By Chimezie Godfrey
The Minister, Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, has expressed the Ministry’s interest to partner with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in the area of School Feeding Programme and other critical areas of humanitarian interventions.
Farouq stated this while receiving the Country Representative of the UNICEF, Peter Hawkins and his team, who were on a courtesy visit to the Ministry, on Friday in Abuja.
“As a result of the vast mandate of the Ministry, it will continue to seek the support of UNICEF especially now that you have outlined a very critical area.
“We will work together in the area of emergency, Humanitarian, social protection and humanitarian protection and we are going to leverage on your experiences and expertise to see how we will be able to deliver our mandate.
“Being a new Ministry, we will strengthen policy and institutional framework, build evidence based information system to optimize funding opportunities, focus on standardized monitoring and evaluation of mechanisms and also mainstream the SDGs. Giving your experience and expertise.
“I am sure that we will tap into some of your key priority areas of emergency response, recovery as well as sustainable development.”
On the social intervention programme, the Minister said “the Ministry will need the expertise of UNICEF in the School Feeding Programme for the children to have good balanced meal to enhance their ability to concentrate in school.
Speaking earlier, the Country Representative of UNICEF, Peter Hawkins said that UNICEF is ready to partner with the Ministry in the area of social protection and humanitarian policy, education and sensitization.
Hawkins added that Nigeria is important because the burden of Nigeria is one of the highest in the world social development goals.
He commended the Ministry on the Civil Security Cooperation (CISEC) programme held in Maiduguri and the progress made so far by the new ministry.
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