The Nigeria in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has commended an NGO, the Nigeria Humanitarian Action (NIHA) for bringing actors together to provide succour to more than 235 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection in 2020.
Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) NIDCOM, made the commendation at the opening and public presentation of the Nigeria Humanitarian Year book 2020/2021, on Wednesday, in Abuja.
Dabiri-Erewa, who was represented by Jummai Musa, Head, Planning Research and Statistics, NIDCOM, welcomed participants and foreign delegations from Switzerland, Dominican Republic, U.S., Haiti and the UK, to the conference.
She urged participants to explore ways of effective collaboration to develop a better environment for all.
Mr Kletsaint Akor, Chief Humanitarian and Convener of the conference, explained that NIHA was a principal interface organisation for state and non-state Institutions.
He added that NIHA mandate was to initiate, organise, advocate and harmonise social enterprises and humanitarian assistance within the length and breadth of Nigeria.
Akor also explained that the NIHA Programme Year Opening Conference (PROYOC) was an annual multidimensional humanitarian event, aimed at appraising institutions and programmes as well as sharing opportunities to make projections.
He said that this would improve and strengthen government and Non–Governmental Intervention in the sector.
Akor noted that the humanitarian actors’ mission was to save lives, build institutional capacity; as well as ensure sustainable hope through humanitarian and social enterprise interventions.
“Some of our aims and objectives amongst others are; to facilitate and coordinate a funding policy instrument aimed at supporting humanitarian activities, national emergency and social enterprise.
“NIHA will facilitate networking, information and data gathering and management with the goal to disseminate such data within the social sector with the help of external agencies.
“The platform will provide open access prospects to state and non-state actors in the humanitarian sector to share values through Interaction, networking, peer learning and presentations.”
The convener said that NIHA will continue to collaborate and partner in implementing humanitarian initiatives by state and non-state actors.
He, however, stated that it would aid research and development, monitoring and evaluation of a national policy framework for the effective delivery of social services.
Akor informed that the event had also presented a post conference activity country tour for the visiting international guests.
He said that it would afford them the opportunity to interact with state and non-state actors in Nigeria, for the purpose of collaboration on Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and humanitarian Interventions.
“The aim of the post conference tour will be to create opportunities for the visiting delegations to get to know Nigeria more and open up other forms of collaborations for value exchange with the host institutions at the federal and state levels,” he said.
Reports state that 100 humanitarian actors within Nigeria are currently participating at the conference.