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| Mr. Jidawa presenting his address at the event |
A SPEECH DELIVERED
BY YOBE STATE PROJECT COORDINATOR,
MULTI-SECTORAL CRISIS RECOVERY PROJECT FOR NORTH-EAST NIGERIA (MCRP)
ALHAJI MUSA IDI JIDAWA ON THE OCCASION FOR THE FLAG OFF OF DISTRIBUTION OF
NON-FOOD ITEMS AND AGRICULTURAL INPUTS TO BENEFICIERIES, HELD ON THURDAY 11TH
JULY 2019 AT MAISANDARI, DAMATURU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA
Your
Excellency
The
Executive Governor of Yobe state
Hon.
Mai Mala Buni (Chiroman Gujba),
Your
Excellency
The
Deputy Governor of Yobe
Alhaji
Idi Barde Gubana (Wazirin Fune),
The
Hon. Speaker
Yobe
State House of Assembly
Right
Hon. Ahmed Lawan Mirwa,
The
Secretary to the State Government
Alhaji
Baba Mallam Wali Mni,
The
Head of Service
Surveyor
Usman Hassan Maraya,
Permanent
Secretaries,
Heads
of Boards, parastatals and extra ministerial departments,
Your
Royal Highness, the Emir of Damaturu
Alhaji
Shehu Hashimi II Ibn Umar El-Ameen Elkanemi
Community
leaders present,
Distinguished
invited guests
Gentlemen
of the press,
Ladies
and gentlemen,
It
gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this important occasion. Today,
we are here to witness the flag off of the distribution of transitional support
materials towards stabilization and self-reliance of targeted beneficiaries
across different communities in Yobe state.
Your
Excellency, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to crave your
indulgence to, first of all, reflect on the background of this project.
The
Multi-sectoral Crisis Recovery Project for North-East Nigeria (MCRP) is a
government of Nigeria project, funded by the World Bank and implemented in
three states of the North-East, namely: Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states. The
project aims to improve livelihoods of affected communities by facilitating
recovery from the negative effects of Boko Haram conflict, strengthen social
cohesion, and rehabilitate infrastructure and restore service delivery to the
people of North-East region of the country. The targeted beneficiaries include
IDPs, Host communities, Returnees and most vulnerable members of the society.
In
terms of implementation, MCRP is, at the national level, coordinated by Program
Management and Coordination Cell (PMC) under North-East Recovery and
Stabilization Program (NERSP), while at the state level, it is coordinated by
State Project Coordination Units (PCUs) and the project became effective in the
state January 16, 2018. The project is closely working with all relevant MDAs
and other key stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of interventions.
We are all aware
that, Boko Haram insurgency in the North East has affected nearly 15 million
people since 2009, and due to the violence, more than 20,000 lives have been
lost, and over two million people have been displaced. It may, therefore,
interest you to note that MCRP is a very comprehensive recovery project aimed
at addressing humanitarian and development challenges posed by the insurgency
which is also in-line with Yobe state Integrated Recovery plan tailored on the
principles of improving community’s physical, social and economic resilience.
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| Female beneficiaries waiting to collect their items |
The
project has four (4) key components as follows:
1. Strengthening Peace Building, stability
and Social Cohesion (to provide basic necessity kits, restore
access to productive assets by providing agricultural inputs and livestock for
farming families and trading commodities for non-farmers, establishing Peace
Groups in communities and implementing social cohesion activities.
2. Rehabilitation of Physical and Social
Infrastructure (in the areas of health, education, water
& sanitation, transport and public building).
3. Technical Assistance and Capacity
Building and;
4. Contingent Emergency Response
component (to will allow for rapid reallocation of project funds in the event
of a natural or man-made crisis in the future, during the implementation of the
project, to address such eligible emergency needs)
From
the aforementioned components of the project, it can be seen that MCRP is
designed in recognition of the fact that, as a result of BH conflict,
individuals have lost their productive assets and means of livelihoods, hence
the need for support and provision of household non-food items to the affected
populations. The conflict has inflicted huge damages and losses on the physical
infrastructure in the NE states, social services have been interrupted or
deteriorated in many places. Roads and bridges have been damaged, schools have
been burnt down, health facilities have been vandalized and looted, water and
sanitation infrastructure (including boreholes) have been damaged and public
buildings (including local government secretariats) have been destroyed across
the region. Therefore, the importance of MCRP component 2 in contributing to
the rehabilitation of infrastructure and restoring service delivery cannot be
overemphasized.
Distinguished
Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, today’s occasion marks the official flag off of
distribution of transitional support
to beneficiaries including IDPs, host communities, returnees and most
vulnerable people. The intervention is meant to increase and improve access to
basic necessity kits for stabilization and restore immediate access to
productive assets to restore means of livelihood. Under this transitional
support, we are reaching out to Eight
Thousand Nine Hundred and Sixty (8,960) beneficiaries in the eight (8) local
government areas of Gujba, Gulani, Fika, Potiskum, Damaturu, Tarmuwa, Gaidam
and Yunusari. The beneficiaries for this intervention were targeted through
vulnerability criteria application that is socially inclusive, pro-poor and
transparent, with local community participation in beneficiaries’ selection and
third party validation. As a matter of fact, 60% of the beneficiaries are women.
The female and child headed households, People with Disability (PWD) and
special needs were also prioritized.
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| The Agric inputs |
The
transitional support has four (4) packages
as follows:
i.
Non
Food Items (NFI) comprising of mattresses, cooking wares,
hygiene kits, clothes and mosquito nets (among others)
ii.
Agricultural
inputs including fertilizer, improved seeds and farming tools
iii.
Small
ruminants: Goats, sheep, and;
iv.
Non
Agricultural livelihoods kits which include small
non-motorized machines to re-start quick to market trading
Let
me use this opportunity to call on all beneficiaries to make good use of the
support to be provided and to resist any temptation to sell them and ensure
full utilization of the materials. An electronic token with Barcode is being
introduced for distribution of the materials containing adequate information on
the beneficiaries, items to be provided to them and their quantities. The token
system will also guard against impersonation and ensure adequate retrieval and
tracking for effective monitoring.
MCRP
is an accountable project and the first line of accountability is to the
beneficiaries. Therefore, a grievance redress mechanism (GRM) is inbuilt in the
project and is being implemented through Grievance Redress Committees in all
benefitting communities who receive complaints or grievances arising from
project activities and resolve justly at various levels from community to the
LGA and the PCU in a transparent manner for the interest of all.
At this juncture, permit
me to use this opportunity to inform this gathering that, in-line with our cardinal
objective of strengthening peace building and social cohesion, the project has
mobilized 78 communities in the frontline LGAs to form community and LGA peace
groups that will create convergence mechanism to promote social integration. We
will build the capacities of these groups in community peace building practice
to enable them initiate social cohesion activities such as cultural and
sporting events that will address key drivers of conflict. The groups will also
initiate and implement other social activities that promote common identities
and inter group relations, organize various violence prevention and
de-stigmatization campaigns as well as facilitate dialogue, conciliation and
mediation to promote peaceful coexistence and forestall reoccurrence of
violence.
On this note, I
would like to commend the understanding, commitment and support of the local
traditional leadership and the local government councils in the formation of
the peace groups at the community and LGA levels.
I am also pleased to
inform you that, our intervention for the restoration and improvement of
critical service delivery infrastructure will also commence soon. Already 58
sub-projects have been assessed under this component in the health, education,
WASH and public building sectors. Consultations with stakeholders and people
affected by the project were conducted in all the communities of intervention
to obtain feedback while the project sites have also been screened for
environmental and social impacts in line with World Bank Safeguard policies.
I am indebted to commend
the tremendous support rendered by Yobe state Government in facilitating the
smooth take off of the project in the state. The support are too numerous to
mention, but few to be highlighted are signing of the subsidiary agreement for
the commencement of the project in the state and provision of befitting office
complex. The government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have been
proving valuable information which informed our State Investment Plan (SIP) to
give strategic direction to our intervention.
I would like to,
therefore, call for continuous collaboration and synergy with the MDAs to
enable the project achieve its objectives. I am also extending similar call to
all our partners – the UN Agencies working in the state, International
Non-governmental Organizations, charities and foundations, local
non-governmental organization, traditional institutions and Civil societies.
Information sharing is very critical in planning intervention as it eliminates
duplications, waste of resources and energy.
I
cannot possibly end this address without thanking our guests from the national
office Abuja, MCRP Borno and Adamawa and all partners and stakeholders here
present for honouring us by attending this occasion. To all of you – MCRP
Yobe-PCU is grateful.
Let
me also thank the Maisandari Community Leaders and all the people of the
community for their support and cooperation.
Finally, on behalf
of Yobe MCRP Project Coordination Unit (PCU), I thank all of you for attending
this occasion. We sincerely thank His Excellency, The Executive Governor of
Yobe state Hon. Mai Mala Buni for showing personal interest in this project. We
wish you all, safe return to your various destinations.
Thank you for listening!
Masha Allah
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