By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
A donor arm of the Canadian Government, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) have commended Bauchi State Government for its sustainability plan to continue and replicate interventions carried out by GAC.
The commendation was given by the new head of Development and Cooperation of the Canadian High Commission in Nigeria Djifa Ahado, when she paid a courtesy visit to Governor Bala Mohammed at the Government house Bauchi Tuesday evening.
Ahado said GAC was delighted by the commitment of Bauchi State Government in not only continuing with its intervention in the state, but also replicating it across the entire state.
Though she lamented the persistent maternal, newborn and child mortality and morbidity in the state, Ahado expressed her hope that concerted efforts be intensified in reversing the trend. She particularly stressed on the need for the state government to strengthen its human resource for health and infrastructure network to make quality health care services accessible to people, especially those in the core rural areas.
She also disclosed that because of the successes recorded in some of the interventions in the state, GAC intends to make Bauchi State reference point and model to be studied by other states in Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Chief of UNICEF field office Bauchi Dr. Tushar Rane said the Government of Canada has made available the sum of Three Million Dollars assistance to the Bauchi State Government to fast track and strengthen women and children engagement, geared towards making quality health service accessible which implementation has been ongoing.
Dr. Rane who was represented by the Health Specialist in the field office, Emmanuel Emedo, said the 3 Million Dollars was meant to strengthen the implementation of some of the ongoing interventions of GAC and other partners in health care services in Bauchi State that was captured in an MoU signed by both parties.
“We are working through the Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency and other partners in the MoU, and we are working in all the 323 wards of the state empowering women for their engagements in health service delivery,” he said
In his response, Governor Bala Mohammed expressed gratitude to Global Affairs Canada for its viable interventions in the state and choosing Bauchi State to be a reference point and model to be studied by other states, saying, “the state will jealously guard the ranking and not take it for granted”.
He said the state government has developed a robust sustainability framework to ensure that gains recorded from development partners does not wither away as interventions exit.
Governor Mohammed appreciated GAC their intervention in the rice, groundnut and soybeans value chain under its MEDA Nigeria-WAY Project that is being implemented 7 LGAs of the state. He also acknowledged the positive impact of the Livelihood Empowerment Program being implemented in the state by Oxfam Nigeria
He then assured the delegation that the state has since commenced the understudy of the implementation processes of the interventions with a view to sustaining and replicating the same across the entire state.
He informed the delegation that the State government, through the Agency for Microfinance has designed a program tagged MIFIN in an effort to pick up from where GAC intervention ends.
He assured government’s resolve towards meeting its obligations in all arrangements made with its partners.