AKOR SYLVESTER, Abuja
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has commended the Federal government for the social inclusion agenda initiative in budget allocation for children in order to tackle malnutrition in the country.
UNICEF urged the government to prioritize the agenda for the good of Nigerian children, especially, with the very ambitious programmes in Nigeria.
The Regional Director for West and Central Africa of UNICEF. Mr Gilles Fagninou who spoke when the UN agency team visited the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in Abuja, said the Social Inclusion Agenda plays a key role in budget allocation especially when it comes to children matters, while pledging the support of the fund for the ministry.
Fagninou noted that the advantage of UNICEF’s exposure to the 24 countries of its operations was to enable the organisation to gather experiences and see how lessons learnt from Nigeria and elsewhere could help UNICEF make progress in the 24 countries within their purview.
The Regional Director lauded the federal government for being the first country under the agency’s watch to successfully conduct a progress report on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He therefore hinted on the need for the ministry to continuously review the progress made by line ministries as touching their mandates while engaging UNICEF for support in promoting children’s needs.
Earlier, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar said the federal government was committed to achieving a healthy society for children to ensure that they achieve enviable heights through good nutrition.
Represented at the occasion by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Emeka Vitalis Obi, the Minister hailed the technical support of UNICEF in ensuring the update of the situation analysis of children in Nigeria.
He noted the domestication of the National Monitoring and Evaluation Policy at the state level in addition to strengthening multi-sectoral collaboration for nutrition through the launch of the “Nutrition 774 initiative”.
The minister maintained that through the initiatives, Nigeria is strategically moving down to the grassroots to ensure that children and all persons who are victims or exposed to malnutrition or undernutrition are considered and taken care of.
He stated that domestic financing had been launched through the Child Nutrition Fund to ensure that funds were available to address the needs of children domestically within the country.
The minister stressed the National Social Protection Policy as another great initiative by the government aimed at strengthening capacity in public financial management, especially at the sub-national level.
Stating that the initiative would be launched before the end of 2025, the Minister said “We can do better, we have the vision to be able to leverage on successes we have recorded so far and strengthen them because we are building capacity that should outlive us and project the future of the Nigerian Child.
“Our role is key, it’s critical and vital. We will continue to work on the policy ecosystem and space in order to save policies that would continue to see to the inclusion of children at the heart of the economy”.
On his part, the Director of International Cooperation in the Ministry, Samson Ebimaro, said the intervention of UNICEF in Nigeria had been impressive; adding that Nigeria was very much aware of their contributions to the nation’s economy, especially in areas of education, nutrition, water and sanitation and child’s rights.
“Nigeria is a very strategic partner to the UNICEF and UNICEF has been a very amiable partner that have worked with the Ministry for over 15 – 20 years”.
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