OXFAM, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and other stakeholders have deepened their commitments to gender parity to enhance the status of women in the acquisition facilities for agriculture in the sub-region.
This was the crux of a seminar to address gender parity in the agriculture sector through the establishment of an inter-parliamentary network held at the ongoing Second Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.
Constant Tchona, country director, OXFAM, who commended the ECOWAS Parliament for its commitment to gender equality, said ECOWAS quest to ensure that agricultural investments were of benefit to women and men in the region had been encouraging.
The seminar was jointly organized by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), OXFAM International, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Women in Law and Development in Africa.
Sekou Sangare, ECOWAS commissioner for agriculture, environment and water resources, said women and youth could not be left out in any agricultural transformation process.
“As an institution and together with our partners, our commitment to you and this network is to consistently engage and extend our technical expertise and experience and any other support within our ability to make sure the network lives up to its objectives,” he said.
The network has mapped out strategies to address impediments to achieving sustainable agriculture in the ECOWAS sub-region and also exploits the efforts of ECOWAS Parliament to focus on addressing gender and social inequality in agricultural investments and promote best practices to ensure inclusive local development.
Sangare, who was represented by Ernest Aubee, principal programme officer and ECOWAS head of agriculture division, said the network was critical to realising objectives of the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy 2025.
He added the commission had put mechanisms in place to achieve food and nutrition security in the region.
“One of such frameworks is the Regional Agricultural Investment Plan 2025 and the National Agricultural Investment plans for food and nutrition security, which all the ECOWAS member states are working on.
“And we are very hopeful that by the end of this year we will be able to complete this process,” he said.
Suffyan Koroma, FAO representative to Nigeria, described gender inequality as a driver of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, adding that both men and women were key partners to addressing the challenges.
“FAO will support this initial phase of the operationalisation of the network for an amount of $99,000 through a technical cooperation project facility with the ECOWAS Parliament,” he said
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