United Nations, (UN), International Organization for Migration, (IOM), and the Government of Japan, have signed a $4.4 million, (N6, 690, 200, 000), on health care delivery to Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs), in Adamawa other North-East host communities.

At an event to sign the agreement in Abuja, IOM Nigeria Chief of Mission, Laurent De Boeck, said the partnership will ensure healthcare is not a privilege, but fundamental right accessible to all as to pave way for healthier, more stable and prosperous future for the people of northeast Nigeria.

“It is a testament to our commitment to not only provides immediate relief, but also to contribute to sustainable solutions that addresses root causes of displacement and insecurity,” he said.

The IOM chief promised to partner States and Local Government actors, community health workers, information/data officers and laboratory technicians to rebuild, rehabilitate, and equip nine health facilities in eight Local Government Areas. (LGAs), in Adamawa.

According to him, such will be achieved through training staff from each unit of the nine Primary Healthcare Centres, (PHCs), which include doctors, nurses, midwives, community health workers, information/data officers, laboratory technicians.

Ambassador of Japan, Kazuyoshi Matsunaga, said the agreement between Japanese government, Adamawa government, IOM and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), focuses on ‘Strengthening basic healthcare services for IDPs, returnees and host communities in Nigeria’ to support measures designed to tackle urgent needs of vulnerable people.

According to him, the project worth $4.4 million will run from March, 2024 to March, 2026 with measures to ensure sustainability, monitoring and evaluation, calculation of post-project cost, training of personnel in the operation, maintenance, and upkeep of equipment.

“It is towards combining fixed facilities with innovation technology solutions, such as medical mobility, as service and telemedicine is essential to effectively serving the mobile IDP population.

“Effective technology transfer from Japan to Nigeria requires strong focus on human resource development, therefore investment on capacity building to enable local staff fully utilize and maintain medical equipments.

“It should be measured by the healthy and safe life of citizens who benefit from this improved healthcare services beyond the duration of the project,” Kazuyoshi said.

He explained that the project will bring about introduction of innovation technology, medical masks and telemedicine, and involvement of Japanese companies as model for improving healthcare service across Nigeria.

Chairman of Adamawa Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Sulaiman Bashir, said the agreement would not have been possible without the partnership between IOM and the Japanese government.

According to him, “Our state, as mentioned earlier, had enormous humanitarian and development needs. A state of 5.5 million people with 60 per cent of this number less than 30 years of age.

“These are areas that are of great concern to us. In terms of the humanitarian crisis, we have the three different crises that we are battling within our state.

“Initially, we have the Boko Haram terrorist activity in the northern part of the state, we have the farmer-herder clashes, we also have the last one, the inter-communal conflict there,” he said.

Chief Representative of JICA, Mr. Yuzurio Susumu, points that the grant provided from the agreement will further advance construction of primary healthcare centres, and boost capacity building among other things.

He said “Our ultimate goal is to contribute to the creation of an inclusive environment that fosters peaceful coexistence. “By ensuring access to quality healthcare services, we aim to encourage the return and resettlement of IDPs, laying groundwork for sustainable peace and prosperity in Adamawa”