By KATO P. LADAN, Kaduna
In rounding off his strategic engagements at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Gombe state Governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya earlier on Tuesday met with the Assistant Secretary General and United Nations Development Programme, UNDP’s Regional Director for Africa, Ms Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie and her team.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity), to Gombe State Governor, Ismaila Uba Misilli.
During the meeting, Governor Yahaya explained to his host some of the measures taken by his administration to tackle some of the inherited challenges, including commissioning a needs assessment of critical areas across over 400 communities in the state.
He sought for partnership and support in the production of a Development Plan for the state as well as in designing a sustainability framework for the Gombe Goes Green (3G) programme.
The Governor also made a case with the UNDP for the scaling up of interventions in livelihoods and capacity building under the ‘Fostering Sustainability and Resilience for Food Security in the the Savanna Zones of Northern Nigeria’.
In her remarks, the UNDP Regional Director for Africa, appreciated Governor Yahaya’s vision for his state and expressed readiness to help in translating his foresight into a development plan.
She also expressed willingness of UNDP to provide linkage to donors and partners supporting climate change action and unlock financial resources available within the UN system and beyound to support the 3G project.
Ms Eziakonwa-Onochie also declared commitment of the UNDP to partner with Gombe State in developing a flagship document – human development report for tracking improvements in human development index.
UNDP also offered to extend its activities in the state on the prevention of violent extremism and investment in youths.
Similarly, Governor Inuwa Yahaya also held discussions with officials of United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF where the agency expressed willingness to increase its support to the state in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as well as provide linkage with global partners that can support Gombe in education, health and nutrition.
