FG Commits To Prioritising Wellbeing Of Adolescents
Princess-Ekwi Ajide Abuja
The Federal Government of Nigeria has reiterated its commitment to increasing the financial support and policies that will assist develop programmes and service delivery action to improve adolescents’ wellbeing in the country.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate made this known in his welcome address to commemorate the Global Forum for Adolescents 2023 with the theme: “With and For Adolescents, Our Future Is Now” in Abuja.
The Minister maintained that, to secure and sustain the future economic, social, political progress and stability, there is need to make a strong commitment to closing the gaps in the development of adolescents who are the future and constitute 22% of Nigeria’s population.
The Coordinating Minister who was represented by the Deputy Director, Department of Family Health, Dr Amina Mohammed, said that the wellbeing of adolescents are critical to achieving sustainable development goals and acknowledged the importance of adopting a whole government approach to addressing the multiple and intersecting factors that impact adolescents in Nigeria.
He promised that government will prioritise adolescent wellbeing in its national development plans and strategies to ensure disaggregated data collection so as to have a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities in ensuring adolescent wellbeing, and to integrate adolescent specific indicators into the monitoring and reporting framework by meaningfully engaging them in a designed implementation and monitoring of policies and programmes that affect their well-being.
An Advocacy Officer, Idoko Philip, in his contribution, noted that about 1.8 billion Young Nigerians are looking for change, based on their data collection, and encouraged political and world leaders to make financial commitment that would ensure issues affecting adolescents health and wellbeing is prioritized in their communities.
