The Canadian government has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s health sector, identifying Bauchi State as a major focus of its international development partnership with the country.
The Co-Lead, Health Sector, Abuja, Rasmata Barry, of Global Affairs Canada (GAC), made this known during a stakeholders’ meeting held on Monday as part of a two-day working visit to Bauchi State.
A representative of Global Affairs Canada, who led a delegation of officials from its headquarters in Ottawa, said Nigeria remained Canada’s priority country for international development, particularly in the health sector, with Bauchi State occupying an important position in its development investments.
She said, “It’s a pleasure for me to come back with my colleagues from headquarter, Ottawa for them to witness the important achievements that are being completed on the field here in Bauchi. We say as we all know, Nigeria is Canada’s priority country on international development, but mainly on the health sector. And Bauchi is really where we focus on.”
According to her, “And that’s why we were here a few months ago with our Head of Cooperation who is sending his greetings. So what I would say, I won’t talk too much. I would say that as we are exploring how to go with the partners, we can best implement the Canada Africa strategy. We think that it is important to keep the momentum and come sit with you and see what is being achieved.”
“As we noticed during the presentations of the team, today, we have our Team Lead, Health Sector, Madam Diane Pittman, who is the person in Ottawa at Global Affairs Canada who is leading all the health sector portfolio. So this is to show how it’s important for us,” she added.
According to her, “Gender is a huge component of our investment. So we have the Global Affairs Canada Gender Specialist who came. She’s the one for all Global Canada Affairs, helping us to ensure that gender equality is taken into account, across our investments.”
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She further said, “So also, and we have environment. Environment is a key also in some of our projects. We have environment. We know what climate change is doing, having a huge impact. So we ensure that our Environmental Specialist is here. And we have our Analyst, Senior Analyst helping us to really understand very well what are the challenges in Nigeria and how we can best organize, how we can best invest to get results.”
Rasmata Barry added, “So, our leader ensure that all these people, key people working on the Nigeria programme are here to witness and also to best plan for future. We want our colleagues who came from so far to see as much as possible and to keep, to take with them the maximum.”
Also speaking, Chloe Simard, Senior Analyst, Global Affairs Canada, emphasised the importance of building resilient communities and strengthening collaboration between development partners and the Bauchi State Government to ensure sustainable development outcomes.
She said resilient populations were essential for economic growth and prosperity, noting that government ownership of development initiatives was critical to sustaining investments and ensuring lasting benefits for communities.
She expressed satisfaction with the participation of government officials, UNICEF and other development partners at the meeting, describing their collective presence as an indication of the importance attached to collaboration.
She stressed that resilient populations were a precondition for economic growth and prosperity, saying, “We also believe that, we are also keen to see collaboration between the partners and the state because we believe that state ownership is also very important for sustainability of investments.”
Chloe Simard added, “And I’m very pleased to see everyone together in the room today and we are looking forward to witness that collaboration throughout the program. Finally, I want to reiterate that we’re very excited to see how we are achieving our common objectives and having an impact on the health outcomes and on the well-being of communities here in Bauchi.”
Other implementing partners, including PLAN International and WaterAid Nigeria, made presentations on support provided by GAC through UNICEF for the implementation of various interventions in the state.
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