The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has described as very unfortunate, the situation in Nigeria where child poverty, food insecurity are becoming higher with the number of malnourished children increasing.
The assertion was made by the Chief of Field (CFO), UNICEF Bauchi Field Office (BFO), Dr Nuzhat Rafique during a meeting between the Government of Gombe State and UNICEF held in Gombe with the aim of applying a wholistic approach in implementing issues of child development for the State in 2025.
She said, “this review meeting we are holding now with the Gombe partners is about health; nutrition; water, sanitation and hygiene; and child protection. It tells a lot of stories about the poor state of children.”
The CFO added that “I highly appreciate Gombe State, they have already contributed towards the nutrition funding in Gombe and UNICEF is working with those partners and we’re trying to work on the nutrition status of children, but Gombe State needs to step further because the poverty is increasing.”
According to her, “The support from the State Government is more and more required now. Similarly in health, we’ve seen progress in Gombe. The immunization status of children has increased by 30%. It was 25% previously but now it has gone up to 50%, almost 60% which is very good progress.”
Nuzhat Rafique added, “Also newborn mortality and infant mortality has become static. Infant mortality has improved, the number of deaths has reduced, under-five mortality has reduced and these needs to keep on going. This was mainly contributed by the GAVI project.”
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The UNICEF Chief then advocated for much financial attention to be given at the community health level which has larger population stressing that it is cost-effective at the beginning.
“It makes it stronger in the community systems where the practices and the culture change towards supportive aspects of practices. That is what Will make the generations happy and the cost of the health systems will gradually reduce and also curtail disease curative services”, she emphasized.
Nuzhat Rafique, said that the 2024 annual programme review and 2025-2027 work plan consultation meeting was another opportunity for UNICEF to strengthen its commitment towards the development of children in Gombe State.
She commended partners in the State, such as LGA’s, traditional leaders and many others who have shown commitment towards working for the rights of children and mothers.
The meeting brought together stakeholders in the State from the health, education, nutrition, child protection, Water, sanitation and Hygiene sectors together with UNICEF Specialists in the aforementioned sectors to plan better ways of addressing children development issues.
According to the Acting Director, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Gombe State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Ruth Edward Baka, “We want to ensure that the sectors align with Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s priorities presented during his 2025 budget presentation last week”.
She also explained that the meeting was to review UNICEF activities in 2024 and then develop activities for 2025 stressing that, “Our office coordinates what the development partners brings into the State in the sectors.
“We are aligning with his (Governor Inuwa) priorities presented in his 2025 appropriation to the State in our work plan to be developed with UNICEF. We’re here to make sure UNICEF supports these priorities”, she stated.
Recall that, few days earlier in his budget presentation for the 2025 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly, Governor Inuwa said the budget made significant provision for nutrition, particularly to address the urgent need for child-focused interventions.
He said the intervention includes, “dietary diversity, reducing malnutrition rates, and ensuring access to nutritional support for the vulnerable members of our communities.”
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