…As Humanitarian Affairs Minister seeks stakeholders collaboration
By Chimezie Godfrey
Dr. Better Edu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, has revealed plans to secure alternative sources of funding to tackle humanitarian crises in Nigeria.
The Minister disclosed that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has created the Presidential Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund to be used to address both the humanitarian crises and the poverty alleviation programs and projects devoid of the bureaucratic bottlenecks of government.
Dr. Edu who made the revelation during a courtesy visit by the Country Director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Jeremie Zoungrana, who was accompanied by Deputy Director, Health, Population, and Nutrition, Carolin Jehu-Appiah, asked for the technical and financial support of the Foundation to enable the Ministry fast-track the Federal government’s agenda of addressing humanitarian crises and eradication of poverty in the country.
She said,””We have a huge task on our hands, as we speak now over 16 million Nigerians are affected by humanitarian crises, either man-made or the natural disasters. Of course, security issues, pockets of unrest in different areas have not made this any better.
“Other natural disasters like the flooding, which we are presently going through, and the opening of a Dam in another country, which will have its own effect on Nigeria, is another call for attention to ensure that people are catered for. And then we have these unrest in all the neighboring countries – in Cameroon, in the southern part of Cameroon that have over 46,000 refugees coming into Nigeria. So there are over 36,000 in Cross River. We have a whole lot into Taraba and Benue, along that border.
“We’re dealing with order crises in Niger having people coming to Sokoto, Kano, Katsina and all of that. This is an addition to Nigerians that are refugees in this country and the migrants that were trying to go through the Niger and Libya and got stocked around the border. So it’s a whole lot as it concerns the humanitarian crises and what we need to deal with as a Ministry.
“But now the bigger one is here, which is poverty alleviation. We have over from the last statistics done by the Bureau of Statistics, it says that about 133 million Nigerians are poor, that’s multi-dimensional poverty, and then about 70 million of these people are extremely poor. So, they’re basically living below $1.95 cent per day. The President is committed to SDG which is raising these people out of poverty by 2030 and we need your help. We need your help! That’s a lot of work and I just thought it was important to get you to the table at the foundational stage.
“First, we would need a lot of technical help. Technical help to see that we can draw a baseline, set the agenda and come up with programmes and projects that can be implemented to really lift people out of poverty while addressing the humanitarian needs.
“Secondly, we would also need lots of financial help in terms of supporting programmes, supporting processes, and helping with implementation. While it starts with one of the innovations we want to put on board, the Presidential Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund. Now, we need to be able to go full-blown into a robust resource mobilization; move that can help us pull together funding into one basket that will be used to address both the humanitarian crises and the poverty alleviation programs and projects without necessarily going through the bureaucratic bottlenecks of government.
The Minister noted that the President was refocusing the ministry to really address some key agendas of his administration, especially the eradication of poverty.
“First, I thought it was best to engage with you at the Foundation setting stage because of the new mandate functions of the ministry. Of course, you know that before this time the ministry used to be a ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, disaster management, and social development.
“However, the President is refocusing the ministry to really address some key pillars or agendas of his administration. He has an eight point agenda and topmost of it is the eradication of poverty. And that’s why the ministry was changed from Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
“This is to meet the SDG Goal 1, Goal two and several other cross-cutting SDG Goals. Of course, it goes without saying that the SDGs is also one of the parastatals under the ministry, and you have about seven others that are concerned with different aspects of intervention from the refugee and migrant commission to NAPTIP involved in the prohibition of trafficking; of course to SDG and then Senior Citizens; Agency for the Disabled. So everything that has to do with that, NSIP which takes care of the Nigerian Social Investment, providing safety net for Nigerians and then of course, now the new one, which is to pull Nigerians out of poverty, the addition of the poverty alleviation to the mandate of the ministry.
“So, these are areas in which we are going to work and I believe very strongly, that Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a lot to do with management of humanitarian crises and of course, poverty alleviation. I have worked with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the past when I was in the health sector, from the state level all the way to the national when I became the Chairman of the Nigerian Health Commissioners Forum. We had a lot of interference and interactions with you around immunization, and several other engagements and I saw that your organization is rather very proactive and responsive to issues that had to do with the country and of course with its Citizens, and you have that flexibility that allows government priorities to become your priorities flowing in the direction of the government,” she said.
Dr. Edu hinted that the Federal government was earmarking part of the taxes to support humanitarian response as well as poverty alleviation in the country.
“Like I said Donors, like you Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Development Partners will be brought on board. We’re looking at also earmarking part of the tax, if you have followed through, you see that there’s an increased tax on some commodities, especially sugar tax and the rest of them that were approved by the Federal Government and the National Assembly had that passed, however, it’s not been earmarked.
“So, we’re actually looking at earmarking those taxes to support humanitarian response as well as poverty alleviation. Other sources we’ll be working with Embassies and other Countries that want to be part of this support? Just before you came in, the Ambassador for Greece was sitting right where you were and they also pledged their commitment.
“Several other countries we’ll be having that engagements at UNGA. This year we’ll equally be having the engagement to see how we can bring in countries we can bring in partners. We can bring in private sector, individuals, both national and international. We can equally go into the Middle East to really pull support from Foundations and individuals that are happy to support the country in this drive.
“But one thing is clear, it’s going to be a worthy cause. We will all sit together at the roundtable and work out the modality for transparency, accountability around the Fund. And we’ll all have you as key stakeholders. So, this is another place where we need a lot of support in terms of technicality to put together this Trust Fund. The reach is wide and we’re going to be setting up a Committee of both private sector – individuals and government – individual and we will need you to be part of that; Table discussion to provide this fund for Nigeria.”
The Country Director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Jeremie Zoungrana, commended the Minister’s initiative and proactiveness.
He reiterated his commitment to various health-related programmes in Nigeria.
He said,”The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as you already know, is working in different areas. That, I believe, is also to contribute to the Minister’s mission. And of course, one of the areas is health. We want to make sure that everyone lives a very productive and healthy life, and in terms of health fees, when you are not healthy, you cannot be productive, and when you are not productive, you end up being poor. Everything that we link to is linked to that, but we also want to make sure that we offer everyone the opportunity to contribute to life, and the opportunity is really to reduce poverty.
“So, poverty is another area that we are trying to contribute to by investing in economic opportunity for agriculture through financial inclusion. And of course, gender is another aspect. There is a lot of cross-cutting, digitalization, innovation, you know, across different things, but we do understand that humanitarian aid and poverty alleviation are also very important aspects, as I mentioned previously.
“So, I will say we aligned on the need to consider that. And I want to say that we also take note of all the areas that you’ve mentioned in terms of the need for technical assistance, you know, to be able to set the agenda for what we can do, you know, as a programme for this minister. And one of the most important things that I notice is the Trust Fund that needs to be operated. You know, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is trying to be catalytic as much as possible. You know, we know that we are just a small contributor to the development, and when we have a contingency opportunity to support it, you know, we will always be alive.
“But one thing I want to add here is that we as a Foundation at the country level, our role is really to enable the clinician or the team to be able to support the Government of Nigeria, so as a country, we are also linked to many other Programme Strategic Teams with whom we’re connecting, what the country needs, so that when they are planning, they are the ones who own some of these decisions in terms of funding.”
