The State Multi-stakeholders Implementation and Monitoring Committee (SMIMC) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, is reviewing the Benue Action Plan to strengthen women’s peace, security and other challenges.
Mr Joseph Gbagyo, SMIMC Chairman, said that the current State Action Plan (SAP) had expired and hence the review to reactivate it to drive inclusivity of women in peacebuilding, security, politics and governance.
Gbagyo, who is a legal practitioner, said at the review and revalidation meeting in Makurdi that the structures were set up by the CLEEN Foundation to drive the implementation of WPS in line with UN resolution 1325.
The chairman stated that the review was to look at issues of women’s participation, violent and harmful practices against women, as well as protection of women who are caught up with conflict.
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“The Benue action plan on WPS was launched in 2021 with the support of International Alert and the Norwegian Embassy to provide a road map on how issues of women, peace and security are driven.
“Unfortunately, that document was not well implemented, and it has since expired. So, as it stands, women in WPS do not have anything to stand on.
“From the review exercise we had and revalidation today, new issues that emerge, like digital violence, conflict from mining activities in the state and protection of internally displaced persons (IDPs), have been abandoned.
“This is why we called for revalidation on the issues raised for further engagement with development partners.
“Already there is a document in place, so we are not writing a new one. We are only improving on the already existing document to incorporate contemporary or emerging issues,” he said.
Gbagyo stated that commitment was extracted from the various partners, including the Benue Budget/Planning Commission, Benue Peace and Reconciliation Committee, Ministry of Women Affairs and other implementing partners.
The chairman added that the partners were willing to provide further support to see that the document was reviewed and became a working one.
He lauded the CLEEN Foundation for the support in ensuring that the document was properly reviewed.
Gbagyo commended the Director General of the Benue Budget/Planning Commission for personally attending the meeting and for giving credence to the fact that there were areas where conversation needed to be strengthened so as to have the budgetary issue properly dealt with.
“We are adopting a multi-sectoral approach that would involve tertiary institutions so that, at the end of the day, this can even improve curriculum development and offer further research,” he added.
Mrs Magdalene Igbazua, CLEEN Foundation Benue Coordinator and member SMIMC, said that the essence of the review meeting was to identify the gaps and contextual areas in the SAP.
“We are looking at what has changed since 2025 and what the contextual changes are so as to look into it and see how we can reactivate and make this WPS a working document.
“We had the relevant stakeholders, the Budget/Planning Commission, the Ministry of Women Affairs, and the police, who made their input, which would be articulated and given to the Ministry of Women Affairs that has the mandate to see through the SAP, and we follow up for effective implementation of it.
“The first gap was that the SAP was never implemented, and many stakeholders, including peace and reconciliation, did not know the document existed.
“We noticed that the context in the state between 2021 and 2024 has changed. From 2021 to 2024, there were the issues of Covid, but now we do not have them.
“If we have an active action, it will help broader women’s involvement in peace and security; it will help to guide how women are involved in decision-making,” she said.
The Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Theresa Ikwue, assured the committee of the ministry’s support in actualising the goal.
Ikwue, who was represented by Mr Austin Ugbir, a director in the ministry, stated that the ministry’s doors were open for collaborations that would enhance the wellbeing of women, children and vulnerable groups.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the stakeholders that attended the meeting included the security agencies and civil society organisations as well as relevant government agencies and ministries.
(NAN)
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