Ogwu Heads Board Of New UN Agency

Ogwu Heads Board Of New UN Agency

Nigeria 's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Professor Joy Ogwu, has been elected as the first Executive Board President of the newly created UN agency on gender equality and women empowerment.

The 41 -member executive of the new agency, known as UN Women, unanimously elected Ogwu in New York on Wednesday, along with four vice-presidents.

They will form the Bureau of the Executive Board and shall hold office for the year 2011. 

Africa endorsed Nigeria

Nigeria 's candidacy for the post of the president of the board of UN Women was endorsed by the Group of African States at the UN, but not without an initial challenge from Libya and Cape Verde .

Both countries later stepped down for Ogwu, who seemed to have enjoyed better endorsement and credentials by African member states.

The 41 executive board members were chosen last month from the five regional groups at the UN and top financial contributors to the agency.

They were selected on the following basis: 10 from Africa, 10 from Asia, four from Eastern Europe, six from Latin America and the Caribbean; five from Western Europe and six from contributing countries.

In the Africa group are  Angola , Cape Verde , Congo , Côte d'Ivoire , Ethiopia , Democratic Republic of the Congo , Lesotho , Libya and Tanzania and Nigeria . 

The board decided that the presidency shall rotate each year to a different regional group in alphabetical order beginning with Africa .

Ogwu said that with Nigeria 's leadership of the board, it was the collective responsibility of UN member states to ensure the acceleration of progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide.

''The creation of the agency should not be taken in isolation. We believe that the gender question is not a basic human right but a sine qua non for the achievement of sustainable development….Evidence has shown over the period that there is a correlation between inequality, the marginalisation of women, poverty and sustainable development,'' she said.

Former Chilean President Michelle Bacheleti heads the UN Women, which incorporates four old bodies.

The bodies are the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW).

The new agency was established on July 2, by a unanimous vote of the General Assembly, to oversee all the world body's programmes aimed at promoting women's rights and their full participation in global affairs.

In carrying out its functions, UN Women will work with an annual budget of at least 500 million dollars, double the current combined resources of the old four agencies.

Meanwhile, Nigeria 's bid to be elected among the nine members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), was unsuccessful as its candidate lost out. Professor Peter Ebigbo lost his election as a member of the CRC.

Ebigbo, a professor of psychological medicine and Deputy Vice- Chancellor of the University of Nigeria , Nsukka,  Enugu campus, lost the election in which candidates from Ghana , Tunisia and Egypt were elected.

The CRC comprises  18 independent experts who are persons of high moral character and recognised competence in the field of human rights.

Members are elected for a term of four years by states parties in accordance with Article 43 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Members serve in their personal capacity and may be re-elected if nominated.

NAN/Yinka