Musings From Abroad

Nigeria: UNICEF partners local agencies to drive digital birth registration

Published

1 year ago

June 8, 2023

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is championing digital birth registration in Nigeria as it has patterned two local agencies, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the National Population Commission (NPC), to achieve the feat.

UNICEF Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NYSC and the NPC to solidify the commitment of the three organizations to collaborate and support the digitalized birth registration process in 22 states out of 36 and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

UNICEF, through a country representative, Cristian Munduate, says its primary focus on the initiative will be on providing technical assistance and evidence-based interventions.

“By integrating birth registration into routine health service delivery, conducting the digitalized birth registration process, and increasing awareness through state and community-level campaigns, we aim to ensure that every child has access to and benefits from the essential health and birth registration interventions they deserve,” Munduate said.

The parties will adopt existing resources and facilities for the initiative which it said would benefit at least 12 million under-5 eligible children who will be registered as primary beneficiaries.

The initiative will help the country to achieve comprehensive data collection and availability, supporting increased birth registration coverage in our respective local government areas.

The availability of reliable social data is a contentious issue in Nigeria, particularly as the country last had a population census in 2006. An initially planned census for this year has been postponed twice. Digitalized registration is capable of significantly improving population data and ultimately improving policy decisions.

Population size is a strong consideration in Nigeria’s federal arrangement, being one of the metrics considered for revenue allocation from the national purse to constituent units—the 36 State governments, the 774 Local governments, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Musings From Abroad

Military advisors from Russia arrive Equatorial Guinea

Published

6 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Russian military advisors are in Equatorial Guinea training indigenous soldiers.

Anonymous sources cited by Reuters during the week claim that between 100 and 200 Russian instructors are training with elite guards in charge of guarding the President and the first family.

The males had been seen in Malabo, the country’s capital, and Bata, its second city. Reports of Russian forces stationed in the nation initially appeared in August.

Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has maintained close relations with Moscow.

Nguema travelled to Moscow in September to attend the Russian Energy Week International Forum.

Russia has strengthened military connections with African countries, sending advisors and combat soldiers to the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.

Faced with an Islamist terrorist insurrection, three Sahel countries have turned to Moscow for support, expelling French and American troops.

Musings From Abroad

Russia claims African, ex-Soviet nations want its mpox vaccine

Published

7 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Several African and former Soviet nations have shown interest in purchasing Russia’s smallpox and Mpox virus vaccine, testing equipment, and antiviral medications, according to Russia’s consumer and health watchdog.

The Orthopoxvac vaccine was created by the Siberian Vektor laboratory and approved by Russia’s health ministry in 2022 after clinical testing revealed the vaccine’s efficacy and safety, according to Vektor.

“The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as the African countries most affected by the mpox outbreak, have expressed interest in acquiring Russian treatments,” the watchdog told Reuters.

The countries that showed interest were not mentioned. Mpox is a virus that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions when it spreads through close contact. The illness can be lethal, although the majority of cases are minor.

An mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that had spread to neighbouring countries and abroad prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a worldwide public health emergency in August.

Requests for comment about the Russian vaccine were not answered by the governments of Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A top public health official in Nigeria and representatives for the health ministries in Burundi and Uganda denied any knowledge of attempts to purchase Russian mpox vaccinations.

According to a top Uzbek public health official, since there had been no mpox cases in the nation, the authorities did not require the vaccination. Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan’s governments did not immediately reply.

To fight the epidemic, several nations, notably the US and France, have committed to donating doses of the two primary vaccines against the virus produced by KM Biologics and Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO), which opens new tab.

Vektor researchers’ scientific publications reveal that the lab has been developing the vaccine since at least 2015. It has not yet released trial findings, though, and regulators outside of Russia have not authorised the injection.

Over 42,000 probable instances of Mpox have been recorded throughout the continent, and 1,100 fatalities have been reported so far this year, according to statistics from the Africa CDC.

The monkeypox virus, a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus, is the cause of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. Clade I, which includes subclades Ia and Ib, and Clade II, which includes subclades IIa and IIb, are the two separate clades of the virus.