The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF says it plans to support 10 million children to access formal and non-formal education by 2027.
The UN agency mentioned that many children in Nigeria are deficient in many areas as the nation ranks 139 out of 15 countries in the Gender Index Gap.
The Communication Specialist, Dr Geoffrey Njoku, disclosed this in Kano State during a two-day media dialogue on new Country programme 2023-2027 and the status of implementation of the Child Rights Law 2003 in states.
UNICEF in National personnel Audit of the Universal Basic Education Commission had reported that the nation records increasing number of out of school children with an estimated 10.1 million of primary age school children .
Dr Njoku also said that the organisation supported 1.5 million girls to enter schools using a new evidence-based approach, while five million children continued learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He stated that this was achieved with the aid of radio, television and home based materials.
According to the UNICEF Communication Specialist, the vision of 2023-2027 programme for Nigeria, is “to ensure that the rights of every child in Nigeria especially the most excluded , to survive, thrive, learn, be protected and develop to his or her full potential”.
It also hopes to free the children from poverty in a safe and sustainable climate and environment.
The five-year strategic plan which began in January is to help Nigerian children who are left behind in developmental strides meet up with their counterparts in other parts of the world.
On Health
Dr Njoku disclosed that UNICEF has supported Nigeria in the vaccination of 30 million children in the last five years.
According to Njoku, the number of vaccinated children is part of the organisation’s country programme result for 2018-2022.
He added that the vaccinations were done through integrated campaigns against life threatening diseases.
“Fifty eight million children were vaccinated against polio, also we achieved zero dose strategy in 100 local government areas to reach underserved children across 18 states.
“Twenty two million children also received two doses of Vitamin A in 2022,” he said.
Njoku also said that the organisation facilitated birth registration for 7.4 million children under the age of five.
He also said that 2.8 million children living in conflict affected areas received psychosocial support.
WASH Strides
The organisation, intends to achieve the plan using the four major components of child survival (Health, Polio, Nutrition, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and HIV/AIDS), basic education, child protection and social policy and gender equality.
The plan has Universal Health Coverage (UHC), reduction of maternal neonatal mortality and rapid response to public health outbreaks as goals.
“By 2027, we want to have over one million additional children immunised (zero-dose), 15,000 additional community health workers trained, over 1,700 Primary Health Care facilities in 14 states meet PHC minimum standards.
“We also want to have state level and national capacities built to prepare and respond to public health emergencies.
“On nutrition, we project that we would have 50 million children aged six to 59 months receive Vitamin A twice a year.
“Also, 12.5 million women (50 per cent of pregnant women) receive more than 90 iron-folic acid tablets or micronutrient supplements in 19 states.”
Confidence Okwuchi
