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Revision with unchanged content. Nigeria has acceded to several regional and international covenants promoting the rights and well-being of women. In July 2000 it made an official statement of intent to promote gender equality by endorsing a National Policy on Women. Yet, the vast majority of women persist on the periphery of economic and political life. In spite of a considerable degree of compatibility between women s aspirations and the NPW, particularly in terms of addressing immediate practical necessity, awareness of its existence and that of the new National Gender Policy remains low. Consequently, there is no concerted agenda to push for policy implementation. The Gender Management System put in place by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to oversee the mainstreaming of gender policy is undermined by institutionalised and routinised gender bias and by systemic distortions in the wider policy environment.This book examines the relevance of the NPW to the aspirations of Nigerian women, through their eyes. It explores the experiences, perspectives and collective agendas of women across class, ethnicity and religion to discover their understandings of the present and visions for the future. It also investigates the extent to which state institutional capability exists to implement gender policy, and to mainstream gender perspectives as the policy stipulates.

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The author is specialist in gender and development policy;development consultant, Senior Research Fellowat the Department of Research of the NationalInstitute for Policy & Strategic Studies,Kuru, Nigeria.

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