Nigeria has received a United Nations’ award for its excellent performance towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets, as well as helping to maintain the momentum across Africa and beyond.
The Regional Director, Africa, UN Millennium Campaign, Mr. Charles Abugre, gave the award at the weekend in Abuja to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs (SSAP-MDGs), Mrs. Precious Gbeneol, who received it on behalf of the country.
Aburge noted that Nigeria was given the special award in recognition to its global consultations to bring about a successor agenda to the post-2015 agenda of the MDGs.
He emphasised that at a recent side event at the UN General Assembly conference, “Nigeria was highly recognised, as it directly supported the convening of parliamentarians in the developing countries, especially Asia and Africa to have a choice.”
The UN director also commended the partnership between the MDGs and the National Service Youth Corps (NYSC) in mobilising more than 1000 youths to visit 776 local government areas in Nigeria to engage with the MDGS office.
He said: “The UN systems now had the capability to analyse the wants of every state in Nigeria as they now had an extensive data of all the states of the country.
While receiving the award, Gbeneol thanked the UN for recognising “Nigeria’s dogged implementation of the MDGs framework to improve the lives of poor and vulnerable.”
According to her, the award is an acknowledgement of the efforts to aggregate Nigerian’s aspirations for an inclusive post 2015 development agenda.
“I would like to assure the UN Millennium Campaign and the entire UN systems that Nigeria will continue to nurture our partnerships as we take advantage of the outcomes of the National Consultations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda to formulate the MDGs Successor framework.
“As you reckon, we have the opportunity to make transformational changes throughout societies, and in particular, ensure that those who are most in need among us are given the necessary support,” she added.
Credit: By Senator Iroegbu, ThisDay Newspaper,Nigeria
