President of the ECOWAS Commission, Marcel de Souza has pledged to partner with UN Women to tame the tide of West African Women migrating to western countries on account breach of security in the sub-region.
Mr. Marcel at a brief ceremony in his office in Abuja while receiving the credentials of the UN Women Nigeria Country Representative, Comfort Lamptey, regretted that some of the women die in the process of their journeys promised to forged a strong synergy with UN Women, adding that he will leverage on the expertise of UN Women to reverse the trend.
Marcel noted that ECOWAS together with UN Women will work hard to advance gender priorities in the West African sub-region.
Earlier Ms. Lamptey said her accreditation would facilitate an activation of her ECOWAS Liaison function role, alongside her role as Country Representative to Nigeria, just as she pledged to work hard to deepen cooperation between the two institutions during her tour of duty.
โI would like to recall the important achievements that ECOWAS member states have made to date in advancing womenโs rights and gender equality, exemplified in the adoption of the 2015 Gender Statutory Act. I would also like to call for more collaboration between ECOWAS and UN Women on peace and security and migrationโ, she added.
She was accompanied by Njeri Karuru, UN Women Programme Manager for Peace and Security and Aijaz Qureshi, UN Women Country Operations Manager.
Ms. Lamptey started her career with the UN over 20 years ago, and has since worked and travelled throughout all the ECOWAS member countries, deepening her contextual understanding of the sub-region. She joined the UN Women Nigeria office in May 2017.
UN Women is the UN organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
