FROM: PAUL ORUDE, BAUCHI

The National Bureau of Statistics, in collaboration with the United
Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has launched the Multiple Indicator
Cluster Survey (MICS) 2016-2017 in the north east region.

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The launch of the scheme was held at Chartwell Hotel and Suites, Bauchi, on Thursday.
The MICS 2016 was supported by UNICEF, UNFPA, The World Bank, World
Health Organisation, and National Agency for the Control of AIDS
(NACA), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others.
In her welcome remarks atbthe event, NBS Coordinator in Bauchi State, Mrs. Jummai Saleh, urged participants drawn from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states, to assist policy makers to use the 2017
National Survey Finding Report to plan for the well-being of the
people, particularly women and children in the region.
In his address, Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale,
said that the MICS survey has become the largest source of statically
sound and internationally comparable data on women and children
worldwide.
Kale said that MICS survey focused on issues such as health,
education, child protection, water and sanitation amongst others.
“The report serves as the major source of data for establishing the
baseline for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda to measure the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators,” he said.
He disclosed that the staff of NBS and UNICEF, alongside other
partners were traveling across the six geo political zones of the
country to launch the report.
“The man purpose is to ensure that the whole country, not just Abuja
and Lagos, as much as possible get to hear and see the report.
“As we do with the launch or publication of any of our statistical
report, it will be published on our website and on social media for
easy access by those who cannot get a hard copy
“We will also be advocating and encouraging the use of this results
being launched here (Bauchi) today for evidenced based planning and
decision making which is the main objective of data”
National Coordinator of MICS 2016, Dr. Adeyemi Adeniran, expressed
concern that results of the findings showed that the North East and
North West regions are lagging behind other zones in performance,
especially in U-5 mortality rates, nutrition indicators among others.
Adeniran explained that the results of the finding would be taken to
the grassroots, urging Permanent Secretaries, Directors and major
policy makers in the various states in the region to make data based
decisions to reverse poor indicators.
Speaking with newsmen, UNICEF’S Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
Specialist, Bauchi Office, Dr Danjuma Musptapha, said he was happy
with innovations in this year’s MICS such as the use of digital
process.
Daily Sun reports that summary of the finding showed that the North
East region of the country has the highest number of out of school
children, with 39.8 per cent of primary school age children out of
school while 37.3 per cent of secondary school age children in the
region are not in school.
The report showed that more than a quarter of primary and secondary
school age children are out of school (27 and 26 per cent
respectively) in the entire country.
It showed that the north east region also has the lowest school
enrolment and attendance in the whole country put at 27.2 per cent
Meanwhile, the survey found out that out of 100 children born alive,
seven die before their first birthday and four die within the first
month of life.
The report showed that under 5 mortality rate is higher in the north
than south with north west having the highest (162 per 1000 live
births) and the lowest in the south west.
“Children living in rural areas, having mother with no formal
education and living in poor household have higher probability of
dying before reaching the 5th birthday,” the survey findings
discovered.
He expressed the hope that the national survey finding would help
UNICEF and stakeholders to plan effectively in the various sectors
that affect women and children.