By Muhammad Amaan
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has underscored the need for revalidation of the National Action Plan (NAP) to tackle issues affecting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria.
Mr Laurent De Boeck, Chief of IOM Mission in Nigeria disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at the 7th National Humanitarian Coordination Technical Working Group (NHCTWG) meeting to revalidate the NAP on IDPs in Nigeria.
The event was organised with support of the Swiss government, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and in close coordination with IOM and World Food Programme (WFP).
Boeck, represented by Daniel Salmon, Head of Policy Governance Liaison and Support of IOM, described the national policy on IDPs as a dynamic framework designed to ensure transparency, accountability, and effective coordination of humanitarian responses to IDPs.
According to him, the NAP undergoes regular joint reviews to adapt to evolving contexts and ensure continuous improvement, through inclusive and democratic processes.
“What has been fantastic is the process of people from different parts of Nigeria, from the civil society, governments or international partners all coming together, to discuss the critical matters of internal displacement in Nigeria.
“There is over about 3-million IDPs in Nigeria. This document provides us roadmap to go beyond purely humanitarian assistance and look at how to constructively develop sustainable pathways for internal displacement.
“It sets out the obligations and responsibilities of each government entity under the national policy and relevant benchmarks, timelines and indicators to facilitate monitoring accountability.
“This document identifies the budgetary requirements for implementation of the national policy to enable necessary allocation and resources of the fund as a result of the collaborative and inclusive process.
“This involved input and feedback of various stakeholders, including line ministries, institutions, state authorities, UN agency, NGOs and displaced communities through technical working group meetings, bilateral consultations, focus group discussions and validation workshops,” Boeck said.
In separate interview, Mubarak Yusuf, Head of Nigeria Office/Field Director, International Public Opinion Research and Analysis, said three documents were reviewed for the revalidation and the first document was the NAP on IDP policies.
He revealed that not less than 200 participants were engaged participated in consulting throughout the whole process.
He added that one of the gaps in response to issues related to IDP is the reality there is perhaps no national detail, particularly when it comes to IDPs across Nigeria.
“The NAP is trying to ensure that critical activities of the policy were outlined and this is a process seamlessly that has started right from August 2022 with a number of actors.
“What we are looking at particularly now is revalidating this document,
“Also, we are looking at it from the framework of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and poverty alleviation to measure what extent these activities will aid in alleviating poverty, particularly the vulnerable population,” he added.
