Hanny Henry
As Nigeria continues to grapple with disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies, the United States Government, through UNICEF, has intensified efforts to strengthen emergency preparedness and response systems in Adamawa State through the development of a Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment Framework.
To achieve this, stakeholders from the public health sector and other relevant agencies gathered in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, for a five-day workshop aimed at identifying, assessing, and prioritizing potential public health risks and developing effective response strategies.
Declaring the workshop open, Muhammad Chubado Jada, the Adamawa State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, represented by Zira Mathias Babani, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, expressed appreciation to UNICEF and its partners for providing the state with the opportunity to develop a comprehensive framework for public health emergency preparedness and response.
Jada emphasized the importance of active participation by stakeholders, noting that the exercise would contribute significantly to the formulation of policies and strategies aimed at safeguarding the health and well-being of citizens.
Speaking during the workshop, Eghe Abe, UNICEF Health Specialist, explained that participants were drawn from key government ministries and agencies, including the Ministries of Health, Water Resources, Environment, Agriculture, and Security, as well as UNICEF, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and other development and non-governmental partners.
According to Abe, the training is designed to identify and prioritize multi-hazard public health emergencies and develop professional approaches for managing them through effective planning and preparedness.
He noted that public health emergencies have become increasingly frequent due to recurring disease outbreaks, climate change, and environmental challenges.
Abe further stated that funding support from the United States Government, through UNICEF and in collaboration with the Federal Government, is helping Adamawa State develop a Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment Framework that will enable authorities to identify and address multiple hazards that occur over time.
He explained that the hazards covered under the framework include biological, chemical, environmental, and security-related threats such as cholera, measles, Ebola, COVID-19, flooding, erosion, conflicts, banditry, and terrorism.
Stressing that the document is expected to address all the strategies that would be employed, ranging from awareness campaigns, sensitization, monitoring, evaluation and others for effective delivery and implementation.
In their separate remarks, Muntari Hassan of the NCDC and Kadabiyu Jones, the Adamawa State Epidemiologist, described the intervention as timely, stressing that it would enhance the state’s capacity to tackle public health threats through proactive planning and rapid response mechanisms.
They reiterated that once finalized, the proposed framework would serve as a guiding document for the quick identification, assessment, preparedness, and response to emergencies across the state.
According to the facilitators, the workshop seeks to identify, describe, and prioritize multi-hazard risks capable of triggering sub-national health emergencies, while also assessing Adamawa State’s capacity to manage concurrent emergencies, including the availability of infrastructure, human resources, and overall system functionality.
They expressed optimism that the framework would strengthen the state’s resilience and improve coordination in responding to future public health emergencies and disasters
