Adamawa stakeholders involved in the implementation of UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Child Friendly Community Initiative (CFCI) programme have agreed on a task force for smooth implementation of the pilot programme.
The News Hawk reports that the CFCI programme in Fufore and Guyuk LGAs 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 is part of resolutions contained in a communique issued at the just concluded CFCI Inception Meeting in Yola attended by officials of UNICEF and stakeholders from Adamawa 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 task force should be established at the state and local government levels to strengthen the programme implementation.
The communique also agreed 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.
“Recognized the significance of child friendly communities and how this impact on the survival, development and protection of the children of Adamawa.
“Emphasized 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.
“Emphasized on the need to strengthen institutions at LGA, Ward and community levels for effective mobilization and service delivery,” the communique said.
It also made call for the urgent need for the release of operational fund, particularly at LGA level for monitoring of community interventions and logistics for project implementation.
