From Abdurrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has unveiled a new target aimed at improving the well-being of children in Gombe by the year 2025. The target is part of UNICEF’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that every child has access to quality education, healthcare, and protection services.
According to UNICEF’s Chief of Bauchi Field Office (BFO), Dr Nuzhat Rafique, the target for Gombe children in 2025 includes a focus on strengthening health service delivery, birth registration and certification, increasing school enrolment rates, and providing access to clean water and sanitation facilities.
The Chief, who stated this in an interview with newsmen during an end-of-the-year review meeting with partners in Gombe, added that UNICEF will also be working to combat malnutrition among children through various nutrition programmes and collaborations in the state.
However, she called on the Gombe State Government to step up actions in addressing the prevalent issues of malnutrition, poverty, and other challenges affecting children in the state.
She highlighted that key areas of concern to be focused on by the state include the high rate of food insecurity, saying, “I highly appreciate Gombe State, because they have already contributed to the nutrition funds. Now we are working to improve the nutrition status of children, but the government needs to take a step further.
“Food insecurity is becoming very high; the number of malnourished children is also very high. This review that we are holding now with Gombe partners about health, nutrition, WASH, and child protection tells us a lot of stories about the poor status of children. Every second a child is malnourished, only 27 per cent of the women are breastfeeding their children,” Rafique stated.
She explained that even though breastfeeding does not take any resources from the family, it requires the women to be well-nourished and to know how to do it sensibly. Speaking further, UNICEF’s Chief of BFO added that it is crucial for the government to invest in social behavioural change campaigns in communities for the betterment of the lives of mothers and children.
Meanwhile, the government, through the State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, assured that it has plans to sustain the gains recorded in the implementation of various initiatives, especially in the areas of women and children, as well as identifying new ways and means of addressing challenges in the state.
This was revealed by the ministry’s Acting Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, Ruth Edward Baka. She explained that the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning was at the review meeting to coordinate the planning and ensure that UNICEF’s planned activities align with the priorities of the state across all sectors.