YouthhubAfrica, a youth-focused non-profit organisation has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to investigate, rejig and complete the UN Junior professional Officers Programme which it signed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) almost three years ago.
The call was contained in its policy brief titled ‘Re-Imagining the UN JPO Program in Nigeria’ released recently in Abuja, and in a statement issued by the Executive Director, Youthhubafrica, Rotimi Olawale.
The organisation noted that “despite the N2.1 billion set aside for the project in the 2013 and 2014 budget of the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, no young Nigerian has benefitted from the project till date. More worrisome is the claim of the Federal Ministry of Youth Development in a response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request sent by YouthhubAfrica that it is still in the process of actualising the programme, despite the fact that there are no budgetary provisions for it in the 2015 budget.
“It is commendable that Nigeria is the only African country out of over 20 countries that have signed on to the UN JPO programme; it is however not befitting that the plan sits on paper. The initial agreement is to deploy 37 young Nigerian professionals (one from each state and the FCT) to work with the UN in several locations around the world and gain invaluable professional experiences.
“We are convinced that the JPO holds a huge potential to create a corps of young professionals and we therefore recommend that budget for it be inserted into the 2015 supplementary budget and the FMoYD re-initiate conversation with the UNDP to bring the programme to light.
“We will continue to engage with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, the National Assembly, the UN System in Nigeria and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that the project is completed while continuing to monitor the programmes and policies of government targeted at young people”, Olawale added.
(This Day)
No comments:
Post a Comment