UNICEF Tasks South-south Govts on Improved Budgetary Allocation for Children-sensitive Programmes 

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged the South-South zone governments of Nigeria to improve on the budget for sensitive programmes for children in their various states.

The call was made yesterday, at a one-day Stakeholders South-South Zonal Policy Dialogue on Child Sensitive Budgeting, organised by UNICEF in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

In his address, Dr. Anslem Audu, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Port Harcourt, said the agency gathered the stakeholders from the six states of the zone to deliberate on how to improve on the budget allocated for children programmes in the various states annual budgets.

He said UNICEF has the mandate to accelerate results for children, stressing that the stakeholders were cross fertilising ideas on how to deliver for children using the instrument of their budget.

Audu explained, “We have called the Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, relevant ministries in the six South South states to come and have high level dialogue on how to deliver for children using the budget of their sectors, because once you budget for children sensitive programme you are already building the nation as they are the future leader.”

He disclosed that “We are already engaging all the governor’s to ensure that their budget for children are not just budgeting, but that they also release increased budgets for children sensitive programmes.”

In his presentation, Dr. Muhammad Okorie, Social Policy Manager with UNICEF, solicited for an improved budget that will better the wellbeing of children across the zone.

He also advocated that the governments from the zone should be intentional in targeting the needs of the people and utilising their budget efficiently and effectively to address those needs.

“Our clear massage here is, as government counterpart, as key stakeholders either as members of House of Assembly, or commissioners or permanent secretaries of the key social sectors, how do you use the instrument of the budget to ensure a better wellbeing for everybody and this cut across health, education, water sanitation and hygiene, nutrition, social protection and all other areas.

“This meeting is very important, is a policy dialogue where we brought stakeholders in the states in South-South region and the issue we are talking about is how we will use the State budget to improve the lives of the people within the region.

“We are looking at social budgeting. A budget that involves everybody, that addresses the needs as highlighted from different evidences, just like the multidimensional poverty index we have shown and other evidences that showed that people are actually deprived in different aspect of life.”

Speaking with journalists at the programme, Dr. Peter Mede, Rivers State Commissioner, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, noted the need for regional governments to share views and see what other states are doing better in terms of poverty reduction, malnutrition, out of school children. 

Mede said as donor partners and development agencies, the participants have been able to see where and what they are going to budget.

He said, “We are here for a policy dialogue to do what we can put together to be able to enhance the development of the girl-child, boy-child and the women. UNICEF is very concerned about what we do in terms of policy to be able to improve on the outcomes in terms of the deliverables that can help improve children and women in our respective states.

“We are here to dialogue on how to improve our respective budgets and to deal with those structural rigidity that could affect the implementation of our budget and even when the budgets are properly implemented, how the budgeted funds are utulised, so that the outcome in terms of children development is achieved.”

On.his part, a member of the Cross River House of Assembly and Chairman House Committee on International Donor Support and SDGs in the House, Charles Omang, said the workshop was deep because of the collaboration between the Executive and the Legislative arm of government and International agencies like UNICEF that brought them together.

“The legislative is very critical in terms of budgetary as it affects children. We all grew up as children and our parents took care of us. So it is our responsibility to take care of children, not just our biological children but children of our various states,” he said.