UN Earmarks $2.1bn as Humanitarian Aid for Lake Chad Basin

Reiterates commitment to peace in North-east

The United Nations has announced a decision to donate $2.1 billion in humanitarian relief for crisis response in the Northeast. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, Achim Steiner, said this on Friday in Abuja during a press conference at the UN National Human Development 2018 Report Launch dinner.

Similarly, yesterday in Maiduguri, Steiner and the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, restated the commitment of the world body to the return of peace to the insurgency-plagued North-east and the entire Lake Chad Basin. Addressing a press conference after their visit to places of intervention of UN agencies, both Steiner and Lowcock called on national and international partners to reinforce joint efforts to address the dire humanitarian needs of people in the north-east states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

At the Abuja event, Steiner explained that $1 billion was to be allocated for humanitarian aid while $1.1 billion would be set aside for development recovery oriented projects for the Lake Chad region.

“There is a challenge at the moment in the security dimension of the North-east region and that is a challenge that the government of Nigeria is trying to confront and the international community is also providing assistance for,” he stated.

According to the UN National Human Development 2018 Report, the status of human development in Nigeria has not shown remarkable improvement, in spite of the changes in the social and economic conditions in recent years. The report stressed that there had been gains in the proportion of the population with access to improved water sources, in addition to gains in the health sector for some antenatal care provisions, and declining HIV/ AIDS prevalence.

“On human security index, the report findings showed that the security index for the country is low, therefore this is a dictation that Nigerians are not humanly secured. The evolving posture here is that there is the likelihood that the low Human Development Index for Nigeria may be due to the low Human Security Index.”

Steiner added that the funds amounted to a strong endorsement of the organisation’s work to address both urgent humanitarian needs and the root causes of crisis, which is also an investment in a future where crises are less likely and nations are more resilient.

Also speaking on the report, Lowcock said the main message was that the international community wanted to get behind the leadership provided by Nigeria to tackle the problems, in collaboration with the federal, state, and local government authorities, civil societies, and the private sector.

“We are here because we understandthatinordertotackletheproblems, especially in the North-east, there needs to be both immediate, lifesaving assistance and also work to tackle the underlying the root causes, and that means recovery, resilience, and development and providing the people of the northeast with a better future,” Lowcock said. He added, “Most of the resources available in this country to tackle the problems of this country are Nigerian, and one of the issues the country faces is how to raise more domestic resources to finance public services and finance the governance of the country and keep the country safe.

“Compared to other countries, the resource mobilisation in this country is less strong and the proportion of the country’s national income collective in tax is unusually low.”

He added that Nigeria’s greatest challenge was inability to generate and allocate revenue to fund public services, which are necessary for the growth and development of the country.

Speaking in Maiduguri, Lowcock said, “We are committed to Nigeria and to the people of Nigeria. We are here to support the government’s leadership towards solutions in the North-east.

“Humanitarian aid can only be a temporary solution. I am pleased to be here with the UNDP Administrator to help join up humanitarian and development efforts to save lives, help stabilise the situation, rebuild lives and communities for the future.

“We must do everything we can to prevent this crisis from continuing for years.”

On his part, Steiner said, “We have a unique opportunity to make a real difference to communities across the North-east of Nigeria.” He added, “Helping people affected by the crisis requires us to work together – humanitarian and development organisations alike – to tackle immediate humanitarian needs and the root causes of the crisis.”