The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has charged women peace actors across states and geopolitical zones to leverage on the global opportunities the International Day of Peace provides so as to build strategic partnerships to address the unique challenges of women in the peace building process.
The WILPF Country Director, Prof. Joy Onyesoh said this on Tuesday in Abuja at an event organised by the body to commemorate the International Day of Peace.
While presenting her research on “Masculinity: gender dynamics of representation, violence and conflict in Nollywood films and in fragile conflict affected areas”, Onyesoh highlighted the need for collaboration among women peace actors to chance the existing “toxic masculinity” and stereotypes by the movie industry.
“The International Day of peace provides us with opportunities to have reflections on what we have done so far, some of our success stories and also to share experiences on what is working well but also an opportunity to look at the gaps and the challenges and to look at opportunities for strategic partnerships. The conversation in the room after the presentation of the research opened up all that space where we could see how we could use the research as a tool for the different work we do and also conversation has started on who we want to collaborate with on this.”
Speaking at the event, Representative of the Canadian High Commission in Nigeria, Matilda Wallet expressed Canada’s continuous support for empowering women and women led organisations in advancing sustainable peace and development.
“Realising the key role that women play over the last five years, Canada has worked to support women and women’s organisation through the woman’s voice and leadership programme here in Nigeria,” Wallet said.
Also, representative of the British High Commission, Cliff Gai, while highlighting the role of women rights organisations in peace building and conflict resolution, assured of its commitment to championing the course of women and peace building in the country.
The International Day of peace, which is held on the 21st of September annually with this year’s theme: “Cultivating a culture of peace”, underscores the importance of peace.
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