WEP committed to environmental development, women, youth empowerment —ED

Executive Director, Women Environmental Programme (WEP), Achakpa Priscilla has reiterated the organisation’s effort towards empowering women and youth for environmental developments.

Achakpa said this in an interview with Ecoscope, noting that WEP stands to achieve environmental sustainability, while empowering women and youth not only in the country, but across the world.

“With offices in countries like Togo, Burkina Faso and even in New York and partners across the globe, WEP is specifically focusing on building the capacity of women and youth across countries to understand the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and of course hold our leaders accountable to what they have signed, for instance the Paris Agreement, which at least 177 countries including Nigeria have already signed.

“So we want to begin to monitor them to see what they have done as regards the implementation of these SDGs. And while we are focusing on this across 11 countries in Africa, our partners are implementing this in other parts of the world,” she said.

WEP is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) which was established in 1997 by a group of grassroots women in Nigeria, and aims to address the gender injustices on issues relating to environment, economic and social rights of women, children and youths in the society.

WEP’s programmes on environment and development include water management, environmental and waste management, land management, soil erosion control, disaster management, natural resource management, community conflict management.

With visions to sensitise and create awareness of the general public on the vulnerability and adaptation of gender impact to climate change, the organisation over the years has grown to be a major stakeholder in environmental gender-related issues both in the country and abroad.

Achakpa said that WEP in Nigeria has done tremendously well, adding that “one of the greatest achievements we have recorded is a partnership with the Federal Ministry of Environment to have a national gender active plan on climate change, which is the first of its kind since the ministry started.”