UNICEF Seeks Stronger Child Protection Systems As 6 In 10 Nigerian Children Face Abuse

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for stronger, more targeted child protection systems in Nigeria, warning that despite progress, millions of children remain exposed to violence, abuse, child marriage and exclusion from essential services.

Speaking at the opening of the Child Protection Mid-Year Review and consultations for UNICEF’s 2028–2032 Country Programme in Abuja, UNICEF Nigeria’s Chief of Child Protection, Natalie McCauley, said protecting children must remain central to the country’s development agenda.

McCauley stressed that the review was not merely about reporting programme achievements but about assessing whether interventions were making meaningful differences in the lives of vulnerable children.

“A review is not simply an exercise in reporting activities or presenting numbers; it is about whether our work is changing children’s lives,” she said.

She noted that while government-led and UNICEF-supported interventions recorded significant gains in 2025, including strengthening the frontline child protection workforce, expanding community child protection structures, supporting nearly 120,000 children with protection services, facilitating the release of more than 1,000 children from detention through diversion measures, and accelerating birth registration, national achievements often mask inequalities at the subnational level.

“A national result can conceal deep subnational disparities,” she said, urging stakeholders to identify children who remain beyond the reach of essential services, particularly those living in remote communities, children with disabilities, those affected by conflict, adolescent girls and children on the move.

According to UNICEF, the organisation’s new Strategic Plan for 2026–2029 represents the final push towards achieving child-related Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, with an ambitious target of protecting 350 million children globally from violence by 2029.

McCauley said the strategy requires a sharper focus on scaling proven interventions rather than spreading limited resources too thinly.

She emphasised that child protection is fundamental to children’s overall well-being, education and development.

“Protection is not an add-on to development; it is one of the conditions that makes development possible,” she stated.

On the second day of the consultation with government officials, development partners, civil society organisations and other stakeholders, UNICEF revealed that official national data show that six in every 10 Nigerian children experience some form of abuse, while only two in five children under five have their births registered. It also noted that two in five young women were married before the age of 18.

McCauley described the figures as more than statistics, saying they represent children whose safety, identity, education, health and future opportunities are at risk.

She, however, acknowledged progress made through government leadership in strengthening social welfare and justice services, expanding community protection structures, promoting digital birth registration, supporting diversion programmes for children in conflict with the law, and implementing national plans to end child marriage and violence against children.

She said the next UNICEF Country Programme must focus more on strengthening government systems, mobilising domestic financing and ensuring quality child protection services reach children at scale.

“This consultation is not intended to seek endorsement of a plan that has already been written; it is an invitation to shape the next programme together,” she said.

McCauley also underscored the need for greater collaboration across sectors, noting that children’s challenges cannot be addressed through isolated interventions.

“A child does not experience life in sectors,” she said, explaining that the same child may simultaneously face poverty, lack of education, child marriage, malnutrition and absence of legal identity.

She called for stronger integration between health, education, social protection, justice and humanitarian sectors through shared targeting, coordinated referral systems, interoperable data platforms and collective accountability.

“The measure of our success will not be the number of plans we produce or meetings we hold. It will be whether a child at risk is identified before harm occurs, whether every child is counted at birth, whether a girl can remain in school and choose her future, and whether families and communities receive the support they need to protect their children,” she said.

UNICEF said recommendations from the consultations will inform the development of its 2028–2032 Nigeria Country Programme and guide accelerated child protection actions in 2026 and 2027.