Stakeholders in the affairs of budgeting in six states in the Northeast have called on governors in the region to give more attention to issues of women and children in their respective states through adequate budgeting for child sensitive sectors.
The stakeholders made the call yesterday during a panel discussion at a two-day North-East Nigeria Zonal Policy Dialogue on Social Budgeting for Child Sensitive Sectors held in Gombe.
The stakeholders stressed that policies of education, health, nutrition (exclusive breastfeeding, good dieting) and WASH must be adequately provided and implemented for a healthy future.
During the decisions anchored by UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office Communications Officer, Opeyemi Olagunju, the stakeholders from the six states of Bauchi, Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe as well as specialists from UNICEF, agreed that the annual allocations for child-sensitive sectors will translate to a better future.
Each of the discussants who included commissioners and permanent secretaries were of the opinion that states must go back and domesticate the social protection policy and strengthen it.
The panel also agreed that with the domestication of the social protection policy, the negative effects of child abuse would be drastically reduced.
They however expressed fear about the whole implementation of the social protection policy pleading with the relevant stakeholders in child protection issues to see to its domestication and implementation.
