NGO tasks government, stakeholders on poverty eradication

The Advocacy for Development, Health and Environmental Sustainability, an NGO, has urged the government and other policy makers to fulfil their promises to eradicate poverty.

Mr Adah Shem, Executive Director of the organisation, made the plea during an Awareness Campaign on Psycho-Social, Maternal Healthcare Assistance Programme (PMH) held in Abuja on Saturday.

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The PMH programme is an initiative of the Advocacy for Support of Community Needs and Development Initiatives, an NGO, meant to provide indigent children with free access to primary healthcare, academic grants, food, shelter and psycho-social counseling.

Shem said that such collaborative measure was key in reducing poverty, maternal and newborn deaths as well as achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

He suggested that challenges like lack of food, lack of access to primary healthcare, schools and social amenities and infrastructure development like potable water, among others, should be addressed.

Shem said that, “If children and women are empowered academically and with entrepreneurial skills, they will be self reliant and this will reduce street hawking, begging, among others.

“Children need to be in school and that orphan needs proper care.

“One of the key issues bedeviling development, particularly in developing countries is project implementation; be it from the start, planning stage to the implementation and monitoring.

“So, we must collaborate in the area of advocacy. We want accountability of the little resources we have.

“We want to see transparency in management of funds and fulfillment of promises made during electioneering processes.

“If we say we want to eradicate poverty, we must be serious about it. Stakeholders, CSOs must join forces so that we can achieve results.

“Whatever any stakeholder is doing is geared toward SDGs; so we are calling for more hands, more people, more actors to support in the actualisation of SDGs.

“No one organisation can achieve it all and neither can government be able to drive it all. So everybody must be transparent, responsible and accountable in whatever he or she is doing to enable us meet SDGs target by 2030, ‘’ he said.

Mr Adedamola Adediran, President and Founder of Advocacy for Support of Community Needs and Development Initiatives, said the group would collaborate with other NGOs, institutions to improve the lives of the people and ensure better life for the vulnerable group.

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According to him, the objective of the PMH campaign was to chart a course to eradicate poverty.

“The PMH was initiated because of inequality, deprivation, child poverty, because women and children are most affected by poverty in the country.

“We realised that the only way to alleviate these problems and meet 2030 SDGs target is to create programmes to cater for the need of children and women,’’ Adediran said.