The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) has engaged stakeholders in the extractive sector on gender-based violence (GBV) predominant in the sector.
A statement by the programme coordinator of the centre, Ms Victoria Ose Ikearu-Udoh, said the policy dialogue and research validation on all fforms and prevalence of gender-based violence in the extractive sector are being implemented under the Centre LSD BUILD grant by Ford Foundation, with relevant stakeholders in the extractive sector including host communities’ representatives, miners and government officials in Taraba.
It said the state-level policy dialogue is the third and last in the series of dialogue sessions under the BUILD grant. The first and second were held in Ebonyi and Ekiti states, respectively. According to her, the sessions, like the ones held in the aforementioned states, served dual purposes, including; as a forum for validation of the research on the forms and prevalence of gender-based violence faced by women in the extractive sector – particularly in Taraba – and will be used to stimulate discussions and chart the way forward to resolvee the challenges of gender-based violence in the extractive sector in the state and Nigeria.
The policy dialogue, according to the release, will herald the capacity-building of representatives of mining host communities and artisanal miners in the state scheduled to hold within the week.
The statement enjoined members of the public to work collectively to reduce all forms of gender-based violence in the extractive sector in Nigeria.
