Juliet Jacob Ochenje
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has assured the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, of their commitment to support the Humanitarian Response and Poverty Alleviation with 270M USD.
UNICEF Country Representative, Christian Mundate, disclosed this when he led the Chief of Health and HIV/AIDS of the organisation, Eduardo Celades,to the Honourable Minister in her office in Abuja.
The UNICEF Chief also assured the Minister of technical support to build capacity of the ministry’s staff, as well as support the development of a humanitarian response protocol for Nigeria to guide all humanitarian actors to facilitate effective coordination.
In addition, Mundate assured of support for the establishment of a National Humanitarian Situation Room or Humanitarian Emergency Operation Centre (H-EOC)to monitor, mitigate and prevent Humanitarian Emergencies and build resilience in the system.
Responding, Dr. Edu informed the delegation that President Bola Tinubu’s addition is committed to lifting 133 million poor Nigerians out of poverty in a phased approach; especially the 71 million extremely poor Nigerians who live under one dollar, ninety-five cents a day.
She urged UNICEF to also draw up plans towards supporting the FG on poverty alleviation, saying: ”Time is of essence and we need to run at the speed of light to roll out social programmes that will bring relief to the burdens of the poor. Nigerians are eagerly waiting for full implementation of the renewed hope agenda,the time for intense action is now.”
While assuring them of commitment to transparency and accountability in all the processes of the Ministry, she added that engagement with partners like UNICEF Nigeria will continue until the government achieves its target.”
