Ms Juliet Chiluwe, Officer Incharge of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Enugu Field Office says social development is inseparable from the wellbeing of children, women and young people.
Chiluwe said this in Nsukka on Thursday in an address during the maiden international conference organised by the Institute of Social Policy, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).
The theme of the conference is ” Social Development in Sub-sahara Africa: Appraising the Commitment, Gains and Challenges of Achieving Social Development Through Target Development Goals”.
She said there could be no sustainable development without measurable improvements in their health, education, protection and opportunities.
“For UNICEF, social development is inseparable from the wellbeing of children, women and young people
.
“The global committment to the United Nations, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reinforces this imperative by placing equity, inclusion,and human capital at the centre of national development strategies, ” she said.
Chiluwe who was represented in the conference by Maureen Zubie-Okolo, Planning and Monitoring Specialist in the Field Office explained that in supporting these strategies, UNICEF’s social policy focuses on four interlinked pillars.
” Child poverty measurements and analysis, social protection system strengthening, public finance management for children and local governance.
“Through these pillars UNICEF has supported federal and state governments to initiate innovative strategies to poverty measurement using the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) approach.
“UNICEF has developed social development protection policies in about 20 states in Nigeria and currently supporting the expansion of the National Social Register.
“In order to capture more poor and vulnerable populations through
European Union funded project.
“UNICEF is also enhancing budgeting capacity at the federal and state level by introducing programmed-based budgeting to six pilot states as well as building capacity for staff of MDAs across all social pillars in Nigeria,” she said.
The officer in charge of Enugu office said UNICEF has over the years strong partnership with the academia particularly UNN that led to the establishment of the Institute of Social Policy, the first of its kind in Nigeria.
” I am confident that the deliberations and presentations at this conference will generate practical, forward-looking solutions to strengthen policies and system, enhance partnership and accelerate progress towards the 2030 SDG targets.
“UNICEF is committed to working along side government, academia and development partners to fast-track results for Nigeria’s children, women and youth because investing in them is investing in the nation’s future,” she added.
In a remark, Prof Simon Ortuanya, the Vice-chancellor of UNN said the theme of the conference is apt coming at a time when countries especially sub-sahara Africa countries should be making last efforts towards achieving SDGs goals by 2030.
“The various challenges in many countries in sub-sahara Africa do not give any assured hope that most of the goals will be achieved by the targeted date of 2030, “he said.
The VC who was represented by Prof Chidi Nzeadibe, the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences said that, the conference is timely to interrogate what has so far being achieved in SDG goals .
“I welcome all participants to this conference and wish you a happy deliberation believing that significant contributions will be made towards intensifying efforts and commitment towards achieving the goals of SDG in 2030.
” I particularly welcome UNICEF in this conference as well as commend the director of Institute of Social Policy in UNN and his team for planning and effectively executing this International maiden conference,” the VC said.
Earlier, Prof. Okey Ikeanyibe the Director, Institute of Social Policy in UNN said the Conference is aimed at providing platform for academia, policy makers, development and social partners, civil society, advocacy experts and other stakeholders to produce and share knowledge about pains, commitments, challenges towards realising the targets of SDGs.
Professor Ikeanyibe expressed hope that the conference would intensify efforts of government and other stakeholders in Sub-Sahara Africa towards the pursuit of social development through target and informed policies.
According to the director, the Institute was established in UNN to fill the huge manpower gap in policy mainstreaming in Nigeria especially in relation to social policy.
Our correspondent reports that the conference was chaired by Prof Raymond Adibe, a Lecturer at the Department of Political Science UNN.
Our correspondent also reports that some resources persons made presentations during the conference physically or virtually.