The UNICEF HIV and AIDS mission to Nigeria visited the Agency Tuesday 16th February 2010 to discuss issues of mutual interests and collaboration with NACA to further the mandates of the two organisations.

The UNICEF HIV/AIDS chief Dr Jimmy Koker thanked the NACA DG, Prof. John Idoko  for his warm  welcome and various achievements in the organisation.
He commended the progress that the UNICEF in-country team has made with the Nigerian Government especially the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme.

Dr Jimmy said Nigeria is important in the global response to HIV/AIDS especially in respect to the un-met needs of pregnant women. He said that UNICEF can lend some support toward Nigeria’s plan to scale-up PMTCT and is considering a grant that could be used to achieve an evidence-based proactive national response.

Addressing the UNICEF delegation, the NACA DG, Prof. John Idoko gave an overview of NACA, what it stands for and what it does. He explained that NACA has the mandate to oversee HIV and AIDS-related activities in the country. He highlighted that the national strategic plan has been developed in alignment with the MDGs and is about to be finalised. All States, line- ministries and other public sector organisations were involved in the development process.

Prof. Idoko emphasised that coordination is key and there’s a need for the coordination that exists in the federal level to be replicated in the state  and local levels too. He highlighted critical focus areas including decentralisation of services, health system strengthening, integration of services, strengthening prevention, addressing gender issues and monitoring and evaluation.

Supported by the Head of HIV/AIDS division of NASCP, Dr Balami, the DG thanked the UNICEF team for the visit and hoped for more support and technical assistance.