The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Adamawa State Government are developing an implementable policy document aimed at addressing the challenges of more than 998,000 poor and vulnerable individuals in the state.
The individuals have been captured in 330,000 poor and vulnerable households of the state in a social register.
One of the processes of developing the social protection policy was through a two-day workshop, consultation with the State Technical Working Group (TWG) organized by UNICEF and held in Gombe to harvest inputs from various sectors towards formulating a document for the state.
A recent report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), according to Kwaji Duguri, Adamawa State Coordinator, State Operations Coordinating Unit, Adamawa State has a poverty rate of 74.4 per cent meaning that 7 to 8 in ten people are poor in Adamawa State.
He said the workshop is a thorough engagement with various sectors targeting different interests adding that the plan is developed in such a way that it could be implemented easily targeting the right persons.
“This policy we are trying to build is from the scratch, from bottom to top, something that is homegrown and will reflect the reality in the State”, Kwaji said.
The majority of these poor and vulnerable persons are children, women and many other less privileged people with disabilities.
Shedding more light on the Adamawa State Government’s plan for the social protection policy, the Permanent Secretary of the Adamawa State Planning Commission, Isah Ardo Shehu (MNI), said the process of identifying the poor and vulnerable in the State had been ongoing and will make up the social register.
According to him, though nothing specific for the targeted poor and vulnerable, Government definitely has something for them.
