Gombe Govt, UNICEF train LG officials to tackle child poverty
The Gombe State government through its Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has begun a three-day training for council officials in the state.
The training is geared towards combating the multidimensional poverty amongst children in the 11 Local Government Areas of the state.
Speaking during the workshop in Gombe on Tuesday, Dr Nuzhat Rafique, the Chief of Field Office at UNICEF’s Bauchi Field Office expressed concern over the high level of child poverty in the state.
Rafique said that the 2024/2025 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted in the state showed that seven out of 10 children in Gombe State experience multidimensional poverty.
She stated that in view of the challenge, many children in the state were being deprived of basic life necessities.
The chief said that the progress of Gombe State and Nigeria at large depended on how well multidimensional poverty amongst children was tackled.
She said that tackling child poverty remained key to ensuring that children in the state were better protected to grow well and contribute to the development of the state and country.
According to her, it is in that regard, that UNICEF is supporting the state to expand social protection programmes, improve healthcare access, and tackle severe child food poverty.
She further stated that UNICEF through the training would support the planning and budgeting exercise at the LGA levels towards tackling child poverty in the state.
“According to the data collected by the household survey, there are 7 out of 10 children suffering from some forms of multidimensional poverty.
” This is a high level of multidimensional poverty that we see in Gombe and other states as well.
“We don’t want any child to suffer any form of multidimensional poverty but 70 per cent of children are involved which is why UNICEF is involved.
“Some of the LGAs with high level of deprivations are Dukku, Balanga, Nafada.
“We want to concentrate on the most deprived LGAs but also within LGAs, the most deprived areas where children are suffering the most, reaching the poorest of the poor,” she said
On his part, Mr Jalo Ali, the Permanent Secretary, Gombe State Ministry of Finance who is also overseeing the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning urged participants to leverage the training to enhance their capacity.
Represented by Mr Musa Babaji, Director, Administration and Finance, Ministry of Finance, Ali tasked participants to have cross-sector thinking about the theme of the workshop, stating that poverty facing children in the state was multidimensional.
“It (child poverty) involves so many things reason it is called multidimensional therefore there is need for cross sector thinking.
“Such thinking that is focused on solutions that are measurable, practicable and people oriented to achieve the purpose of this workshop,” he said
The Statistician General of Gombe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Dule who was represented by Musa Umar, the overseeing Director, Economic and Social Statistics, Gombe State Bureau of Statistics gave the outcome of the survey conducted in the state with the support of UNICEF.
Dule said that the Gombe State General Household Survey conducted for 2024/2025 showed that 65 per cent of households in the state have access to drinking water.
He further said that 51.5 per cent of household in the state have access to improved sanitation with urban centres having 64.9 per cent while rural areas 43 per cent.
According to him, 50.5 per cent of household have access to electricity with urban having 74.3 per cent and rural 35.4 per cent.
“10 LGAs have severe food security issues which is a great cause of concern and should be looked into critically,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no fewer than 66 officials drawn from the 11 LGAs in the state are participating in the workshop.
