By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse
The United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF), has described Jigawa state as model because of its commitment to the promotion of issues relating to addressing children’s matters.
The Country Representative of UNICEF, in Nigeria, Ms Cristian Munduate made the remark during the handing over of 12,500 cartons of Ready-to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) supplement worth N500 million to the government of Jigawa state on Tuesday.
The RUTF consignment worth about N500 million was procured under a Matching Fund arrangement between the Jigawa State Government and UNICEF’s Child Health Grant with a 1:1 funding ratio.
The occasion also coincided with the foundation laying ceremony for the revitalization of 30 Primary Healthcare, (PHC) facilities across each of the 30 state political constituencies across the state by the Governor Umar Namadi
Ms Munduate said the provision of the commodities as a reflection the strong commitment of the governortowards children matters. She added, ‘It is not just a commitment towards health. It is about the commitment towards the people of Jigawa state.
“The efforts that you are making here today, saving lives of hundreds of children, saving the lives of thousands of women in Jigawa state today. UNICEF is here to witness this.
The UNICEF Chief congratulated the state government for the upgrading of the primary health care facilities, saying, it was not an easy task. I think Jigawa is really setting the example for other states to emulate, especially at the local government level.
“With all the health efforts we hope that next year we have less children in the situation. The whole idea is to prevent we don’t want no more secure acute malnourished children, but now they need to be attended and they will be obtained through these 12,500 cartoons that we are bringing here today. This is in addition to the other nutrition commodities that are for pregnant women and newborn children. “
She hoped that the political will of the administration is translated into concrete budget allocations and those budget allocations and are translated into concrete results
Namadi described UNICEF as “the oldest and most consistent Development Partner collaborating with and supporting the efforts of successive Governments in the Jigawa State in the delivery of basic social services especially those that promotes the survival, protection and development of women and children.
“For over three decades, UNICEF has continued to provide support in such areas as Health & Nutrition, Basic Education, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, social policy development, and Social Protection interventions among others.
“The collaborative efforts with the UNICEF leading to the delivery of this high-quality therapeutic food for the treatment of hundreds of malnourished children in our centres for Community Management of Acute Malnutrition is, indeed, very timely as the product is almost out of stock in our over seventy (70) CMAM Centers spread all over the State.
“The intervention is also in line with our commitments to address concerns raised in the report on the “Situation Analysis” of Children in Jigawa.
“Specifically, these concerns include ensuring nutrition security for our children given the unfavorable statistics on such nutrition indices as wasting and stunting among children in the state.
He explained that the state government was more than ever before, committed to doing whatever was necessary to change the narratives by sustaining and improving on all ongoing nutrition programs including the ongoing collaboration with UNICEF, to ensure that no child in the state was allowed to experience hunger and malnutrition.
“We all believe, the biggest tragedy that could happen to a child is to be afflicted with malnutrition at the formative stage of his or her life as the consequences of such an affliction are irreversible.”
Speaking on the rehabilitation of the PHCs the governor said the objective was to strengthen the facilities by creating the necessary enabling environment that would enable them to provide 24-hour services closest to the people no matter how remotely located.
“To speed up coverage across all the 287 Wards in the State, we have also requested the Local Government Councils to collaborate with the State government in upgrading additional 30 facilities within their domains.”
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