The United Kingdom has launched a new global Women and Girls strategy on International Women’s Day .
A statement by the British High Commission in Abuja says the strategy aims to tackle increasing threats to gender equality from climate change, humanitarian crises, conflicts and recent attempts to roll back women’s rights across the world.
It says the new strategy will put Women and Girls at the heart of the UK’s international work, and develop a new approach to tackle gender inequality in Nigeria and across the globe.
The statement says the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will ensure that at least 80% of its bilateral aid programmes include a focus on gender equality by 2030.
It states that the UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly launched the global Women and Girls strategy which will set out how the UK will work to tackle global gender inequality at every opportunity.
British High Commissioner to Nigeria Catriona Laing said Nigerian women lead on the global stage and across different sectors, however many women and girls continue to experience high levels of exclusion and marginalisation.
She said the programme would reach up to 10.4 million women, and would will receive up to £200 million and is expected to prevent up to 30,600 maternal deaths, 3.4 million unsafe abortions and 9.5 million unintended pregnancies.
This is the first international women and girls strategy that brings together all the UK’s development and diplomacy work.
DFID produced a Strategic Vision for Gender Equality in 2018. This new strategy is broader, reflecting all the work of the merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
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