FG to partner Spanish govt on humanitarian issues

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs has solicited support of the Spanish Government for victims of humanitarian crisis and girl child education in Nigeria.

Addressing newsmen Monday in Abuja during a courtesy visit to the ministry by former vice president of Spain, Ms Maria Teresa Fernandez De La Vega, who is also president of the State Council of Spain and founder Women for Africa Foundation, and who was accompanied on the visit by the Ambassador of Spain to Nigeria, Mr Marcelino Cabanas.

Farouq said the vision of the ministry is to have social protection systems that are proactive, humane, inclusive and sustainable for the improvement and general welfare of the people.

She said: “The mandate of the ministry is to develop humanitarian policies and provide effective coordination of National and International humanitarian interventions; ensure strategic disaster mitigation, preparedness and response. Since its establishment, the ministry has focused on building its internal systems, structure and processes in line with local and international best practices.

“The priority areas of the Ministry are to:

Strengthen policy and institutional framework; build evidence-based systems; Optimise funding and resourcing opportunities. To also standardize monitoring and evaluation mechanisms; and mainstream the Social Development Goals in statistical, planning and budget systems.

“Funding is another area which we need your support. We look forward to collaborate with your country and Foundation. With support of people like you, we will be able to achieve what we need to achieve.”

Also speaking, Vega said she was at the ministry to present some of her projects, which are on women, and to launch some of them in Nigeria and expressed readiness to collaborate and support the ministry in its activities

“We would also like to work in the North East region of the country and collaborate with you in the area of trafficking; we believe our visit can be useful. Trafficking is also affecting us in Spain. We would want to train law enforcement agencies to handle trafficking and if possible increase the resources available for children and vulnerable groups.

“We are ready to support and mitigate on trafficking and education for women. We can do more trainings for Police Officers and other agencies by bringing them to our country to see and feel what we are doing. On prosecution of traffickers, we can train Nigerian Prosecutors to be able to carry out effective prosecution so that we can bring such perpetrators to book,” she said.

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