Nigeria records progress on MDGs indicators

Nigeria records progress on MDGs indicators

Nigeria is making progress on nearly all the MDGs indicators, the Director MDGs, Office of the Senior Special Assistant on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Mr Oluwole Edun, declares.

Edun said this in Abuja, at a lecture on Countdown to the MDGs, with the theme: “Accelerating Progress to 2015.''

According to him, the country has, in some cases, improved faster than at any other point in our history as the proportion of underweight children fell from 36 per cent in 1990 to 23 per cent in 2008.

“Net School enrolment has risen from just 68 per cent in 1990 to over 80 per cent and a one-third reduction in maternal mortality in just five years reflects targeted investments and effective partnerships.

“HIV prevalence has fallen from 5.8 per cent in 2001 to 4.2 per cent in 2008 and these statistics provide confirmation of our ability to provide basic services and social protection,” he said.

Persistent low areas

Edun, however, said that major challenges like how best to provide quality teaching and learning environment to turn around primary competition had persisted while access to water and sanitation remained stubbornly low.

He noted that up-to-date information on poverty rates was expected to be made available in the near future and would provide a major indication of success in linking economic growth to poverty reduction and employment generation.

Critical imperatives

The director identified four strategic imperatives that were critical to achieving progress on the MDGs to include improving governance and accountability and strengthening coordination between the three tiers of government.

Others, according to him, are mobilising and securing the commitment of all stakeholders to achieving the MDGs and ensuring the effective mainstreaming of the MDGs into national and sub-national development plans.

“To achieve this transformation, we must continue to counteract the myths surrounding the MDGs,'' he said.

Platform for presenting issues

Earlier in his opening remarks, Dr Ibrahim Daudu, Permanent Secretary, State House, said the lecture would serve as a platform for internal and external leaders of thoughts to present a wide range of topical issues concerning Nigeria’s development, particularly on the MDGs.

Daudu said that with less than five years to the 2015 deadline to achieving the MDGs, there was a need to think harder and faster about more innovative ways of service delivery.

He therefore, charged all participants to think and find creative and innovative solutions to Nigeria’s problems.

NAN/Williams