Kano Field Office of the UNICEF has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening its partnership with the Jigawa State Government across multiple sectors, including health, education, nutrition, WASH, child protection, and social protection.
The Chief of Field Office, Mr. Rahama Rihood Farah, made this statement during the launch and dissemination of the Jigawa General Household Survey held in Dutse.
He highlighted key achievements of the collaboration, such as enhancing systems for measuring child poverty through the General Household Survey (GHS), developing critical policies and action plans, and building stakeholder capacity.
Mr. Rahama Rihood Farah urged Local Government Chairmen to play their role in shaping the discourse and actions needed to address child poverty in Jigawa State using evidence generated for multisectoral planning.
He said the survey indicates that 89.4% of children in the Jigawa state experience monetary poverty, while 85.6% are multidimensional poor, facing deprivations in critical areas including health, education, nutrition, water sanitation, shelter, access to information, and Child Protection.
Farah highlighted the urgent need for collaborative action to reduce child poverty and improve the well-being of the children in Jigawa state.
“To strengthen our collective efforts, we kindly seek the support of the Government in putting in place measures that will ensure the utilization of Local Government data to inform planning and decision-making.
“Their effort is also required to design and implement structured social protection interventions targeting poor and vulnerable children.
“Other areas include approval of the elaborated social protection policy, passage of the revised social protection bill into law, increased budgetary allocations for child-specific programming and scaling up birth registration for children under five”, Farah said.
COV/USMAN MZ
