Without data, no empowerment for women, girls—Alhasssan

Women affairs and social development minister Aisha Alhassan says a lack of adequate data hampers implementation of policies beneficial to women and girls. Speaking at the 2016 National Women and Girls summit belatedly held in Abuja at the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Alhassan said, “I had observed that without adequate data, we cannot […]

Women affairs and social development minister Aisha Alhassan says a lack of adequate data hampers implementation of policies beneficial to women and girls.

Speaking at the 2016 National Women and Girls summit belatedly held in Abuja at the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Alhassan said, “I had observed that without adequate data, we cannot accurately talk of milestones as we would lack the evidence to drive effective policy.”

She however assured that both her ministry and the National Centre for Women Development will continue to focus on data generation and management to enhance planning for the girl-child and women in Nigeria.

Acting director general of NCWD, Sadeeq Omar, said, "The summit is specifically designed to focus on making the SDGs work for girls, addressing the plight of displaced girls, empowering the girl child through information technology.”

After three straight years of the summit since 204, turnout was low and participants expressed concern about issues on agenda being rather elitist without practical and sustainable solutions.

Speaking to Daily Trust, a participant, Jackie Ikeotuonye, Executive Director, Initiative for peace, Empowerment and Tolerance, said: "We hope it is not going to be the usual rhetoric, we want practical solutions to the plights of Nigerian women and girls.”

“Most times summits like this are elitist in nature, because of poor organisation. The girl child is not represented here, the few students gathered here do not even understand what we are talking about, some of them are being driven to school by their drivers,” Ikeotuonye said.

Also, Advocate for Girl-Child representative, Habiba Abdullahi, said domestic violence, sexual abuse, early marriage, sexual harassment and exploitation of girls and women were “spanners in the wheel of progress” of the girl-child which deserve to be adequately addressed.

Acting director general of NCWD, sadeeq Omar, said, "The summit is specifically designed to focus on making the SDGs work for girls, addressing the plight of displaced girls, empowering the girl child through information technology," he said.