UNGA 81: Minister outlines pathway from humanitarian relief to shared prosperity

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard M Doro, has said Nigeria is advancing a new approach that seeks to connect humanitarian assistance directly to protection, productivity, economic inclusion and sustainable pathways out of poverty.

Doro spoke during a high-level side event at the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 81) on 24 September at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The event, themed “Beyond Assistance: Reducing Poverty, Advancing Protection and Building Shared Prosperity”, brought together government leaders, United Nations officials, development partners and experts to examine how humanitarian interventions can move beyond immediate relief towards lasting protection, resilience, self-reliance and shared prosperity.

This was contained in a statement by the minister’s Senior Technical Adviser on Information Systems and Data Analysis, Dr Abimbola Fasanu.

The minister said the administration of President Bola Tinubu is working to shift humanitarian and poverty reduction interventions from fragmented, emergency-driven responses towards more integrated, data-driven and household-centred systems.

“Humanitarian assistance must save lives, but our responsibility cannot end there. Vulnerable households also need credible pathways to resilience, self-reliance and shared prosperity,” the minister said.

At the centre of this approach is the minister’s flagship reform under the Renewed Hope Agenda, “One Humanitarian One Poverty Response System (OHOPRS)”, designed to strengthen coordination across humanitarian response, social protection, poverty reduction and economic inclusion.

Doro explained that OHOPRS seeks to reduce fragmentation and duplication, improve the use of data and strengthen coordination so that vulnerable households can be connected to appropriate interventions throughout their journey from vulnerability towards resilience and prosperity.

He identified a four-stage pathway underpinning the approach to include palliative, protection, productivity and prosperity, describing it as a deliberate effort to ensure that emergency assistance becomes an entry point into a wider system capable of connecting vulnerable households to social protection, skills, livelihoods, enterprise, financial inclusion and other opportunities for sustainable economic participation.

“Success in poverty reduction cannot be measured only by how many people receive assistance. We must increasingly ask what happens to the household after the intervention. Our goal is to connect relief to recovery, recovery to productivity and productivity to prosperity,” Doro said.

He also reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, linking immediate humanitarian response with recovery, resettlement, social cohesion and longer-term development.

He stressed the importance of national ownership and domestic resource mobilisation in building sustainable systems capable of protecting vulnerable populations and responding effectively to shocks.

The event was convened by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), IQS, PVBLIC and Learning Economic Foundation.

A message from the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J Mohammed, was delivered by Mr Mohamed Yahya, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim and Ms Ugochi Daniels, IOM’s Deputy Director General for Operations, also contributed to the high-level discussions.

Ambassador Odumegwu-Ojukwu stressed that while humanitarian assistance remains essential, assistance alone cannot provide a sustainable pathway out of poverty or address the underlying difficulties confronting vulnerable communities.

She highlighted the importance of initiatives under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda aimed at creating more sustainable livelihoods and opportunities for vulnerable communities.

Ms Daniels underscored the importance of translating evidence into action, including ensuring that early-warning information triggers timely response and that humanitarian support connects effectively with social protection and sustainable economic opportunities.

In her contribution, Hajiya Sulaiman-Ibrahim highlighted the importance of moving from repeated and fragmented palliatives towards sustainable productivity and shared prosperity, while strengthening integrated approaches to addressing vulnerability. Post-event reporting similarly highlighted her emphasis on this transition.

The event also featured expert discussions involving Professor Sabina Alkire of the University of Oxford, representatives of IOM Nigeria and the International Rescue Committee, as well as Dr Kehinde Ajayi of the Center for Global Development, among other participants.

Doro said the discussions in New York reinforced Nigeria’s determination to build a humanitarian and poverty reduction architecture in which assistance is not the end of the journey for vulnerable households, but a bridge towards dignity, resilience and sustainable economic participation.

“We are moving from palliatives to pathways and from vulnerability to shared prosperity. The ultimate measure of our interventions must be whether vulnerable households are able to recover, become more resilient and progressively move towards self-reliance,” he said.