The Deputy Secretary General of United Nations and former Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, has said women are central in addressing the issues of climate change in Africa.
Mohammed stated this when she paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, in Abuja.
She said, “We do believe that at the centre of the work you are doing, the role of women, weather we talk about the challenges of the north-east, the desertification, GGW (Great Green Wall) is there and women are central to the livelihoods of that programme.”
The former minister said together with the environment minister, they have to set the pace to show how development works with the environment and how central it was for women empowerment.
“We have done that through a number of initiatives and there is need to strengthen them because it is the environment that is the solution, by empowering women and giving them what is their right,” she said.
“We are aligning and collaborating with the African Union as there is 2030, there is 2063. We want to make sure that this alignment reinforces the investment we made with people and other financial resources to Nigerians and the rest of the continent,” she added.
She explained that the whole mission to Nigeria was about the role of women in peace and security, particularly the many issues faced in the north-east and the Niger Delta region of the country.
She however, pledged the UN continued support in addressing environmental challenges, saying the Ogoniland cleanup and Green Bonds reforms should get a better priority from government. In his remarks, Jibril appreciated the effort of the UN in the environment sector, saying, it has been playing a very vital role.
“They have collaborated with the Federal Government to produce the UNEP report on Ogoniland and this is the foundation we are using for the Ogoniland cleanup. The UN has also given us support to strengthen our EIA process, it is good thing for us and we believe we are on the right track,” he said.
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