FG hosts IDPs stakeholders’ forum October 27

The Federal Government will next week hold a two-day engagement forum with local and international stakeholders in Maiduguri, Borno State to chart the way forward on the rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East.

The forum being convened by the Presidency and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is to ensure an efficient coordination and create synergy of purpose in the humanitarian intervention efforts for the North-East, between Federal Government and Non-Governmental Organizations.

Themed “North-East Humanitarian Multi-Stakeholder Engagement: Coordination, Communication and Cooperation,” the event scheduled for October 27 is expected to establish a framework for coordination by bringing key stakeholders together to produce a blueprint for best practices and ensure an articulated response to emergencies and humanitarian challenges in the three most affected states of the North East; Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe States.

A statement from the media office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said the interactive forum with relevant international and local NGOs, development partners, aid and donor agencies would create an enabling platform to discuss the most efficient approaches to adopt towards complementing efforts of the Federal and State Governments with specialized services in the affected areas and thereby ensuring a sustained and coherent system for social services delivery in the region.

“It will put in focus, the desirability for complementary, results-driven, goals-targeted collaboration of efforts among the Federal and State Governments, Non-Governmental Organizations’ and other stakeholders within the framework of the Federal Government’s plan in both the short and long term.

“The forum will also strengthen stakeholders’ coordination and management efforts, in order to ensure that NGOs are provided with adequate capacity for optimal service delivery as well as services provided by these NGOs having the widest impact in target areas.

“Stakeholders are expected to deliberate on a workable draft that harmonizes the joint efforts concerned with the Internally Displaced and Nigerian refugees in general.

“This engagement forum with the active involvement of NEMA and other developmental partners is expected to achieve improvement in the coordination of relevant stakeholders, harmonized channels for supporting humanitarian assistance, mapping and endorsing sound protocol for sharing information between stakeholders and the public.

“Participating NGOs will be eligible for the grants programme of the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE), a program designed to run for 12 months with the goal of increasing the impact of NGO activities in the North East,” the statement added.