Femi Mustapha
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has faulted the
non inclusion of children in the Community-Based Targeting (CBT) process of Social register used in populating poor and vulnerable households across the country.
Dr Wilfred Mamah, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Kaduna, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Kaduna.
He said children should be given a voice during the process of generating the register.
Mamah said he wanted to see children leaders of tomorrow, contributing to decisions that concern them, maintaining that UNICEF will work with SOCU to see how that can happen during the CBT process.
He commended the Kaduna State Operations Coordinating Unit (SOCU), Planning and Budget Commission for capturing 680,888 poor and vulnerable households, made up of about 2.7 million in the State Social Register.
He pointed out that data management was critical in the child protection system strengthening, adding that UNICEF would support SOCU in developing and managing credible data of the poor and vulnerable in the state.
He said that the measure was crucial, as dealing with children were different from dealing with adults.
According to him, the state Child Welfare and Protection Law 2018, provides the needed legal framework in handling issues related to children in the state.
“But we have realised that some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have not been trained in the provisions of the law. This is a huge gap.
“For example, I am not sure issues of how to handle data related to children has been mainstreamed into the poor and vulnerable household data management system.
“Anybody can just ask for data, get it and mismanage it. This is why UNICEF will train SOCU officials on the intricacy of children’s data and how to handle it.”
He also said that the Ministry of Human Services and Social Development in charge of child protection was handling data on children differs from the data being managed by SOCU.
He stressed the need for working synergy between the two MDAs to share skills and understanding of children data management.
