Permanent Secretary, who spoke today, July 18 at the opening of a two-day inception workshop to launch the EU-UN joint Spotlight Initiative in the FCT, stressed that the worst form of violence is against the vulnerable in the society, especially women and girls.
“It is about time that we all woke up and not only speak against this unconscionable evil but also take concrete action against it. Keeping silent only emboldens the aggressors and perpetrates the circle of violence and repression.
“Negative social norms which condone or support violence against women and girls and harmful practices remain pervasive. These, he continued are characterized by child marriages, female genital mutilation and reproductive organ ailments such as VVF”.
Ohaa described the Spotlight Initiative as a new global multi -year initiative focused on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls, explaining that it was so named because “it brings focused attention to this issue and efforts to achieve gender equality and women empowerment.”
He said that the Initiative was timely and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adding that the six pilot states identified for the take-off of the programme in the six geopolitical zone and the FCT, is a welcome spread that would achieve a balanced intervention across the zones and thereafter replicated in all states of the federation.
The EU-UN Joint Spotlight Initiative, Sir Ohaa concluded will also, amongst other things, build on and scale up its efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls.
