A consultative meeting between UNIFEM (part of UN Women) and the Human Development and Gender Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was held in Abuja, Nigeria on 17 August, on a programme to end violence against women in the ECOWAS sub-region.
The programme was initiated by UNIFEM in 2009 and is funded by the Italian Cooperation.
Civil society partners that work on implementing the programme at the country level include regional networks of women lawyers, women farmers and religious leaders.
In his opening remarks at the consultative meeting, the UNIFEM Deputy Regional Programme Director for West Africa, Maxime Houinato, explained that through this programme, UNIFEM and the ECOWAS Gender Commission would identify strategic entry points to institutionalize work on ending violence against women in the sub-region.
The Director of the Department of Gender Development, Youth/Sports, Civil Society, Employment and Drug Control of the ECOWAS Commission, Sintiki Tarfa Ugbe, stressed the importance of linking this regional programme with existing ECOWAS institutional frameworks, such as on women, peace and security.
