Source: Daily Trust
The National Centre for Women Development, Abuja has commenced a gender training course for top government officials and women in top management positions across the country.

Speaking recently at the beginning of the course in Abuja, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, said training is one of the important developmental processes of man which brings about total reformation.

She said the participants are therefore not left out in the process because they need to widen their horizon to be able to achieve whatever goal they have set out for their various offices.

The minister explained that gender mainstreaming is meaningless without the commitment and willingness to pursue personal development.

She said it entails attitudinal change and does not preclude the need for specific actions for women, aimed at redressing serious inequalities between women and men but rather promotes equity and sustainability.

The minister informed further that one of the key approaches in effectively mainstreaming gender is incorporating men into the planning and implementation of gender issues.

Earlier, Director- General of the centre, Mrs Fatima Hassan Betara, said the training is the first in a series of many capacity building programmes put in place this year to address the changing policy environment, organizations, programmes and projects, which are increasingly being required to develop gender equity and equality policies.

She said it is also to adopt strategies in order to make it possible for men and women to have equal opportunities as well as ensure that their interventions are gender sensitive or at the very least do not reinforce inequities in line with the goal of National Gender Policy.

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