency
In his goodwill message, Dr Zakari Lawal (mni) Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, stressed the need for strengthening the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and gave assurance of the federal government’s readiness to set up mechanisms that will promote transparency in the allocations and implementation of WEE policy programmes in the country.
The TWG will be training participants in techniques and skills for tracking budget allocations and implementation on Wednesday and Thursday at the Bolton White Hotel in Abuja.
Leave a Reply