Again, UN raises alarm over humanitarian crisis in N’East

Again, UN raises alarm over humanitarian crisis in N’East

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

The United Nations (UN) has raised the alarm again over the level of humanitarian crisis in the North East of Nigeria, saying that the protracted crisis, now in its ninth year, is exacerbating the prevalent high rate of poverty and deprivation in that part of the country.

The UN attributed the crisis to historical development deficit, poverty and climate vulnerability.

UN Resident /Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Mr. Edward Kallon, said this on Wednesday in Abuja during its fifth session of the high-level policy dialogue on development planning in Africa, tagged, ‘Mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals into National Development.’

According to the UN, about 14 million people have been affected by the crisis of which 8.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Kallon said that estimated 1.9 million people have been displaced by the crisis and 5.2 million people are currently in need of food assistance.

He observed that the event came at a challenging time when the Nigerian economy has registered negative growth for the fifth consecutive quarter.

Kallon said that the twin economic crises present challenges of unprecedented propositions, constricting the available resources for investments in development programmes and space for long-term development planning.

However, the envoy expressed confidence that the challenges present a moment of opportunity for Nigeria to address the shortcomings of the past, seek durable solutions and place the country on a positive growth as well as a sustainable and equitable development trajectory.

He said: “The choices we make today will have long lasting effect on the future of this great country. We can make it a memorable moment in time by embracing economic diversification, creating decent jobs and internalising the tenets of sustainable development.

“But we can also make it an unmemorable moment by continuing to operate in a business as usual manner.”

“Today’s occasion offers an excellent opportunity for us to dialogue on development planning in different countries and situational contexts, with the ultimate goal of realizing sustainable development in Africa.

He said that Nigeria alongside other 43 nation-states would present the outcome of the first National Voluntary Review of the Implementation of the Sustainable development Goals to the international community next month (July) in New York.

The UN resident Coordinator further noted that Nigeria and many other African countries have made incredible progress in aligning their national development visions, policies and plans to the SDGs.

He however, said that the continent still has a long way to go in mainstreaming the SDGs into National Development Plans.

Kallo appealed that there was need to deepen policy analyses around the SDGs, determining synergies and trade-offs between the goals and their relative importance in each African country, adding, “no one size fits all.”

He explained that the under the aegis of the UN Development Group (UNDG), chaired UNDP, the UN system has developed the Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) framework as a practical tool and common approach to its support to the implementation of the agenda 2030 for sustainable development at the country level.

In his opening address, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, said that Nigeria has made some progress in achieving some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Udoma, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Nana Fatima Mede, said that poverty incidence declined from 65.6 percent in 1996 to 33 percent in 2012/2013, adding that by 2012 Nigeria had reduced hunger by 66 percent which earned the country an international recognition in 2013 from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

He said that significant progress was also recorded on maternal health with improvement from the baseline figure of 1000 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 243 per 100,000 live births in 2014.