The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Sustainable development goal

  • ‘Why we’re committed to gender-balanced workplace’

    Multinational firm PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc has reaffirmed its commitment to the advancement of affirmative action as panacea for an all-inclusive development as enshrined in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 5).

    Its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Christos Giannopoulos, said as a company dealing in beauty care and household products, women in the company had contributed immensely in providing consumer insights and crafting winning marketing strategies.

    He spoke at a colloquium organised by PZ Cussons to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD).

    The event, which held in Ilupeju, Lagos,  explored ways to fast-track gender parity for a balanced world.

    Giannopoulos said PZ Cussons was an equal opportunity employer and that opportunities were opened to all, irrespective of their gender. And to underscore this fact, PZ Cussons’ Global Chairperson, he said, is a lady.

    PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc Executive Director, Human Resources and Administration, Ms Joyce Folake Coker, also said the company decided to join the global community to celebrate the event as part of its responsibility to set and drive the momentum towards achieving a more gender-balanced and enabling workplace.

    “For a long time, PZ Cussons Nigeria prides itself as a company with a number of women on its Board and it has women in both senior managerial and other positions,” she added.

    The key guest speaker, Chief Nike Akande, reminded the audience that women remained the foundation of any society and called for action to accelerate gender parity.

  • SDGs: Nigeria may miss 2030 deadline on sanitation, access to safe water

    Nigeria may likely not meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 6, with the continuous decline in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), it was learnt.

    The SDG goal 6 states that countries must achieve universal and equitable access to potable water for all achieve access to adequate sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation.

    The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 5) has revealed that access to basic sanitation has steadily reduced in Nigeria between 2000 and 2015.

    This is as 70 million people still lack access to potable water despite efforts by governments and partners.

    The survey also revealed that open defecation has worsened between 2010 and 2015.

    According to the report, Sanitation in the country is quite alarming, as over 110 million people lack access to improved sanitation in 2013 while about 46 million people still practice open defecation.

    Open defecation and poor hygiene have been linked to increased diarrhoea cases, which in turn affects the nutritional status of children. Every year, an estimated 124,000 children under the age of 5 die because of diarrhoea.

    Though there are efforts to address the situation through the European Union (EU) assisted Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Project (WSSSRP) has continued to build strong institutions and systems for effective and sustainable water services delivery.

    Six states which include Anambra, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano, Osun and Yobe states are benefiting from the initiative.

    Speaking during a recent media dialogue on WASH in Anambra State, a specialist with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mainga Banda, said about 130 million Nigerians use unimproved sanitation facilities, with majority of them living in rural areas.

    Read Also: Soldiers embark on sanitation, sweep Kaduna streets

    Mrs Banda, while quoting the MICS5 published in 2017, said that over 46 million people still practice open defecation, which ranks Nigeria 3rd among countries in the world with such people.

    She said, “Despite all effort, sanitation is declining instead of improving and this calls for concern. The trend in water availability between year 2000 and 2015 revealed that the gradient is going up instead of declining, same with sanitation especially in the rural area.

    “WASH plays a critical role in improving health, nutrition and hygiene in Nigeria. So it is a necessity for Nigeria to curb issues of water borne and sanitation related diseases to meet its SDG 6 by 2030,” she said.

    Mrs Banda also noted that most people in rural areas still lack latrines, basic hand washing tools, among others, ”which if not provided will keep worsening sanitation in the country”.

    A visit to Ononaku Ezinifite, a community in Aguata LGA, Anambra State with over 2,000 residents, reveals the benefit of the project to the people, especially those in the rural communities.

    The secretary, WASHCOM unit in the community, Ike Christian, said the project has relieved them (residents) of a lot of stress.

    He noted that before the introduction and completion of the project, children used to go to a distance to fetch water for home use and ”people made use of the nearby bushes to defecate.”

    Mr Ike said since the provision of the facilities, there has not been reported cases of any water-borne disease in the community. He added that people now take care of their environment “because of the orientation they are getting from WASHCOM officials in the community”.

    He also said the officials are making efforts to ensure that the facility is secured.

    A resident of the community, Nathan Ofoma, said since the completion of the project, people no longer defecate openly.

    He laments that before now, residents rely majorly on rain water  “as there is no single river in the community”.

    The Programme Manager, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Ministry of Public Utilities and Water Resources, Anambra State, Ezekwo Victor said the state government was committed to WASH. He also said they have ”completed 33 water supply schemes, the compilation of phase 11 rehabilitation works for non-functional boreholes, among others.”

    He noted that the state has also rehabilitated 116 non-functional boreholes across the state.

    The project was co-funded by EU and the Anambra State government with 70 per cent EU/UNICEF support and 30 per cent from the state government. It was a public procurement concept awarded to the lowest bidder.

  • Nigeria needs $8b for Sustainable Development Goal

    Nigeria needs $8 billion annually to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) by 2030, the Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), UNICEF, Zaid Jurgi, has said.

    Jurji noted that currently, over 60 million Nigerians still lacking access to potable water.

    In Nigeria, half of its over 170 million citizen’s lack access to potable water. While many of the residents of the urban areas provide water for themselves by either constructing boreholes or buying water from those who construct, millions who live in the villages still get their water from streams and rivers.

    This, he said, has necessitated the call for more investment to ensure access to safely managed water.

    SDG goal 6 aims at ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.

    Jurji spoke yesterday at a media dialogue on water supply and sanitation sector reform project, organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with the Child Right Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

     

  • World water week 2017: African ministers spotlight wastewater management

    World water week 2017: African ministers spotlight wastewater management

    African Water and Sanitation Ministers attending the 2017 World Water Week in Stockholm, have resolved to adopt and promote effective wastewater management across the continent

    In a statement at the opening plenary in Central Stockholm, the ministers underlined the importance of wastewater to the region’s aspirations for economic growth and sustainable development.

    The statement was made available to News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.

    According to them, improved wastewater management is not only critical to achieving the Africa Water Vision 2025 and the Sustainable Development Goal on clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), but also to other goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

    Gerson Lwenge, the Tanzanian Minister for Water and Irrigation and President of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), recalled that African ministers responsible for sanitation took proactive steps before the end of the MDGs era in 2015 by adopting the N’gor Declaration.

    He said it entailed a commitment that Africa would “progressively eliminate untreated waste by encouraging its productive use”.

    He said to actualise the potentials of turning waste to benefits Africa needed to create the right policy environment and move from policy to effective implementation.

    “It is on this basis that the High-Level Ministerial Panel at this year’s Africa Focus Sessions will explore possibilities of using science to enrich policy making and increase policy implementation efficiency,” the AMCOW president added.

    The Senegalese Hydraulic and Sanitation Minister, Amadou Faye, said that this year’s World Water Week and by extension the Africa Focus Sessions would provide a global platform for the ministers to “discuss policy options and enabling factors that support the adoption and implementation of innovative wastewater management approaches and technologies.

    Dr Mohamed Abdel-Atty, the Egyptian Water and Irrigation Minister and AMCOW Vice President for North Africa, said AMCOW was committed to achieving an Africa where there were equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation and socio-economic development.

    “With improved wastewater management particularly in the industrial and agricultural sectors, Africa will be on the firm path to food security and sustainable development”, he said.

    AMCOW’s Executive Secretary, Dr Canisius Kanangire, said faecal sludge and wastewater continually pose threats to human livelihood especially in African cities experiencing population growth due to rural to urban migration.

    According to Kanangire, experiences by AMCOW member states show that wastewater can be a resource for irrigation with basic treatment and proper hygiene practices; sludge can be used as a source of energy, and fertilizers.

    “The productive use of waste water can generate income, development of micro enterprise and employment, as well as contribute to urban food and energy security. The threat, therefore, could be turned into opportunities for poverty alleviation” Kanangire said.

    AMCOW brings together Water and Sanitation ministers from 55 African countries to promote cooperation, security, social and economic development and poverty eradication among member states through the effective management of the continent’s water resources and provision of water.

    The World Water Week, organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), is an annual gathering for all stakeholders in the globe’s water issues.

  • We must eradicate poverty urgently — Deputy UN Scribe

    Eradicating poverty is a task that the entire global community must meet with a sense of urgency, Deputy UN Secretary-General, Ms. Amina Mohammed, has said.

    Mohammed, in her message to the three-day 2017 Integration Segment of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), said that eradicating poverty remained the greatest global challenge.

    She called for a collective and comprehensive approach that recognised the multidimensional nature of the issue and its interaction with other aspects.

    “Addressing poverty, inequality, climate change, food insecurity and a sluggish and unpredictable global economy requires integrated responses and engagement by all actors.

    “It is also an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.”

    She highlighted the importance of broad partnerships and building synergies across all dimensions of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

    She added that different sectors of the economy at national levels needed to address the complex interlinkages.

    The deputy UN scribe noted that the first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG1) is to end poverty in all its forms and everywhere.

    She added that such efforts also provided an opportunity to gauge how national approaches and the recently adopted SDG Indicator Framework could support each other in advancing integrated implementation and reviewing progress.

    “We need options that will enable policy makers at the global, regional and national levels to foster coherent and integrated approaches to poverty eradication.

    “Expectations are very high and now is the time. We have a collective responsibility to deliver results at the country level,” she said.

    Also speaking at the opening, Nabeel Munir, the Vice-President of ECOSOC, underscored the importance of integrated policy frameworks, given the interconnected nature of sustainable development — the economic, social and environmental dimensions.

    “The interlinkages between the different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) we have defined to achieve our common vision are explicit, unveiling potential synergies and trade-offs.

    “This underlines the importance of integrated policy frameworks for the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

    “It also underlines the significance of this Integration Segment and the discussions that will take place in the context of the 2017 session of the Economic and Social Council’s work,” Munir said.

    The 2017 Integration Segment of ECOSOC brings together key stakeholders to discuss and identify opportunities and challenges in developing integrated approaches to tackle poverty in a sustained, inclusive and sustainable manner.

    The session will also focus on Least Developed Countries.

    The 2017 meeting will also consider best practices, lessons learned and recommendations at the national, regional and international levels.

    This is with a view to extracting policy recommendations to guide integrated policy making for poverty eradication as an integral part of the 2030 Agenda.

    Discussions and outcomes from the Integration Segment will feed into the High-level Segment of ECOSOC as well as into the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

  • Commemorating World Water Day 2017

    Commemorating World Water Day 2017

    One of the most challenging human needs is that of water, it is everywhere but seems never available or enough for use. Water has been on the front burner of development discourse since time immemorial. The sixth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets improving water and sanitation in furtherance of the efforts expended through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

    It was revealed, by World Health Organization that unlike the water target, the sanitation target was not met by most of Africa by the end of 2015.

    Most of the MDGs actually targeted problems that could be reduced by simply providing clean water; poverty, education and health.

    The goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is pertinent because many people, sometimes even host communities have left their abode on account of water shortage or drought, thereby pushing the citizens to submit themselves to the vagaries of migration and displacement; en route, they are subjected to all kinds of humiliation in order to feed their families.

    The second had to do with achieving universal primary education, children have to endure long distances to fetch the water for the use of their families; this affects their school attendance. Promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women is the third Goal, and is pertinent in the water discourse as responsibility for the provision of water is always pushed to women and young girls, even though they have been determined as the weaker sex.

    Goals four and five are about reducing child mortality and improving maternal health and the challenge of clean water has been described as being responsible for the diseases that kill more children and keep mothers bedridden and unproductive, especially during natal periods. Water is also a key player in the spread of malaria, which kills at least 300,000 Nigerians every year. Controlling malaria was another goal of the MDGs.

    Water, sanitation and hygiene have always been treated as cousins because addressing the challenges of both sanitation and hygiene rely on the availability of water. To a large extent, interventions for the control of the practice of open defecation in our communities is reliant on the provision of water; as it is important to provide water in all health and educational facilities.

    Figures by UN Water indicate that 1.8 billion people use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene cause around 842,000 deaths each year. In the same vein, 663 million people still lack improved drinking water sources.

    Water is the most important resource in the life of man. So it is important that we use it efficiently, and avoid its wastage. Beyond that we must encourage communities to get this important resource, sustain it and ensure its purity, if they are to live better lives.

    Communities always need information on what they can do to ensure efficient water use. They must know how the availability and use of safe and clean water can bring development to them in terms of economy, health, education, culture and other indices of development. In areas where the communities cannot provide water for themselves, it behooves on men and women of goodwill to assist.

    World Water Day, is celebrated on 22 March of every year, and is about taking action on water issues. Governments at all levels do a lot to provide tap water, boreholes and tube wells as far as their budgets can carry; development institutions, civil society and NGOs also offer their widows mite in this regard.

    Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has keyed into this call through the Future Assured Programme and has built many of such water points including boreholes and tube wells across the country especially in hard to reach communities and IDP camps. By these action, children of those communities can go to school, women can lead more productive lives, and the whole community can be healthier.

  • UNIC engages 210 girls at summer camp

    UNIC engages 210 girls at summer camp


    The United Nation Information centre in Lagos has concluded plans to engage no fewer than 230 girl children in different vocational trainings.

    It is summer time, widely known as ‘long vacation period’ within the education circle in Nigeria, during which students and their parents get engaged in some predetermined activities both locally and abroad.

    While many pupils have gone on vacation with their parents after a tedious academic year, some are in camps developing their skills and nourishing their interests without hurting their academic studies.

    The latter, of course is in line with the United Nations strategic framework for the Post-2015 Agenda, especially the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No 5 which dwells on achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls.

    It is in the light of the above that ‘Yes I believe Academy’, a strategic partner of the United Nations Information

    [caption id="attachment_415469" align="alignleft" width="300"]A trainee shoemaker briefs UNIC Director, Mr Ronald Kayanja about shoemaking. A trainee shoemaker briefs UNIC Director, Mr Ronald Kayanja about shoe making.[/caption]

    Centre (UNIC) Lagos, organized a Summer Camp for 210 girls aged between 10 and 18 years. Titled: "Summer Skills Acquisition Workshop", the one week programme featured different training sessions including those on Beadworks, Shoe making, Make-up, soft furnishing, among others.

    Addressing the participants who were students of Gbagada Girls Junior Secondary School, Bariga Lagos, the Director of UNIC Lagos, Mr Ronald Kayanja spoke about the works and history of the United Nations especially the 70th anniversary.

    He noted that skill acquisition was a lifetime gift which should be embraced by everyone who had the opportunity to get one.

    He commended the parents of the participants for sending their children to the summer camp and to the students he congratulated for being a part of the programme which he assured, would have a positive impact on their future.

    In his remarks, the Executive Director of ‘Yes I Believe Academy’, Mr Niyi Adekunle, disclosed that within four days of training, the children demonstrated high level of seriousness and commitment to learning specific skills.

    Later in company of the facilitators, Mr. Adekunle conducted the UNIC team lead by the Director round the exhibition of some of the products produced by the participants. ‘I am highly impressed,’ Mr Kayanja noted.

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  • Dutch cyclists to South Africa arrive Nigeria

    Dutch cyclists to South Africa arrive Nigeria

    The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos, in collaboration with the Netherlands Embassy Office in Lagos on Wednesday received two Dutch Cyclists of the Building Bridges project who had embarked on a bicycle journey to Cape Town in South Africa.

    The Cyclists, Jilt van Schayik, and Teun Meulepas, who are stopping over in Lagos, took off from Amsterdam in the Netherlands in February to connect and encourage young people across two continents of Africa and Europe, habouring 21 countries; a journey of about 17,000km.

    Schayik and Meulepas arrived Lagos –Nigeria on Tuesday night in the company of the Togolese grassroots initiative for Building Bridges, and were received by their Nigerian counterparts.

    Recounting the experience, Meulepas, one of the cross-continent bikers said: “So far so good, we had a great trip, we met a lot of inspiring people, we saw a lot of crazy things and we had a lot of fun on the road as well.

    “But what is important in this is the story of a lot of young people. We saw a lot of young people who are worried about their chances of getting a job. Young people are worried about the systems of education in their countries; young people are worried about corruption.”

    Meulepas and colleague promised to relate the stories of a lot of young people, who they met in the course of their journey, to the United Nations office in New York when they return.

    During his welcome address, Director of UNIC in Lagos, Mr. Ronald Kayanja, lamented the poor involvement of young people in policy making recounting that in 2000 eight goals were spelt out by the UN.

    According to him, “They were supposed to be achieved by 2015, and now we are in 2015 but the results are mixed. Some countries have achieved them, some countries have not and now we are discussing a new set of goals by2030. And we call those the Sustainable Development Goals. They are 17 goals that are being discussed.

    “In September this year in New York, member states of the United Nations will meet to agree on these goals that we shall use as our target for the coming 15 years.

    “But what we have realised is that, in all these things, young people are either not interested or are not well informed about what is going on. So their participation is minimal.”

    He however noted that the essence of accompanying the cyclists as they ride on the streets of Lagos is to create the aware among young people that something is happening.

    On his part, Drs. Taco Westerhuis, Press Secretary to Embassy of the Netherlands in Lagos commended the bikers for the courage to undertake the journey, urging Nigerian youths to connect with the idea of developmental policies from their immediate neighbourhoods.

    Drs. Westerhuis, who observed that there are more opportunities in Lagos than there are in the Netherlands, said: “The only thing to do is getting the opportunities to the right people.”

    He however commended the Nigerian group of cyclists for the team spirit observing that: “We all know biking in Lagos is not easy, I therefore commend those of you who dare to ride your bikes in Lagos.”

    Building Bridges project is about involving young people in policy making and breaching the gap between young people and policy makers.