The consultancy firm engaged by the Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) of the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project has arrived in Kano to deliver on the given assignment.

The Center for Nonviolence and Gender Advocacy in Nigeria (CENGAIN)has been identified and engaged to partner with the Federal and State Management units of the ACReSAL project and the World Bank on the mapping out of service providers that will support the ACReSAL in the implementation of the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) aspect across the project communities.

The training was held today at Aminu Kano Center for Democratic Studies, Mumbayya House, Kano.

The State Project Coordinator Dr. Dahir Muhammad Hashim who was represented by the Admin Officer Shehu Sani Shehu said that ACReSAL has arranged for the mapping out of service providers from the relevant MDAs and to build their capacity on the situations that can be termed as GBV as well as the mechanisms for reducing or responding to the incidents.

ACReSAL is a project that is Labour intensive as such project activities will call for the influx of strangers from different cultural and religious backgrounds into the communities for implementation of the project activities, ACReSAL therefore finds it compelling to come up with measures that will facilitate the smooth execution of the project in the communities, he added.

Prior to this, the PC made a presentation on the project background and achievements, disclosing the plan of Kano-ACReSAL of reclaiming 50,000 hectares of degraded land out of the overall 1 million hectares targeted by the ACReSAL project in Nigeria.

The PC then commended the participants for their willingness to support the project on the cause, amid their numerous other engagements.

The training session was facilitated by Dr. Talatu Buba Bello a Community and Institutional Strengthening Expert-CENGAIN on a paper titled “Gender Based Violence (GRM) Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM)in ACReSAL Project.

Participants were drawn from the relevant MDAs, comprising the Ministries of Water Resources, Environment, Agriculture, Justice, Law Enforcement Agency, traditional leaders etc.