8th February, 2013
With less than three years to the target date of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Dr. Precious Kalamba Gbeneol speaks with DESMOND UTOMWEN on the efforts by her office to meet the goals in the face of daunting challenges
How do you assess Nigeria’s progress towards attaining the MDGs?
It is important to recognise the persistent difficulties in obtaining up-to-date information regarding the MDGs indicators in a large and complex developing country such as Nigeria. One critical factor is the fact that the attainment of the MDGs is measured by result-driven, outcome indicators (which is different from output). Such data are extremely difficult to obtain in any country as it not only takes prolonged periods to experience the impact of policy interventions, it is almost impossible to attribute particular impacts to specific policy interventions solely by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, OSSAP-MDGs. In spite of these challenges, since September 2011, OSSAP-MDGs has made strides in tackling the problems in data collection. For example, the office has set up an inter-ministerial committee to prepare the 2012 MDGs report – the last comprehensive MDGs report was completed in 2010. Nigeria has made progress in the quest to attain the MDGs, although we have our challenges. For instance, the net enrolment rate in primary schools has risen to about 90 per cent from 68 per cent in 1990, although there are regional variations and recent reversals in crisis-prone areas. Infant mortality has dropped from 100/1,000 live births as recently as 2003 to 75/1,000 live births in 2008. The maternal mortality rate has fallen from 800/100,000 live births in 2003 to 545/100,000 live births in 2008. The target is 250/100,000 live births by 2015. My team has initiated the mechanism geared towards attaining the MDGs by 2015.
Do you think Nigeria will achieve the MDGs by 2015?
Initial reports have established we are making progress. MDGs 4 and 5 have, however, remained the most challenging to attain in Nigeria as is the case with other developing countries. For instance, the current annual reduction in under-five mortality of 4 per cent is far below the 13 per cent annual reduction needed to bend the curve to attain Goal 4 by 2015. As a medical doctor, there is still a lot more to be done. It is unacceptable that mothers still experience avoidable deaths. The HIV prevalence has also dropped to about 4.1 per cent but we still have the task of reversing the trend. Access to potable water has improved and infant mortality has also dropped significantly. The net enrolment rate has increased to about 89 per cent. These are some modest achievements that should serve as impetus to propel us to strive harder to attain the Goals by the set deadline. Speaking generally, therefore, I will say that a lot of impact has been made and progresses on the MDGs are quite noticeable. All hands should therefore be on deck as we accelerate progress towards the attainment of the MDGs by 2015. Also, we are collaborating with strategic partners to ensure Nigeria accelerates progress towards the attainment of the MDGs. The “Save One Million Lives Initiative” of the Federal Ministry of Health derives some funding from OSSAP-MDGs. Our recently scaled up Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme will reach more than 56,000 households who have to fulfil health conditions to benefit from the programme. We notice that progress made on specific goals differs from country to country. Why are the health goals the most challenging to attain for the country?
Globally, the health MDGs have been acclaimed by experts to be challenging to achieve. Like I mentioned earlier, we are already making progress in these areas. Some of the challenges we face are the large, diverse population and the regional differences that come with this. We also have human resource constraints which we are mitigating with the Midwives Service Scheme, MSS, CHEWs programme, and recently, the Village Health Workers’ Scheme. As you may be aware, the MSS recently won the 2012 CAPAM Award held in India, beating other countries like Canada and Australia.
Looking at the eight goals, which of them would you say is most important?
Poverty reduction (MDG 1) is the foundation for the other MDGs. Success with this goal enhances the likelihood of attaining the other goals. If you look at it critically, if a community is empowered, the community will construct hospitals and will have access to good nutrition, quality healthcare services as well as quality educational facilities. I can say that the sum total of the MDGs is embedded in Goal 1. Everything revolves around poverty.
In summary, is poverty eradication or alleviation one legacy you would want to leave behind?
Basically, I will like to reduce poverty as much as I can and improve access to healthcare, water, education as well as ensure proper sanitation in the environment by using the MDGs funds drawn from the DRGs. It is my hope that these efforts will improve the lives of the poor, bridge the inequality gap and accelerate Nigeria’s progress against the MDGs.
In spite of the huge resources committed so far in the fight against poverty, why is the poverty level still very high and prevalent in Nigeria, as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics?
Goal 1 is a challenge as reflected by the recent report released by the National Bureau of Statistics. Although the report put the poverty rate at about 65 per cent using a relative poverty indicator, the same report arrived at a poverty rate of about 56 per cent using the internationally accepted MDGs indicator for measuring poverty. For emphasis, a poverty rate of either 65 per cent or 56 per cent is unacceptably high and all hands should be on deck to reduce this. The fight against poverty cannot be won overnight. It requires concerted effort from all stakeholders including federal, state, local governments, private sector and individuals. Everyone must display commitment if the battle must be won.
In what way would you say the problem of endemic corruption in the Nigerian society affects efforts towards the attainment of the MDGs?
What determines whether corruption thrives or not are the mechanisms that have been put in place to check it. The MDGs office in Nigeria has a framework in place that encourages transparency and accountability to discourage leakages. Some of these mechanisms include: a re-invigorated open monitoring and evaluation system, enhancement of community feedback through low-cost technology like rapid SMS into a central database, reduction of administrative cost and overhead, encouraging parliamentary oversight, enhancing collaboration between the three tiers of government for good governance, transparency and accountability.