Experts Validate Social Protection Study in Nigeria, Says Awareness Alone Doesn’t Guarantee Access for Vulnerable People
Experts which include Hope for Family Development Initiative, HFDI Nigeria, has joined government, development partners and civil society to validate findings of a nationwide study on social protection coverage, with a call for stronger community engagement to ensure vulnerable people actually benefit.
The Validation Meeting of the Situational Analysis of Specific Modalities of Social Protection Coverage in Nigeria, held recently and brought together representatives from government, the International Labour Organization, ILO, Development Partners, CSOs, researchers and other stakeholders.
Speaking at the study which covered Ondo, Osun and Niger States, the key message from the meeting, had the stakeholders highlighting that social protection can only work well when vulnerable people know about available programmes, can access them easily, and are supported to benefit from them.
The analysis examined existing social protection programmes, their coverage, accessibility and factors affecting access, identified several barriers preventing people from benefiting from social protection, and emphasised that awareness alone does not translate into enrollment or access to benefits.
Another issue raised was that some children identified as beneficiaries of skills acquisition programmes do not have National Identification Numbers, NIN, which may prevent them from accessing the programmes.
Stakeholders recommended that affected states liaise with relevant authorities to support these children in obtaining NIN so they are not excluded from interventions.
Relationship between social protection, school attendance and child labour was analysed and the experts stressed the need to improve coverage, targeting and implementation and to integrate child protection into social protection programmes.
Following deliberations, the experts which include the Executive Director Hope for Family Development Initiative HFDI, Ambassador Aremu Stephen Akinyele validated the report and recommendations that will increase access to the target beneficiaries, improve affordability of service and sstrengthen pension and employee compensation compliance among others.
The participants made a renewed commitment to stronger collaboration among government, International Labour Organization (ILO) development partners, CSOs, and community stakeholders to improve social protection coverage and contribute to the prevention of child labour in Nigeria.
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