U.S. Supports UN’s Fight Against Human Trafficking In Nigeria With $6.8m

Posted by Eric Ojo Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Sunday, September 19th, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The U.S. Government said it has donated the sum of $6.8 million to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for projects in Nigeria that are aimed at combating trafficking in persons.

The donation which was announced by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), will fund UNODC to train the Nigeria Correctional Service in the northeastern states of Borno, Gombe, and Adamawa.

The funds will also support UNODC’s Middle Belt Investigations project by ensuring local police investigators in the states of Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa have the training and resources to respond more effectively to incidents of criminality, kidnapping, and conflict.

In addition, the project also aims to improve the capacity of local courts and prosecutors by increasing transparency and adherence to due process for cases related to the activities of Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa.

Notably, the United States values its relationship with Nigeria and, through its partnership with the UNODC, provides support to its work combatting drugs, crime, and corruption, and building the capacity of the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

INL funds were made possible through appropriations made by Congress to the U.S. Department of State to support efforts in the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking worldwide.

In a related development, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC) is currently training 40 public health officials in Nigeria.

The two-week capacity building programme which started in Lagos on Monday last week, is aimed at enhancing the capacity of Nigerian experts on public health emergency response.

The programme also seeks to certify the first cohort of 40 participants drawn from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), state-level ministries of health, the Nigeria Port Health Services, and the Nigerian military in the Public Health Emergency Management Professional Certification (PHEM PC).

The PHEM PC training, a first of its kind in Nigeria, adapted from US-CDC Atlanta, equips emergency managers, incident managers, state epidemiologists, first responders, watch managers, and other public health experts with the knowledge, competencies and skill sets they need to respond to public health emergencies.

During the intensive programme, participants will receive specialized training in crisis and emergency risk communication as well as public health emergency management functions and operations.

The PHEM training is part of the U.S. Government’s efforts to support pandemic preparedness globally. US-CDC, NCDC, and Georgetown University are collaborating to deliver this ongoing training.

US-CDC Nigeria Country Director, Dr. Adetinuke Boyd said the impact of COVID-19 pandemic has further underscored the need to ensure that nothing stands on the way of having efficient and functional public health systems that have the capacity to respond and handle health emergencies.

“The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates now more than ever the importance of ensuring the public health and health care systems, can adequately prevent, respond to, and recover from health emergencies, particularly those whose scale, timing, or unpredictability threatens to overwhelm routine capabilities”, she said, .

In 2019, Nigeria became a Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) partner country committed to achieving GHSA 2024 targets and International Health Regulations (IHR) requirements.

Moreover, US-CDC supports the Government of Nigeria (GON) to achieve these targets by strengthening workforce development, surveillance, emergency response, and laboratory capacity among other areas.