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The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa said as available record reveals, the Armed Forces of Nigeria have been able to attain 27.9 per cent female participation in peacekeeping operations, surpassing the 17 per cent recommended benchmark by the United Nations.
General Musa disclosed this today at a one-day gender Mainstremming Conference with the theme ' Building Capacity Through Gender Mainstremming to meet Security Challenges' aimed at deepening the concept of Gender Mainstremming in the Armed Forces of Nigeria on Thursday, 9 November, 2023 at National Defence College, Abuja.
He noted that the Conference is also tailored at fashioning out the right ambience for the Armed Forces in designing implementing, monitoring and evaluating operational and administrative doctrines that seek to promote and enhance capacity by leveraging gender mainstreaming in combating the myriads of security challenges in our nation.
According to General Musa, Nigeria and indeed the Armed Forces of Nigeria in particular have received encomium from notable international organisations, such as the United Nations and the Africa Union for adopting commendable gender mainstreaming policies in all its military operations conducted within and outside the shores of Nigeria.
"These deliberate efforts by the military is in line with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, mandating countries to develop own action plans to identify, evaluate and control efforts to achieve the objectives of Women, Peace and Security.
"The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 was mooted to ensure women and societal security needs are safeguarded through increased emphasis on prevention, protection and participation of women in military operations.
"Consequently, the asymmetric nature of current security challenges bedeviling us as a nation brings to bear the need for the military and other security agencies to adopt a more realistic gender mainstreaming strategy to defend and protect women and children who are the most vulnerable group of persons and victims of the consequences of security challenges.
"As we look forward to fruitful deliberations throughout this conference, I want to urge all participants and stakeholders to be open minded in order to engage in constructive discussions that will further improve the existing gender policies and gender mainstreaming in the military." he stressed
The conference is ongoing at the National Defence College, Abuja.
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