Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, has solicited for support of the Spanish Government for victims of humanitarian crisis and girl-child education in Nigeria.
Farouq made the demand when the former Vice President of Spain, Ms Maria Teresa Fernandez De La Vega, paid a courtesy visit to her on Monday in Abuja.
Vega is also the current President of the State Council of Spain, a body that provides consultative services on economy, social development and foreign policy to the government and monarch of Spain.
She is also the Founder and President of Women for Africa Foundation that runs programmes for women on education, health, economic, agriculture, sustainable energy and entrepreneurship in Liberia, Malawi, Senegal and Morocco.
Farouq, who was visibly excited, said the vision of the ministry was to have social protection systems that are proactive, humane, inclusive and sustainable for the improvement and general welfare of the people.
“The mandate of the ministry is to develop humanitarian policies and provide effective coordination of national and international humanitarian interventions, ensure strategic disaster mitigation, preparedness and response.
“Since its establishment, the ministry has focused on building its internal systems, structure and processes in line with local and international best practices.
“The priority areas of the Ministry are to strengthen policy and institutional framework, build evidence-based systems, optimise funding and resourcing opportunities.
“The ministry also standardises monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and mainstreams the Social Development Goals in statistical, planning and budget systems.
“Funding is another area on which we need your support. We look forward to collaborating with your country and Foundation. With support of people like you, we will be able to achieve what we need to achieve,” Farouq said.
Speaking earlier, Vega said she was at the ministry to present some of her projects which are on women, and launch some of them in Nigeria.
“We will also like to work in the North-East region of the country and collaborate with you in the area of trafficking.
“Trafficking is also affecting us in Spain. We want to train law enforcement agencies to handle trafficking and, if possible, increase the resources available for children and vulnerable groups.
“We are ready to support and mitigate on trafficking and education for women.
“We can do more trainings for Police officers and other agencies by bringing them to our country to see and feel what we are doing.
“On prosecution of traffickers, we can train Nigerian Prosecutors to be able to carry out effective prosecution so that we can bring such perpetrators to book,” Vega said.
She expressed readiness to collaborate and support the Ministry in its activities.
