BEVERLY HILLS, February 14, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government, World Bank, European Union, and the United Nations have concluded a two-week recovery and assessment mission in the North-eastern states of Nigeria, as part of efforts to rebuild the region.
A statement by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Adviser to the Vice President on media and publicity, on Sunday, disclosed that the assessment is a pivot for the Recovery and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA) programme, which is a broad-based public sector recovery programme for the North East to leverage, synchronise and inform the financing initiatives and projects of Nigeria’s development partners, civil society organisations and private sector groups and organisations.
Led by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Mariam Masha, the recovery and assessment team visited Adamawa, Taraba, Gombe, Bauchi, Borno and Yobe states during which the team actively engaged with state governors, decision-makers as well as top government functionaries, civil society organisations, private sector players, traditional rulers, the IDPs, emergency management, humanitarian and relief agencies and other active partners in the recovery efforts in the affected states.
“In the course of the tour in the affected areas, the team of officials visited several camps and resettlement centres for the IDPs in the different states as well as insurgency – ravaged public institutions like hospitals, markets and military formations,” Akande said.
“The team also gained first-hand knowledge of human and physical conditions in the camps and resettlement centres affording them the opportunity to empathise with the people and also reassured them of the commitment of the Buhari administration towards addressing their challenges,”
He said the assessment mission was important because of the team’s top-level engagements with relevant stakeholders centered on sector recovery and needs assessment strategy in the three major components of infrastructure and social services, peace building, stability and social cohesion as well as the economic recovery of the affected people in the six states.
“The field visit by the technical and humanitarian experts from these critical global institutions primarily focused on validating the processes through which data are to be collected and how to develop internationally acceptable mechanisms to maintain contact with focal points in all the states,” he said.
It could be recalled that the Federal Government had last month unveiled the assessment programme, which is a joint, high-level collaboration between the Government of Nigeria and development partners – the World Bank, EU and the UN – aimed at supporting government in its short, medium and long-term efforts towards peace building and sustainable recovery in the North East region of the country.
It is a follow-up to the agreements reached with the North-East states in respect of the sector and component work plans, data collection modalities and timelines and provision of quantitative and qualitative information by the states.
Story by David Oputah
