By Saidu Adamu
Jalingo – Taraba stakeholders who would take charge of the implementation of Child Friendly Community Initiative (CFCI) programme newly established by UNICEF have agreed to form a high powered committee for smooth implementation of the pilot programme in Zing and Gassol local government areas of the state.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CFCI programme in the two local government areas is to empower and strengthen the capacity of local governments and rural communities to adopt child-centered practices and improve access to basic services that promote child well-being and development.
The agreement was part of resolutions contained in a communique issued at the just concluded CFCI Inception Meeting in Jalingo attended by officials of UNICEF and stakeholders from Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
The communique signed by the UNICEF Head of Bauchi Field Office, Mr Bhanu Pathak, and the stakeholders from the MDAs, said the joint committee when established at the state and local government levels, would strengthen the programme implementation in the selected communities.
The communique said the meeting has resolved to advocate for the commitment of the state to attain CFCI goals by ensuring line budget for the programme in 2020 supplementary budget and 2021 budget.
“Recognised the significance of child friendly communities and how this would impact on the survival, development and protection of the children of Taraba.
“Emphasised that CFCI should be scaled up by government across all communities of existing one ward in 2020 followed by all communities from additional two wards in 2021.
“Emphasised on the need to strengthen institutions at local government, ward and community levels for effective mobilisation and service delivery,” the communique said.
It called for the urgent need for the release of operational fund, particularly at local government area level for monitoring of community interventions and logistics for project implementation.
(NAN)
