By: Aisha Mohammed
Michika, is a cosmopolitan town, the most populous municipality in Adamawa state with women making the largest number of its population due to the insurgency.
It is situated along the border line to Cameroon in Northern Adamawa.
The women engaged in large scale farming of cash crops and blacksmith businesses to fend for their family and boost the socio-economic development of the state.
It is against this backdrop that the German Government deemed it fit to improve the socio-economic livelihood of the Internally Displaced Persons, returnees, host communities and other vulnerable groups affected by insurgency in Northeast Nigeria.
At the ceremonial launch of the support to improving social Cohesion through Community Development planning in sixteen wards of Michika Local Government area of Adamawa State, Country Director, GIZ Nigeria and ECOWAS, Dr. Markus Wagner and First Secretary, Head of Development Cooperation at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany-Abuja, Susanne Schroder said food security can be achieved through equitable participation and enhanced service delivery adding that the project seeks to eliminate discrimination amongst all groups for rapid development.
In an opening remark, Cluster Coordinator Just Transition and Inclusion, Commission Manager Nigerian Energy Support Program, Duke Benjamin said the intervention in Michika Local Government Area stands out as a result of the Citizen’s Engagement and Participatory Planning policy launched in June 2022.
In their separate special addresses, Chairperson, Adamawa State Planning Commission, Mary Paninga and Chairman, Michika Local Government Area, Amos Drambi disclosed that technological monitoring and evaluation is key to achieving rapid development, calling on all beneficiaries of the project in the host communities to take ownership of the project for its sustainability.
On his part, the District Head, Michika Local Government Area, Ngida Ngirda Zakawa expressed gratitude to the implementing partners for recognizing Michika to flag-off the project.
Earlier in an address of welcome, Acting Country Director, OXFAM Nigeria, Hamza Tijjani Ahmed revealed that the project seeks to provide lasting impact in improving participatory engagement and planning between local communities, government and stakeholders to achieve improved socio-economic outcomes for communities.
The overall objective of the project aims to target one thousand, two hundred and eighty direct and two hundred and thirty-nine thousand, four hundred indirect project participants to establish a community-driven, integrated and comprehensive approach to community development planning through the Adamawa State and Local Government Citizen’s Engagement and Participatory Planning Policies and Implementation guidelines.
