The National Orientation Agency (NOA), in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), has formed a strategic partnership aimed at reforming public enlightenment and awareness in Nigeria.
This collaboration was announced during a 2-day stakeholders review meeting organized by NOA in collaboration with UNICEF, on Wednesday in Abuja, focused on sensitizing Nigerians about the activities of the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
The Director-General of NOA, Lanre Issa-Onilu, while speaking at the event, explained that the partnership aims to reform the agency and build new strategies around a partnership model, restructuring, and repositioning approach.
Issa-Onilu emphasized the importance of NOA in delivering on the nation’s expectations, especially in light of the prevalent issues in the country such as insecurity, terrorism, and corruption.
Issa-Onilu said: “For a long time, people believe that NOA has not been doing enough as expected, especially because of the situations that we find ourselves in this country, so, this is the time for NOA to rise up and take that position and deliver on the mandate that the nation expects of it.
“And for us to do that. We will follow that we some structural issues. And we have some problems with the way we engage with partners with other agencies of government in order to be able to have better outcomes.
“And UNICEF has been a very important partner to us, in many areas of engagement with the community and with Nigeria in general. So, we have in this interaction for most to share with them, our new focus, the approaches we are trying to embark on and the reforms that we are having so that whoever want to work or collaborate with us understands clearly the direction we want to take because Nigerians expect a lot from NOA and we can not afford to fail Nigerians.”
In his remarks, Chief of Social and Behavior Change for UNICEF, Kshitij Joshi, reiterated the importance of the partnership in bringing lasting changes for the citizens of Nigeria, particularly for women and children.
He highlighted the role of NOA in creating awareness about government services and policies and expressed UNICEF’s support for these efforts at both the national and community levels.
Joshi said: “The partnership is to bring together a family social behavior change, engaging with communities to bring they value together to access government services, most importantly, to bring lasting changes for the citizens of Nigeria, especially for women and children of Nigeria.
“So that’s what this partnership will strive to achieve and work very collaboratively with the National Orientation Agency not just at the national level, but also at the sub national level and at the community level to bring everybody together.
“National orientation agency has a mandate in terms of its roles and responsibility about creating awareness around services and the policies programs of the Government of Nigeria so that is what we are supporting.”