The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says it will continue to strengthen collaboration with the Katsina state government to achieve open defecation free (ODF) status by 2025.

The UNICEF chief of Kano field office, Rahama Mohammed, stated this during the 2024 end of the year review meeting and 2025-2027 work plan consultation workshop held in Katsina, on Thursday.

Ms Mohammed said that the health benefits of being an ODF were enormous, “and that collaborative efforts would be sustained to ensure that Katsina joins Jigawa to become ODF in two years time.

“More than 46 million Nigerians are reported to defecate openly, with Jigawa being the first state to be designated as ODF by the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS) in 2022.

“Same year, the Clean Nigeria Campaign (CNC), showed that, of the 34 Local Government Areas in Katsina State, only 24 had been declared ODF, with 10 other councils yet to achieve this status”.

Ms Mohammed also lamented that the problem of stunted growth amongst children in the state was rising despite significant decrease in neighbouring Kano and Jigawa states.

He, therefore, stressed the need for stakeholders to look into the issue with a view to addressing it.

According to him, the review meeting and the consultation were aimed at assessing how far collaboration between UNICEF and the state government had gone in tackling problems affecting children in the state.

The officer noted that the workshop would enable UNICEF and the government to think outside the box on ways to successfully partner in the future, to address issues that bordered on five thematic areas.

He identified the thematic areas to include out-of-school children, stunted growth among children, water, elimination of polio, and open defecation.

(NAN)