The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), on Monday commenced a four-day training for Civil Society Organizations in Kaduna State on Communication for Development (C4D).

The Chief of Field Office, Dr. Adams Zakari, said the training is part of efforts to improve the livelihood of children and women in the state.

He said the programme will train 38 members of two coalitions made up of 17 members from Kaduna State Accountability Mechanism (KADMAM) and 17 from Maternal and Child Health Civil Society Partnership (MCH-CS), working on health issues in the State.

He said the training holding in Zaria is to strengthen the capacity of the two CSOs on C4D, improve their knowledge on essential family practices and at the end, come up with a C4D plan for 2020.

Represented by UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, C4D Specialist, Eki George, Zakari said the draft plan that will emanate from the training will help UNICEF to support the CSOs in implementing some of their projects at the community level in the year 2020.

He lamented that Nigeria is among the three countries that has not allowed polio to be wiped out completely in the face of the earth, maternal and child mortality is very high, malnutrition is another problem, “even the issue of water and sanitation.

“The training is not the type that will be left alone, but expected to yield immediate benefit, because the indices of women and children are not looking good in the state and country in general.”

Lawal Haruna, NOA Kaduna State Deputy Director, said NOA and UNICEF are long time partners on C4D, assuring that the training will also help in updating participants knowledge on the activities of UNICEF and providing a better way of communication.

He said UNICEF target in 2019 is to ensure the empowerment of at least one coalition with C4D knowledge adding that, the idea of working with coalitions is because of the believe that partnership with people working at the grassroots level can better and easily be understood by the people.

He urged participants to make a good representation of their various organisations and contribute their quota by sharing experiences to guide acquired from the training.

•Photo of UNICEF four day training of KADMAM, MCH-CS on communication knowledge in Zaria. Photo credit: Knowledge Management and Communications Sub-committee of KADMAM.

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