Day: April 5, 2023

Promad Foundation, a civic tech nonprofit organisation, has called for the domestication of the National Youth Policy (NYP) 2019-2023 by the remaining 34 states for effective youth civic participation .

Mr Daisi Omokungbe, Founder and Executive Director of Promad Foundation, made the call at a news conference to launch a Research Policy Memo on Accelerating Youth Civic participation and Development said only Lagos and Rivers have domesticated.

Omokungbe said that the research launched by Promad Foundation was with support from LEAP Africa and the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund (NYFF) in Abuja.

He said that the call for nationwide domestication of the NYP was imperative following the implementation of the foundation’s Accelerating Youth Civic Participation and Development (AYCP) project in FCT.

He said that the project was a youth component of the foundation’s Grassroots Advocacy Project (GRAB) that focused on community needs assessment for budget making, enhancing citizens’ opportunity to nominate projects that meet the needs of their communities into the budget.

“AYCP project attracted educated and mobilised youth across the six area councils for civic participation such as in the 2023 general elections, collection of community and youth needs assessment data.

“They were empowered to track projects in their communities to drive participatory and accountable governance in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) and #TheNigeriaWeWant.

“We have engaged young people at community levels and held town hall meetings ,we conducted survey on youth civic participation and development challenges through the deployment of our home-grown civic-tech needs assessment platform http://grap.org.ng.

“It targets young people mostly at the grassrrots ,as well as qualitative interviews among others which led to the production of this research policy memo.’’

Omokungbe said that the policy memo examined youth civic participation and development in the nation’s capital ,it assessed youth related issues and grouped the findings into three major categories.

He said they were :access to economic power,civic and political participation and inclusion ,and youth and electoral violence.

He said that the policy document itemized issues affecting youth civic participation in the FCT which spurred participation of youths in the 2023 elections.

“This is part of our contributions to leading new policy advocacy for young people’s inclusion and empowerment to play new roles in the Nigeria we want as a new administration will take off.’’

Omokungbe said based on the forgoing ,there was need for empowerment schemes to address youth needs and priorities.

He added that youths must be at the front and centre of their budget formation adding that there should be a budgeting framework that allows youths to nominate the projects and programmes they need according to their collective priorities in the budget .

He added that young people must organise to pursue their cause and the government and leaders understand that youths are the majority and they can achieve anything they want in togetherness.

He called for the need to leave no youth behind and also called for increased funding for education and innovative programmes because a well-educated youth is important in achieving the SDGs.

Mr Afolabi Kolawole, NYFF Grants Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, said that the needs assessment was important for the development sector ,government and other stakeholders for proper planning .

Kolawole said that youth inclusion and empowerment would enhance development adding that the reasech document would help for proper intervention in youths issues.

“What Promad Foundation has done will help Federal Government work for youth development in Nigeria, and carry youths along to contribute to national development,” he said.

Mr Haruna Godiya, Programmes Coordinator LEAP Africa, commended the work done by Promad Foundation by using data to drive home issues around youth civic participation

Godiya said that the research to light the challenges faced by youths and how they could be tackled in the FCT and beyond .

He said that the document would be used as an advocacy tool for the federal government as well as for states to adopt the NYP among others.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NYP represents a declaration and commitment to the priorities, directions and practical supports that a country intends to provide for the development of its young men and women.

It is a concrete and bold step to put the development and participation of youth at the center of national development efforts.

It is indicative of the readiness of the Government and people of Nigeria to meet the needs and aspirations of the youth as well as seek a solution to their problems.

It sets guidelines and provides the framework for all stakeholders to empower the youth to realise their potentialities and take advantage of the opportunities available to make positive contributions to the well-being of their communities across the entire country.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Federal Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD/FG), on Wednesday launched the design of new Country Strategic Opportunities Programme, 2024-2029, (COSOP) for transformation of Nigeria’s agriculture food systems.

Mrs Dede Ekoue, Country Director, IFAD-Nigeria, identified COSOP as a roadmap for the implementation of IFAD’s mandate for inclusive and sustainable rural transformation focusing on small holders farmers in line with food system approach.

The Country Director said this during the National Technical Launch of Nigeria-IFAD COSOP Formulation in Abuja.

According to her, the 2024 to 2029 COSOP design process adopts a highly consultative participatory and inclusive process that solicits the views of broad range of stakeholders from the government, small-scale farmer representatives, farmer organisations, private sector and development partners.

Ekoue said the measure was to ensure that COSOP is alive to the needs and aspirations of the people and cognisant of the prevailing challenges, opportunities, resources and technological requirements to meet the people’s expectations.

“in this regards the launch today therefore marks a key milestone toward meeting these objectives and signals the start of the engagement process.’’

She said the programme, as a transformative approach for sustainability and scale up results, will enable the rural poor and smallholders farmers to pull themselves out of poverty.

“COSOP is a cooperation strategy between IFAD and a member country which identifies the key objectives and development results to be pursued during a timeframe of five to nine years.

“It takes into consideration country’s fragility and vulnerability to natural and man-made shocks, or weak governance structures, mainstream gender, youth, nutrition and climate resilience.

“Partnerships strategy with private sector for empowerment of the rural poor and the small holders and agrifood system transformation.”

She noted that the current COSOP, 2016 to 2023, whose goal was to have a rural economy in which the targeted population can derive prosperity and equal benefits from economic growth have had huge successes.

She assured stakeholders that COSOP would have adequate salient features that focuses on smallholder farmers, enhances innovation, builds in transparency, assesses fragility and vulnerability.

“It also identifies the right targets and builds partnership strategies with development partners and private sector actors.

Ekoue said “COSOP will assess risks and purpose mitigation strategies and learn across board through the south-south and triangular cooperation in order to create an enabling environment for the development of inclusive and profitable agricultural value chains.

Dr Faniran Sanjo, Convener, UN Food System Transformation Pathway for Nigeria, said COSOP was informed based on the call by the United Nation Secretary General António Guterres in 2020 on all countries.

He quoted the Secretary General as calling on all countries to look inward and come up with issues that are affecting food systems and to change the narrative.

Sanjo, also the Director Social Development Department, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, said Nigeria joined other countries and held dialogue across all the length and breadth of the country cutting across geopolitical zones.

He said “three levels of dialogue were held one for policies makers, one across the zones and we crown it up with national consultative dialogue that brought about all the issues that are affecting food system.’’

“We came up with recommended solutions presented by President Muhammad Buhari at the 2021 UN Food System Summit in New York.

He revealed that at the moment, implementation of the programme has commenced with the involvement of one state as coordinator of each of the six geopolitical zones.

He also identified Lagos State as coordinating for South west, Kwara coordinating for North Central, Kano state coordinating for North West, Enugu coordinating for south east, Akwa-Ibom coordinating for south south, while Borno state is coordinating for north east.

“Each of the states have set up machinery to ensure that the coordination cut across all the areas.

“We have also constituted a stirring committee, Permanent Secretaries of Ministry of Agriculture, six states being chaired by the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, and Co-Chaired by Country Director FAO, IFAD and World Food Programme (WFP),’’

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the Taliban ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations (UN), describing it as violation of their inalienable fundamental human rights.

Guterres in a statement by his Spokesperson, Mr Stephane Dujarric, said the latest escalation of the de facto authorities’ suppression of women violated their obligations under international human rights.

“It violates Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law, and infringes on the principle of non-discrimination, which is a core tenet underpinning the United Nations Charter,” he said.

Since overthrowing the democratically elected Government of Afghanistan in August 2021, Taliban leaders have steadily eroded the rights of women and girls in public life.

It has ended the right of women and girls by introducing a ban on secondary schooling, higher education, working for non-governmental organisations, and their rights to freedom of movement.

Bans are already in force preventing them in effect from working, studying, and travelling without male chaperones.

The UN chief said that female staff members were essential for all UN operations, which are directed by the Assistance Mission in the country, (UNAMA), and which include the delivery of life-saving assistance.

“The enforcement of this decision will harm the Afghan people, millions of whom are in need of this assistance.

“The secretary-general calls on the Taliban to immediately revoke the decision and reverse all measures that restrict women’s and girls’ rights to work, education and freedom of movement,” he said.

In the same vein, Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed, described the latest escalation of the de facto authorities’ suppression of women, as a violation of their inalienable fundamental human rights.

Speaking with journalists at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday, ahead of a sustainable development report briefing, Mohammed recalled the plight of women in Afghanistan in her last visit to the country.

The UN deputy chief said that she had met many of the women now facing a ban and the loss of their livelihoods, in a visit to Afghanistan at the beginning of the year.

“We reiterate that both Afghan women and men are essential to all aspects of our work,” she said, adding that the UN is taking all possible measures right now to support its national female staff at this difficult time.

She said UN national female staff would continue to receive their salaries, but until further clarification is received, all national staff – both men and women – are being told not to report to the office.

Mohammed said she had been involved in a meeting with the Foreign Affairs minister of the de facto authorities on Wednesday morning.

She pledged that UN leadership would continue to engage with Taliban representatives, as well as neighbouring countries” to resolve the latest human rights infringements.

The President of the General Assembly, Csaba Korosi, also strongly condemned the move, calling it a “blatant violation” of women and girls’ human rights.

“The consequences of this decision would harm the Afghan people, in particular the most vulnerable segments of the population,” he said.

He noted that Afghanistan needed to get on the path towards sustainable development, “and for that, it should mobilize the country’s full potential.”

Also, the UN human rights chief Volker Türk, described the latest erosion of rights for women in Afghanistan as an “utterly despicable” move.

“This is a systematic, relentless assault on the people of Afghanistan as a whole by the Taliban”, he said, who he said seemed to be working to incapacitate, intimidate and harass half of the population.

He called on the leadership to rethink all of the restrictive policies introduced to curb women’s rights, for the sake of the future of the country.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria