The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, says the ministry will focus on three areas aimed at supporting Project Lake Chad (PROLAC).
A statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Mrs Nneka Anibeze on Monday, April 12, 2021 in Abuja, quoted Farouk as saying this at a virtual Ministerial World Bank Group RoundTable on the Lake Chad Region.
According to her, the focus areas include regional and national coordination platform and local capacity building aimed at reinforcing regional dialogue and data collection and dissemination.
Others are institutional capacity building and knowledge sharing as well as Agriculture Investments and Value-Chain Development aimed at promoting public productive investments, value-chain development, citizen engagement and community participation activities in project areas.
The focal area is restoring rural mobility and connectivity which aims at improving access of communities to markets and to providing beneficiaries with an opportunity for short-term employment.
Farouq said that the ministry would also partner with the World Bank through the provision of a coordinated structure for the targeted management of vulnerabilities through the agencies and programmes under its supervision.
“The Lake Chad Region faces a combination of multidimensional risk factors which deepen vulnerabilities.
“From 2014, Boko Haram’s violent activities took on a transnational approach, spreading its terrorist attacks from Nigeria to Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
“This has created a humanitarian crisis, increasing the number of Internally Displaced Persons and refugees within the Lake Chad Region.
“While the drivers of fragility and obstacles to growth existed before the insurgency, the ongoing conflict has compounded the region’s difficulties,” she said.
Farouq explained that the Boko Haram regional conflict had triggered an acute humanitarian situation with devastating social and economic impact on the population.
According to her, direct efforts of the ministry through the National Humanitarian Coordination Committee is the provision of an enabling environment to support peace enforcement, peace keeping and peace building across the Nation.
By Collins Yakubu-Hammer
