Quoting the National Emergency Management Agency’s (NEMA) Displacement Tracking Matrix, the National Population Commission (NPC) has disclosed that over 80 per cent of the country’s 2.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) are women and girls.
The commission which bemoaned that women and girls have always been at the receiving end of crisis, added that the recent rescue operations of captives from the Sambisa forest shows that most of them are women and children.
Mr Eze Duruiheoma, Chairman of NPC, made these disclosures in Abuja during the launch of the State of the World Population (SWOP) report, which had as its theme, “Shelter from the Storm; A Transformational Agenda for Women and Girls in Crisis- Prone World.”
The State of The World Population (SWOP) report is a document the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launches every year.
The chairman, NPC said that victims of gender violence who constitute about half of the population continue to take its toll on them.
“We must take concrete steps to institutionalise the well-being of the girl-child. Issues of population and development which have silent but enduring impacts are often neglected and ignored in public discourse.
“We need heavy investments in institutions and actions that build girls and women’s human capital so that when a new crisis strikes, disruption and dislocation may be minimised and recovery can be accelerated.”
Duruiheoma also called on the managers of the North East Victim Support Fund to devote a significant proportion towards alleviating the conditions of the women and girls in the affected areas because they have suffered the greatest brunt.
Meanwhile, Mr Mike Omeri, Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA) pledged to use its agency’s established structures to support the UNFPA as a way of collaboration.
-Leadership
