UNICEF and stakeholders from Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara states have reviewed 2026 programme progress and drafted a new Country Programme for 2028-2032 focused on women and children.
At the two-day meeting in Sokoto, UNICEF Chief Field Officer Michael Juma said the goal was to identify key challenges from the last 3.5 years and propose evidence-based, high-impact, child-centric solutions.
He urged ministries to set 4-5 critical priorities for health, education, and other sectors, and stressed aligning state development plans with the new CPD to improve scalability, quality, and sustainability.
He also called for stronger links between development and humanitarian responses to address emergencies and child deprivations.
He urged Permanent Secretaries to lead their ministries in defining critical, evidence-based, child-centric priorities for women and children in the three states.
This, he said, will provide better leverage for incorporation into the country programme and for resource mobilization.
The Chief Field Officer also thanked the governments of Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara for providing an enabling environment for constructive consultation, which he said had resulted in clear and balanced reflections on some of the bottlenecks and progress recorded.
In his remarks,the chairman of the occasion,the Emir of Anka and chairman Zamfara state council of traditional rulers Alhaji Attahiru Muhammad, commended UNICEF’s 32 years of work and urged closer engagement with traditional rulers, especially on displacement and out-of-school children.
“I have been collaborating with UNICEF for the past 32 years since I ascended the throne in Zamfara State. I know your relevance and the interventions you have made across several sectors, which are commendable,” he said.
Sokoto’s Permanent Secretary Buhari Umar called for localized, data-driven interventions and accountability to 6.7 million residents.
He also advised stakeholders to conduct an in-depth assessment of all the indices, particularly on why individual states are at their current level.
“As foot soldiers in your respective states, you can interpret the data, carry out a coherent analysis of it, and come up with strategic and localized interventions,” he said.
He noted that those representing Sokoto State at this critical, high-level meeting should consider themselves individually and collectively accountable to the 6.7 million people, as it relates to the survival, development, protection, and participation of children and women.
He further emphasized that stakeholders should focus on areas of convergence and comparative advantage during the review exercise.
Kebbi’s Permanent Secretary Barrister Kudirat Shuaibu said the meeting’s theme — moving from evidence to strategic prioritization — requires collaboration to improve results.
“We have an important opportunity in this meeting to review our programmes, our challenges, and what we can do better to improve on what we already have on the ground,” she said.
She thanked UNICEF for bringing stakeholders together for the engagement. She added that the most important goal was to transform expected results and outcomes across all programmes. Shuaibu also thanked UNICEF for its interventions in Kebbi State’s goals and development.
Stakeholders agreed to focus on evidence-based, localized, child-focused priorities, better coordination, and alignment with state plans to shape UNICEF’s2028-2032 programme for the three
