UNICEF, in collaboration with Education Cannot Wait (ECW), has launched the second phase of the Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP), aiming to reach 500,000 school-age children in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states, focusing on resilience education. This initiative comes as UNICEF discloses that two million Nigerian children are still unimmunized. UNICEF emphasizes the critical need for stronger immunization efforts to bridge the gap and combat preventable diseases. Vaccines have saved over 150 million lives since 1974, preventing 24 million cases of paralysis from polio.

Despite the success of vaccines, low immunization coverage, poor sanitation, and malnutrition contribute to the resurgence of polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases in areas like Lagos. UNICEF advocates for routine immunization as the best approach, urging increased awareness to dispel misinformation and ensure consistent vaccination for every child. This strategy aims to establish a reliable vaccination calendar for all children.

In a related effort, UNICEF is partnering with the Federal Government and state authorities to decrease the number of Zero Dose (ZD) children nationwide. Nigeria currently has 2.1 million children who have not received any routine immunizations. The global target is to reduce ZD children by 25% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. UNICEF's Health Officer for the Maiduguri Field Office, Bashir Elegbede, highlights that Nigeria carries the highest global burden of ZD children, who are primarily located in conflict zones, areas affected by climate change, geographically challenging regions, pastoral communities, urban slums, and areas with weak health systems. These unimmunized children face a high risk of contracting vaccine-preventable diseases such as polio, measles, yellow fever, and viral hepatitis.

UNICEF's interventions in Yobe and Borno States have shown promising results. In Yobe, around 20,000 ZD children were vaccinated with the DPT/PENTA vaccine in 2024, with Volunteer Community Mobilisers reducing non-compliance to routine immunization to less than one per cent. In Borno State, UNICEF has reached 145,000 ZD children across prioritized local councils. The Yobe State Commissioner for Health, Mohammed Gana, acknowledges challenges such as poor healthcare-seeking behavior, ignorance, poverty, and insecurity but notes that strategic shifts and engagement with traditional and religious institutions are helping to address these issues. Over 10,000 children in two local councils have benefited from health insurance enrollment, and more than 26,000 children have been vaccinated through these efforts.

The implementation of the three-year project in 291 local councils builds on achievements from the first phase, promoting basic education access for out-of-school children in conflict-affected states. UNICEF’s Chief of Education, Vanessa Lee, emphasizes the importance of basic education for boys and girls in the North East.