By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group ,NESG, on Thursday in Abuja signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, to eradicate child rights violations such as child poverty, malnutrition, child marriage , out- of – school syndrome, others in Nigeria.
The NESG and UNICEF partnership is aimed at building platforms to accelerate the agenda of child multidimensional poverty reduction bedeviling Nigerian children.
Chairman of NESG, Mr. Niyi Yusuf said that the problems that children in Nigeria face is multidimensional and complex so there is the need to scale up the solutions through different sectors and the leadership of the Federal and State levels.
Yusuf said, ” the NESG and UNICEF is to build platforms to accelerate the agenda of child multidimensional poverty and reducing the risks that our children face, adding that the Child multidimensional poverty report says that 2 out of 3 children face mulitdimentional poverty with 51% of all poor people being children.
“It is in health, stunted growth, infant/ child mortality, learning poverty and the over 20 million children who are exposed to violence.”
According to Yusuf, the Nigeria child faces a threat of many deprivations like health, education, societal environment violence, conflicts, water and sanitation.
If we do no act together, we will fail the future, we will raise an entire generation that is lost.
He future explained that the strategic vision is to reduce the number of children who are out of school, child marriage, money marriage and so on.
Today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders, and it is crucial that we tackle child rights violations and poverty in Nigeria to ensure their success, Yusufu said.
UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative, Cristian Munduate said that the partnership with NESG is significant as UNICEF is dedicated to protecting children’s rights not only in Nigeria but across the globe.
She said, ‘UNICEF is dedicated to protecting children’s rights in Nigeria and worldwide, and helping them build a strong foundation for their future. Our partnership with NESG highlights the urgency of realizing this goal and will coordinate efforts to achieve child rights protection in Nigeria through effective public policies.’
“Investing in children is investing in human capital. The right nutrition and care, especially during the first 1000 days of life, can have a significant impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn, and rise out of poverty. It can break the cycle of poverty for families, communities, and countries, and shape a society’s long-term stability and prosperity”, Munduate stated.
Meanwhile, the both UNICEF and NESG noted that the partnership will focus on aligning the nation’s poverty reduction strategy with the child and national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), review social sector policies to reduce child poverty.
Also, they would be implementing presidential-level accountability measures for reporting and feedback on child rights and poverty in Nigeria.
