The United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF) has unveiled a new plan to provide support for 10 million children in order to access formal and non-formal education between 2023 and 2027 in a new country programme.
The Communication Specialist, Dr Geoffrey Njoku, made this known in Kano State during a two-day media dialogue on the new Country programme 2023-2027 and the status of implementation of the Child Rights Law 2003 in the states of the Federation.
The media dialogue was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Child Rights Bureau, the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
Njoku also disclosed that UNICEF in the last five years supported the enrolment of 1.5 million girls in schools across the country using a new evidence-based approach, while five million children continued learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UN Agency has been at the forefront of the efforts to support the attempt by the Nigerian government to address the challenge of out-of-school children in the country estimated at 10.1 million.
Njoku further lamented that Nigeria ranks 139 out of 15 countries in the Gender Index Gap, noting that many children in the country were deficient in many areas, requiring all hands to be on deck to resolve.
He said the vision of the 2023-2027 programme for Nigeria, is “to ensure that the rights of every child in Nigeria especially the most excluded, to survive, thrive, learn, be protected and develop to his or her full potential”.
He added that plan was to free the children from poverty in a safe and sustainable climate and environment.
The five-year strategic plan which began in January is to help Nigerian children who are left behind in developmental strides meet up with their counterparts in other parts of the world.
On health, Njoku disclosed that UNICEF provided support for the vaccination of 30 million children in Nigeria in the last five years, stressing the number of vaccinated children was part of the organisation’s country programme result for 2018-2022.
He added that the vaccinations were done through integrated campaigns against life-threatening diseases.
“Fifty-eight million children were vaccinated against polio; also we achieved zero dose strategy in 100 local government areas to reach underserved children across 18 states.
“Twenty-two million children also received two doses of Vitamin A in 2022.”
Njoku also said that the organisation facilitated birth registration for 7.4 million children under the age of five while also saying that 2.8 million children living in conflict-affected areas received psychosocial support.
Meanwhile, the Child Protection Specialist of the UNICEF Office in Kano, Hajia Fatimah Adamu, has advocated the implementation of the Child Rights Law in the states, noting that this was critical in the reduction of out-of-school children in the country.
Adamu said that the CRL was put in place to protect all kinds of children, stressing that if implemented appropriately, would lead to the end of out-of-school children menace in the country.
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