UNICEF engages Kwara govt. on intervention programmes for children

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), says it will engage the Kwara government on necessary intervention programmes for children in the state.

Dr Zakari Adam, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Kaduna, said this  on Monday during the discussions and review of various policies on children welfare in Kwara.

Adam explained that all the discussions and presentations from various ministries in the state, had afforded UNICEF a better understanding of the programme related to children’s rights.

“With the knowledge on ground, UNICEF will fine-tune the programme and all secretariat will collate the presentations and group them together to come up with reports on how to continue,” he said.

He said there would be need for engagement and agreement on interventions programmes through meetings, which would ensure minimum package of intervention.

He added that there would also be a media review for all state under UNICEF, Kaduna.

According to him, the media review will come up around July, which will help to identify areas that cannot be pushed aside.

Mr Oladapo Samuel, State Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, expressed optimism on the positive outcome from the meetings.

“It is good that UNICEF is returning back to the state, the organisation is ‘frank and honest’.

“They have made us to realise that they are not messiah, as they equally have challenges, but that they are here to assist and support,” he said.

Various presentations from the Kwara Ministries complained of paucity of funds and inadequate training of health care workers in the state.

The Ministry of Health identified the challenges of poor attitude of health workers and poorly funded social mobilisation activities.

The Ministry of Education also identified insufficient personnel, inadequate budgetary allocation for education and insufficient infrastructures among others as part of the challenges faced by the ministry.

The presentation from the Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency on nutrition indicated that there was non-availability of commodities essential to nutrition.

“There is also lack of equipped nutrition kitchen and inadequate supportive supervision and monitoring among others’’.