Topic: Building Safe Communities in Conflict Zones
Country: Nigeria
Delegate Name: Meghana Ranabothu
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Nigeria position papers GLIMUN 2014 committees
A safe, secure community usually has the the ability to access sanitation, food, transportation, education, commerce, and healthcare. Due to ongoing conflicts in countries such as Syria and Ukraine, many residents of communities in cities and refugee camps are not receiving these necessary elements. Conflicts in countries destabilize regions and create complications in providing aid and security. Principles of security are embodied in Articles 22 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; everyone is entitled to free and dignified economic, social, and cultural rights and the means to sustain a healthy, adequate standard of living. UNICEF in Nigeria helps ensure that water, power, shelter, medical and educational services, finances, and other aid reach these conflict zones. UNICEF helps treat children and increases the amount of health care centers in Nigeria. UNICEF’s task is to administer social security and aid to populations, especially children, while keeping all the constituents safe in the process.
Nigeria strongly supports UNICEF’s mission to work to help build safer and healthier communities in conflict zones. We currently have internal and cross-border refugees seeking safety from religious extremists in the northern part of our nation. Multiple international organizations, including UNICEF, are helping us protect our refugees. Our refugee problem has been compounded by the severe drought that has plagued our nation, so many of our refugees are malnourished. National and international organizations have been able to reach the affected areas, populations, and civilians. UNICEF in collaboration with others organizations supported thousands of children and adults with nutrition and health care centers. In some schools in Nigeria, students run to the pump with their plastic cups and bowls to fetch drinking water from the hand pump-equipped borehole provided by UNICEF, in collaboration with the State Rural Water Supply Agency. Although there are challenges in delivering humanitarian aid, UNICEF has greatly affected Nigeria.
Nigeria supports UNICEF’s role in building safe communities in conflict zones. There are multiple approaches to this solution. A successful example is UNICEF’s work is in our own nation. UNICEF constructed sanitation and water facilities around health care centres. It started procuring essential medicines, medical supplies, and equipment, and began helping facilities to operate six days a week. UNICEF is still helping and taking place today. UNICEF integrates more health services, nutrition, water, and hygiene, with a focus on the most vulnerable mothers and children. UNICEF’s project in Nigeria treated 11,300 severely malnourished children and treated 200,000 children in a wider area of northern Nigeria. The assistance was possible with the funding from the government of Japan, the EU and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and Bill Gates Foundation. Similar actions can be taken to protect the health and safety of citizens in other nation’s conflict zones.
