From Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the Federal University of Kashere (FUK) in Gombe State have signed a memorandum of understanding to promote the study of communication for social and behavioural change.
According to the Country Director of UNICEF, Mrs Christian Munduate, with the MoU signed on Tuesday at FUK, communication experts will be produced to create social balance and address the issues of negative narrative in society.
She said, choosing the federal university in Kashere to pilot the project is deliberate, considering the availability of resources and enabling environment created by the management of the institution to enable the project to become a reality.
“The introduction of Communication for Social and behavioural change in the federal university of Kashere will produce experts that will compete favourably in the global arena in promoting women and children’s needs, especially in the north-eastern part of the country,” she said.
There are so many challenges in Nigeria affecting children and women’s well-being, if not addressed” We will never reach a prosperous Nigeria hence the need for communication for social and behavioural change,” the Country Director added.
On his part, FUK Vice Chancellor Prof Umaru Pate said that communication for social and behavioural change is an area and a capacity that needs to be developed to produce experts that will champion the development of health for women and children.
“We are in the era of fake news and disinformation, We need to have specialists that can always be there for more development, specifically the health of women and children,” Pate stated.
He stressed that information dissemination cannot be taken for granted hence the need to train people who can counter the negative narrative being bandied on different social media platforms.
