Humanitarian minister holds first coordination meeting with UN agencies, development partners

Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, hosted a historic meeting with Ambassadors, UN agencies, Development Partners, INGOs and NGOs at the United Nations House, Abuja on Tuesday.

The meeting aimed to foster a more effective and coordinated response to the humanitarian crises in Nigeria.

The participants agreed on several resolutions, including:

• Raising $5 billion annually for the Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund in Nigeria, with contributions from the federal government, other countries, private sector, donor agencies and the Development Partners.
• Hosting the African Humanitarian Summit, as a follow-up to the World Humanitarian Summit of Istanbul in 2016.
• Conducting joint field assessments by the government and partners.
• Holding quarterly humanitarian coordination meetings and producing Nigerian humanitarian reports.
• Creating the Nigeria Humanitarian Dashboard to monitor the progress and challenges of the humanitarian response.
Dr. Edu expressed President Bola Tinubu’s gratitude to the UN agencies and development partners for their immense contributions to easing humanitarian challenges in Nigeria. She also emphasized the need for the government to take the lead and ensure proper coordination of the humanitarian response.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu does appreciate the effort of the UN agencies as well as other organizations that are working in the humanitarian space. but we just need to bring this effort in a more coordinated manner so that we can achieve more, especially in the face of dwindling resources.

“There is a need for the government to take the lead and properly coordinate.The days of uncoordinated responses to the humanitarian crisis in Nigeria should be over.

“The days of operating in silos and duplicating efforts that lead to wastage amongst other things should be over. The government must take the lead to coordinate, to ensure that we are first in line with government priorities, and then secondly, we are meeting our targets. Plan with government, implement with government, and let’s get the right results in the right direction.

“Government will follow up. The government will be proactive, and the government will monitor because we want to see results. Like I told you, We signed a bond, so that bond, we will deliver on it together as a team. Yes, we will.” the Minister said.

She also reiterated the federal government’s commitment to reduce, prevent, mitigate, and respond adequately to the humanitarian crisis in Nigeria in a more coordinated manner, thereby reducing poverty by 50 per cent.

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, who spoke on behalf of UN agencies, expressed absolute support to the government of Nigeria in its effort to tackle humanitarian challenges facing the country and commended Dr.Edu for providing dynamic leadership in that regard.

“We’ve heard very clearly from you, honourable Minister, that humanitarian needs of course span the rest of the country.We are here as United Nations Agencies to support in ensuring proper coordination, develop review and implementation response plan, mobilise resources for country response as well as align to Federal Government priorities.”

The UN chief was optimistic that the “Renewed Hope Agenda of the government is leading the way forward in terms of Nigeria being able to deliver on the SDGS, and address humanitarian needs”

The Ambassadors of Malaysia, Norway and United Arab Emirates, among others, also pledged to support Nigeria in a more strategic way to address humanitarian crises.