Stakeholders to raise $5bn humanitarian intervention fund – Minister

Some stakeholders have expressed their commitment to raise the sum of five billion dollars annually to support various humanitarian interventions in Nigeria.

The agreement was reached during a strategic meeting between Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Dr Betta Edu, United Nations agencies and other development partners at the UN House, Abuja.

This is contained in a statement issued to newsmen by Media aide to the Minister Mr Rasheed Zubair, on Wednesday in Abuja.

Edu explained that the meeting was aimed at building synergy to ensure coordinated approach towards achieving a sustainable solutions to Nigeria’s humanitarian response.

According to her, it was agreed that the sum of five billion dollars would be raise annually to support Nigeria’s efforts in this direction.

“Part of the resolutions of the meeting was the commitment by Nigerian government and other development partners to raise five billion dollars annually for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund in Nigeria.

“The meeting resolved to host the African Humanitarian summit which is a follow-up to the World Humanitarian Summit of Istanbul in 2016, joint field assessment by Nigerian government and other partners.

“Ensure a Quarterly humanitarian coordination meeting to provide a comprehensive report on Nigerian humanitarian situations as well as the creation of Nigerian Humanitarian Dashboard amongst others” she said

While conveying President Bola Tinubu’s appreciation to UN agencies and other partners for their immense contribution to Nigeria’s humanitarian response, the minister urged them to sustain the tempo.

Edu urged stakeholders to always work in synergy to ensure a coordinated approach towards achieving better outcomes.

She described as unacceptable a situation where various humanitarian agencies would work in silos.

According to her, this era is over because we need an effective and coordinated approach.

“Mr President always appreciate effort of UN agencies and other organizations working in the humanitarian space, but, we need to bring this effort in a more coordinated manner especially in the face of dwindling resources.

“Government would take the lead because proper coordination is required, 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.

“Government must take the lead to coordinate, to ensure that we are first in line with our priorities, and then secondly, we are meeting our targets.

She therefore urged stakeholders to always collaborate with relevant government agencies to plan and implement their humanitarian intervention programmes.

“Plan with government, implement with government, and let’s get the right results in the right direction because government will follow up.

“We would be proactive to monitor because we want to see results like I told you we signed a bond with Nigerians and that bond we will deliver on it together as a team” she said.

The Minister extoled the commitment of various humanitarian Ambassadors for support efforts towards addressing humanitarian crises in Nigeria.

“This is the first humanitarian coordination meeting in Nigeria which featured a heart-to-heart discussion in this UN House Abuja, the meeting brought all the humanitarian responders in Nigeria under one roof.

“Where stakeholders all committed to a durable and coordinated approach to humanitarian response in Nigeria.

“We engaged Ambassadors, UN agencies, Development Partners and other Non-Governmental organizations on their commitment to Humanitarian crises in Nigeria.

The Minister explained that, the meeting resolved to raise funds to strengthen capacities towards effective implementation of humanitarian response in the country.

In his remark, Mr Matthias Schmale, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria who spoke on behalf of the UN agencies expressed their determination to support Nigeria’s efforts in tackling its humanitarian crises.

Schmale said, the UN understands the enormity of the challenges at hand and the concern of the federal government to arrest the growing situations as quickly as possible.

“We have heard it 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.

“We are also to develop, review and implementation response plan and mobilise resources for country response as well as align to the Federal Government priorities” he said.

The meeting which was attended by the Ambassadors of Malaysia, Norway and United Arab Emirates (UAE) both expressed their committed to support Nigeria in its drive to address country’s humanitarian crises.