*Holds North East 2022 End-Term Health Emergencies Response Joint Operations Review Meeting
By; SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri
The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi has called on Humanitarian and Development Partners in Nigeria to as a matter of importance and great concern, redouble their efforts on resilience and capacity building of the people affected by conflict in North East and other parts of the country.
He also called on all the partners to synergize and develop team work habit with strategic attitude towards impact and evidenced based projects and programmes implementation towards improving livelihood support and assistance on emergencies by way of responding to pandemics promptly in collaboration with the government to ensuring they meet up with what the state governments want from the donors.
Dr. Kazadi stated this in his visual opening remarks on Monday at the 2022 World Health Emergencies Programme in North East Nigeria ‘3-day 12th End-Term Joint Operational Review of Humanitarian Health Response Meeting held at Grand Pinnacle Hotels Conference Hall Maiduguri.
He also emphasized the need for the humanitarian partners across board to continue to support the vulnerable and refugees by way of providing them and their communities with all the necessary and adequate services as well as prioritize building of capacity and resilience of the people.
The WHO Country Representative reiterated the need for impact based and evidence based projects and programmes as priority for implementation by the partners and other stakeholders, pointing out that, ”it is high time the development partners followed or complied with the demands 8f the state governments where they operate.”
He further urged the partners to develop and prioritize their humanitarian activities in the conflict affected states, especially, on health, livelihood support, safety security of the people affected by the conflict, as well as the vulnerable and climate change effects.
Dr. Walter who emphasized on evidence based programmes to be implemented by the partners and all relevant stakeholders and not for them to just concentrate on only humanitarian support to the people, but to be holding capacity building and resilience training of the people and other collaborating stakeholders in the society in order to transform the communities and improve on transition of the nation’s democracy by way of building capacity of the political and community leaders towards peace building and development.
Earlier, the Borno State Commissioner of Health and Human Services, Professor Arab Alhaji Bukar in his welcome address at the meeting, appreciated the huge support of the WHO and other development partners to the state government on healthcare services and facilities in responding to emergency cases like cholera, COVID-19, measles and malaria among others.
He added that WHO has been supporting and assisting the state government on healthcare facilities and services, as well as establishments in all the 27 LGAs of the state, apart from promoting and upgrading primary healthcare facilities to secondary healthcare level.
Professor Arab however, noted that a lot has been done to the state by WHO and that encouraged the state government to also play it’s role by investing huge amount of money on healthcare services and facilities as well as recruitment of medical; doctors and nurses in addition to building the capacity of the medical and health personnel within and outside the state.
He further noted that the state government has impacted largely and positively on the people in both urban and rural; areas and supported responses on emergency cases in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, etc and will continue to collaborate and work with them to improve health and living conditions of the people of the state to stand on its own without WHO support or Federal Government support in future.
The Hon. Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire represented by the FMOH Director of Health Emergencies and Response, Mrs. Olufunmilola Bolape Adegbite, said the WHO end of term joint operations review, meeting cannot be over emphasized due to the significant roles the humanitarian partners have played in the year under review even beyond health matters especially in the North East conflict areas and other parts of the country.
The Minister noted that the ministry is responsible for the coordination and supervision of the development partners and agencies on health matters and emergencies, stressing that, the ministry has been enjoying and working in collaboration with the WHO and the country has benefitted immensely from the WHO and other partners support and assistance in many aspects.
He further promised to work assiduously and collaborate with the WHO and other partners in healthcare services and facilities across the nation, while thanking them for their support and assistance.
While the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs :Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq represented by a Director of the Ministry, Hajiya Zainab Dalhatu, said the ministry plays an essential role as the coordinating and supervising Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and other social development essential services across the country.
She noted also that the ministry does this in synergy and collaboration with the development partners, governments and agencies to ensure that the identified problems or challenges are addressed through proper coordination for the targeted population to benefit from the humanitarian projects, programmes and services to improve the living conditions of the people and address disaster matters by way of providing livelihood support and assistance to the people; especially, the vulnerable, IDPs and refugees .
The Minister explained further that the Ministry is also working closely with the ECOWAS and some partners on the missing people affected by insurgency, flood disaster and other conflicts or disaster, while appealing to the partners to improve on their collaboration and impact on the people; and vulnerable, including IDPs and refugees.
She called on the partners to improve on their support and associated towards sustainable livelihood support and bring lasting solutions to the conflict by way of working together in synergy with one another and working as a team in the North East region during the post insurgency era to achieve the master plan of the rebuilding project of the conflict North East zone.
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Director General, Ahmed Habib, represented by the Zonal Coordinator, North East, Mohammed Aji Usman, said the agency has been working effectively with all the development partners and state governments as well as relevant stakeholders of the North East region like WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, etc .
He noted that the agency works seriously in those states directly or adversely affected by the Insurgency and flood or fire disaster to assist and support victims and survivors of conflicts and disaster demanding for humanitarian support and assistance, who are vulnerable, internally displaced persons and refugees in the North East.
Adamawa and Yobe states commissioners representatives, Mr. M. Yakubu and Mohammed Lawan , in their goodwill messages, appreciated WHO and highlighted the positive achievements on state health sectors, particularly, areas of WHO support and assisted projects and programmes as well as medical and health facilities including emergencies responses while acknowledging the WHO collaborative support and appreciating WHO for its positive role during COVID-19, measles vaccine, malaria and cholera emergencies.
Representative of UN agencies, the UNICEF Health Manager, Borno State, Mr. Clement Adams said WHO in collaboration with other development partners have done a lot and still implementing healthcare projects and carrying emergencies response programmes positively in the North East, adding that all the partners have made significant impact in terms of emergencies response on health matters and the areas like education, girl child and gender based violence among others.
He also noted that UNICEF and other partners have been working closely with WHO, supporting ministries of health and responding to emergencies like cholera, COVID-19, measles, malaria, etc, while pledging continuous collaboration and marshalling assistance to the people of the North East to improve public health.
While the Chairman of Association of NGOs, Mr. Abraham called on WHO and other development partners to continue to empower NGOs in order to actively carry out their services positively.
Highlights of the meeting included, paper/reports presentations on PowerPoint, group photographs and interactive session with various stakeholders from Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states of the North East Nigeria.
