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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Beyond FG’s task force on MDGs

Five years to the target date for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and against the backdrop of the slow pace of Nigeria in attaining the set MDG targets, a presidential task force has been set up to assess and fast track their implementation. It will be headed by President Goodluck Jonathan.

From 2000 when the Millennium Declaration was made, MDGs have become key tools for monitoring human progress in all countries across the world. In particular, eight goals were set for achievement by year 2015 by all countries. They are : Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; achievement of universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality; improvement of maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; attainment of environmental sustainability and development of a global partnership for development. On its part, the UNDP has turned the eight goals into 18 targets and 48 indicators which are used to monitor the countries’ progress.

In recent time, there was a marked positive trend in the progress made in attaining the MDG targets by Nigeria following several interventions by the Federal Government such as substantial improvement in immunisation, Midwives’ Service Scheme and National Health Insurance Scheme, amongst others.



Also, evidence abounds that Nigeria could meet three out of the eight goals by 2015, namely: achieving universal basic education; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing global partnership for development. However, the country is still far from achieving the remaining five health-related goals, five years to the target date of 2015 set for the achievement of all the MDGs. Meanwhile, lack of up-to-date data and limited funding for data generation and management are the critical barriers to achieving the MDGs in these areas.

The implication of this is that a lot of action will be needed to improve healthcare delivery in the country to achieve the MDG targets for the sector. For example, the federal government is committed to the Abuja Declaration which stipulates that every government in the ECOWAS sub-region should spend 15 percent of its national budget on health. So far, the government is yet to achieve this as it is spending about nine percent of its national budget on health. Also, Nigeria is one of the few countries still suffering from the scourge of polio. The National Health Bill which, among other things, seeks for additional funding of the health sector, is still before the National Assembly for passage into law.

Only recently, a delegation of the Economic Community of West African States’ Technical Committee on MDGs was in Nigeria to assess the progress being made by the country. Such assessment serves to keep Nigeria and other countries in the sub-region focused on the attainment of MDG targets. Nigeria must stop sloganeering on MDG goals and targets and work hard to achieve every target set in each of the sectors. The country needs action, more so that the government is poised to ensure that Nigeria does not lag behind in meeting its MDG targets.

Constitutionally, Nigeria’s federal structure puts implementation of the MDG goals at the door steps of the states and local governments. Unfortunately, these two levels of government lack the necessary institutional capacity to achieve optimum performance in the attainment of the MDG targets. In particular, they lack the quantum of funding needed to drive the programmes. And at the national level, poor governance, weak monitoring mechanism and low stakeholder involvement, particularly by the private sector and civil society organisations have remained major challenges to federal government’s achievement of the MDG goals.

It is noteworthy that the federal government has woken up from its slumber and is ready to achieve some of the set goals, in the five years remaining for the eight goals to be met. Interestingly, at the federal level, UNDP officials deal directly with the line ministries to actualise the MDG goals. This however, must be extended to the states and local government levels.

Also, these tiers of government must cooperate with the UN agencies to fast track the attainment of MDGs in the set areas, especially in the area of doctor-patient ratio which is still poor in the country, drugs availability in hospitals and in the eradication of polio, malaria and other infant mortality diseases.

Going forward, Nigeria has passed the era of political sloganeering in this regard. What is needed now is action. Many nations are ahead of Nigeria. Nigeria must move faster than it is doing now, otherwise, it will continue to lag behind other nations in the achievement of MDGs.

The federal government must show more than cursory interest in any programme designed to make Nigeria achieve its MDG goals. It must substantially improve funding of the health sector particularly as it relates to the achievement of the MDG goals by 2015.

http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73869:beyond-fgs-task-force-on-mdgs&catid=39:editorial&Itemid=679

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