Health
UNICEF Restates Commitment to Social Protection Policy in Nigeria
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has restated its commitment to the effective implementation of Social Protection Policy in Nigeria.
Ms Temi Esteri Fet’era, the Acting Chief, Social Policy, UNICEF Nigeria, made the commitment at the Validation Workshop on the Draft National Social Protection Policy on Monday in Abuja.
The workshop, which attracted Commissioners of Finance and Budget from the 36 states of the federation and FCT as well as other stakeholders was put together by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
According to Fet’era, UNICEF has being supporting the Social Protection Policy since the development of the policy in 2012 “when we were advocating for Nigeria to have this policy.
“This is because social protection has always been existing in Nigeria in some form, but it existed in a fragmented way, not well coordinated with a policy framework.
“Social protection is one of the core works of UNICEF in Nigeria. Things have changed and there is need to revalidate the policy to meet up with the current challenges and international best practice.
“Beyond the policy narration, is the implementation strategy on how we can go about this. Revalidation is a critical step in any policy development.
“One of the things we did beyond advocating for the policy framework in Nigeria was to support the capacity building of technical working group.
“However, this is the time for us to look, revised and assess. We need to be pragmatic and mindful of the new evidence on poverty.
“UNICEF as advocate of the rights of children will also encourage that everything we are doing, children’s needs need to be in focus.,’’ she said.
Fet’era, who is also the Co-Lead, International Development Partners Group on Social Protection, said that Nigeria was a signatory of the UN Convention on the rights of the child.
“You know, we have children facing all kinds of situations, like the IDPs in parts of the country, we have migrant children, some may not be Nigerian citizens, but live in Nigeria.
“Some are victims of forced migration or refugees; we need to ensure that all their views and needs are factored into the policy,’’ Fet’era said.
Speaking, Mr Clem Agba, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, said the purpose of the gathering was for the stakeholders to validate the drafted revised National Social Protection Policy.
According to him, it emerged from the concerted efforts of all relevant stakeholders.
Agba, however, encouraged all stakeholders to make meaningful contributions towards the actualisation of the objectives of the validation exercise in order to strengthen the special protection programmes in the country.
The minister stressed that government was determined to spend more on social protection, not only to reduce poverty but to stimulate growth and enhance empowerment.
Newsmen report that the policy to be validated contain five chapters.
While chapter one deals with Introduction and Guidelines on Social Protection, Chapter two looked at the overview.
Chapter three looked at the review of some of the social policy practices in Nigeria, chapter four talked about the prioritisation of the policy in terms of strategies, objectives, short, medium and long term activities to achieve the objectives on the four pillars.
Chapter five looked at the arrangement of the Social Protection Policy.
NAN also reports that the event attracted officials from Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, among others. (NAN)
Hundreds of millions of children and adolescents around the world face daily violence in their homes, schools, and elsewhere which could have lifelong consequences.The World Health Organisation (WHO) said this on Thursday.The violence includes being hit by family members, being bullied at school, as well as physical, emotional, and sexual violence, WHO said.
In most cases, violence occurs behind closed doors. More than half of those aged two to 17 or more than a billion minors in total experience violence each year according to the WHO. In three out of five children and adolescents, it is physical violence at home, with one in five girls and one in seven boys experiencing sexual violence.Between a quarter and half of minors are affected by bullying according to the information provided.Only half of the children reportedly talk about their experiences of violence and less than 10 per cent receive help.Lifelong consequences could include depression and anxiety disorders, or tobacco and drug use.As a result, many children do not reach their learning potential in school.Against the backdrop of being highly preventable, violence remains a horrific day-to-day reality for millions of children around the world leaving scars that span generations,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general.The UN’s first conference on violence against children opened in Bogota, Columbia on Thursday.At the two-day conference, more than 100 countries pledged to find ways to better support overwhelmed parents and introduce school programmes against bullying and for healthy social behaviour.They also pledged to raise the minimum age for marriage.Some countries wish to generally ban children from being hit at school or home. (dpa/NAN)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has listed 17 bacteria, viruses and parasites that regularly cause disease as top priorities for new vaccine development.WHO, in a study published on Tuesday, reconfirmed long-standing priorities for vaccine research and development (R&D), including for HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis – three diseases that collectively take nearly 2.
5 million lives yearly. The study is the first global effort to systematically prioritise endemic pathogens based on their regional and global health impact. Attention is also given to pathogens such as Group A streptococcus, which causes severe infections and contributes to 280,000 deaths from rheumatic heart disease, mainly in lower-income countries.Another new priority is Klebsiella pneumoniae — a bacteria that was associated with 790,000 deaths in 2019 and is responsible for 40 per cent of neonatal deaths due to blood infection (sepsis) in low-income countries.The new study supports the goal of ensuring that everyone, everywhere, can benefit from vaccines that protect against serious diseases.It aims to shift the focus in vaccine development away from commercial returns towards regional and global health needs, WHO’s Dr Mateusz Hasso-Agopsowicz, who works in vaccine research, said in a statement.He explained that in the past, vaccine R&D typically was influenced by profitability.“As a result, diseases that severely affect low-income regions received little attention.“We hope this represents a critical shift where we want to change the focus from commercial perspective profitability of new vaccines towards the actual health burden so that the new vaccine research and development is driven by health burden and not just commercial opportunities,” he said.To carry out the study, WHO asked international and regional experts what they think is important when prioritising pathogens for vaccines R&D.Criteria included deaths, disease and socioeconomic impact, or antimicrobial resistance.“We had asked experts that have expertise in pathogen epidemiology, clinicians, paediatricians, vaccine experts from all of the WHO regions, to ensure that the list and the results that we produce really reflect the needs of diverse populations worldwide,” Hasso-Agopsowicz said.Analysis of those preferences, combined with regional data for each pathogen, resulted in the top 10 priority pathogens for each of WHO’s six regions globally.The regional lists were then consolidated to form the global list, resulting in the 17 priority endemic pathogens for which new vaccines are urgently needed.To advance vaccine R&D, WHO has categorised each pathogen based on the stage of vaccine development and the technical challenges involved in creating effective vaccines.Hasso-Agopsowicz said the study is expected to guide future vaccine R&D investments, including funders, researchers and vaccine developers, and also policymakers as they “can decide whether to introduce these vaccines into immunisation programmes.” (NAN)
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan,has suspended the strike it embarked on Oct. 25.The workers resumed work on Friday morning.The seven-day nationwide warning industrial action embarked upon by the unions was to press home their demands ofadjustment of Consolidated Health Salary Structure as was done with the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure sinceJan.
2, 2014 and implementation of consultant cadre for pharmacists in federal health institutions. Others are upward review in the retirement age from 60 to 65 years for health workers and 70 years for consultants, andpayment of outstanding salaries of JOHESU members in professional regulatory councils.The UCH JOHESU Chairman, Mr Oladayo Olabampe, said that the strike was suspended as directed by the national body.He explained that “the suspension followed an MoU signed between JOHESU national leadership and Federal Government.“The Federal Government asked for a maximum of six weeks counting from Oct. 31, to meet our demands.“Based on the MoU signed, the JOHESU National Executive Council met and resolved that the strike be suspended on Fridaynationwide.”According to him, JOHESU UCH is obeying the order, and workers have resumed work.Olabampe said that if the demands were not met after the six weeks, they would embark on an indefinite strike. (NAN)
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