Mr. Edward Kallon, Head of UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, made this known on Wednesday during the United Nations Sustainable Development Partnership Framework, UNSDPF 2018 end of year Review and 2019 Work Planning meeting in Calabar, Cross River State capital.
Kallon, who was ably represented by Kwasi Amankwaah, Head of UN Resident Coordinator office in Abuja, during the opening of the 3-day meeting added that the commitment of Cross River cannot be seen or compared to any other state.
He said, “Cross River State has been with the UN – our partnership on the implementation of the UN DaO since we started the cycle in 2012. We have tested and done what we call the pilot ‘Delivery as One’ in this state and when we compare with the other states where we’ve worked, this is one of the State where we see that the government is very committed by bringing people together, doing the plan and implementing it together and reporting them together. So, Cross River is on top of it.”
He continued, “In terms of coordination, this is one of the few states where they have created special purpose Ministry to coordinate Development parties. It is nowhere in the country where we are working and because of that, when we go to other states, we bring people from this state to go and tell them how they are doing things in Cross River.
“Cross River is a special state and they have been doing this one in a special way, that’s why we ranked them as number one and that’s why we have to start everything from here. Everywhere we go we try to use Cross River as an example, because they are delivering, they are serious and we are also ready to help them do what they want to achieve,” he said.
L-R: Kwasi Amankwaah, Head of UN Resident Coordinator office in Abuja, a representative of Mr. Edward Kallon, Head of UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria; Kenneth Ehouzou, Head of UNFPA in Cross River State suboffice and the Lead for UN Delivery as One Programme in Cross River State
The UN Resident Coordinator further stated that the priority of the State is the priority of the UN. “What Nigeria determines to be their priority is what the UN will come in and support them. Therefore, Cross River State has determined some set of priorities like the areas on good governance, human rights, supply of services like education, health, HIV/AIDS, Nutrition, Social Protection, and said, these are the areas the government is looking at.
“So the UN agencies with the expertise are coming in to support the government to implement some of these interventions to alleviate and help the people live better lives,” he said.
Hon. Francis Ettah, Cross River State Commissioner for Ministry of International Development Cooperation
Speaking on behalf of the Cross River State Government, Hon. Francis Ettah, Commissioner for Ministry of International Development Cooperation said the State understands the policy and how it works. He added that the reason why the State is being scored 99% is due to coordination, commitment and performance.
According to him, “The 99% being made mention of is in terms of coordination. This is the only state that have been able to put up a novel initiative by creating Ministry of International Development Cooperation. The essence of that office is to coordinate all of these multilateral and bilateral that we are having and that is how we’ve been scored 99%. I am the pioneer in that industry and I don’t have a colleague in all the 36 states of the federation.
“We understand the policy and we understand how it works and we’ve learnt severally from them and there’s one policy they call ‘Delivery as One’, and it is on that basis that we were able to get those ideas. And the idea was that, if the UN as a lead agency have somebody coordinating all other UN agencies in Cross River State, why don’t we learn from them? And that is why the governor came up with the idea of creating this noble ministry whose sole purpose is in tandem with the Delivery as One as we have in the UN.”
He also said that, “Cross River has always considered herself to be a model in development partnership and cooperation. The State remains an attraction to donor agencies as a result of the enabling programming environment deliberately created by the State Government.”
He pleaded with the UN to come and site industries in the state to support Governor Ben Ayade’s industrialisation policy and programme.
On his part, Kenneth Ehouzou, Head of UNFPA in Cross River State suboffice and the Lead for UN Delivery as One Programme in Cross River State, said the partnership framework has about 8 UN Agencies that have put their interventions together to support the government of Cross River State and development her plans.
“Early this year we had a planning meeting to put together activities and intervention that we are going to carry out during the year in Cross River State with various MDAs, so, the meeting today is to review the level of implementation of all the plans that have been made and assess them to see how far we’ve come.
“We had about 154 activities and the plan cost about N1.2 billion. It’s a joint partnership between the state government and the UN agencies in Cross River State,” he said.
There were presentations on Overview of the New UNSDPF & UN Reform, Progress Report on UNSDPF Implementation (Year 1) & Overview of the Reporting Template, Overview of the New DaO Work plan Template and lots more.
Source: Calabarreporters
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