ASSESSMENT OF NIGERIA’S MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT

The study was motivated by the continuous rise in the poverty level in Nigeria amidst the country’s  vast  human  and  material  resources  that  can  guarantee  sustainable  economic growth  and  development  and  also  the  pervasive  gender  inequality  that  persists  among households.  It is on this premise  that this study assessed  Millennium  Development  Goal (MDG)  with  special focus on goal one and goal three, and  implications  for Sustainable Development .The study was guided by five research objectives and tested four hypotheses. Data  was  sourced  from  the  MDGs  database,  World  Development  Indicators,  UNESCO institute for statistics data series on enrolment and the United Nations statistics division; with the aid of segmented regression model of analysis. The results suggest that the Millennium Development Goals development policy had no significant effect on the poverty situation in Nigeria and on the proportion of employed population below $1.25 per day while there were significant improvements on the share of women in the wage level in the non-agricultural sector and on educational parity in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that conscious efforts be made to end poverty in all its forms everywhere as indicated in the Sustainable Development  Goal 1. Also, States and Federal  Government  agencies  responsible  for  the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be pragmatic in their responsibilities and also employs sound monitoring strategies. There should be emphasis on tracking  progress  on  the  indicators  for the  targets  and  goals  by  setting  up  viable  and longevity programs that will enhance sustainable development by 2030.This can be justified by the fact that once poverty and all its forms can be  ended,  sustainable  development  is guaranteed.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the Study

Nigeria with a population of over 160 million people and a land area of 923,773km2is well- endowed with vast human and material resources that can guarantee sustainable  economic growth and development (National Bureau of Statistics, 2010). Nigeria rebased its GDP from

1990 to 2010, resulting in an 89% increase in the estimated size of the economy. As a result, the country now boasts of having the largest economy in Africa with an estimated nominal GDP of USD 510 billion, surpassing South Africa’s  USD 352  billion (African Economic Outlook, 2014).

However, since the global economic crisis of the 1980s and the introduction of the Structural Adjustment  Programme  (SAP)  in  1986,  Nigeria  has  been  plagued  with  some  serious economic problems. One of such problem is the increase in the level of poverty. There is widespread   miserly  among   majority  of  Nigerians   because   their   living  standard   has deteriorated due to low income and hunger. Only a small  proportion of the population of Nigeria  has  access  to  education,  health  care  services,  good  roads  and  adequate  shelter. Poverty has also led to increases in crime, child labour, child abandonment, high child and maternal mortality rates and reduction in life expectancy of most adults (Ijaiya, 1998)

It was observed by Aigbokhan, (2008) that poverty reduction has received increased focus in development debate in the past two decades and progress on poverty reduction has become a major measure of success of development policy. Meanwhile, the reduction of poverty is the most difficult challenge facing any country in the developing world  where on the average: majority of the population is considered poor. To fight the  poverty scourge, surging crime rate  and  incidence  of  poverty,  different  government  administrations  introduced  diverse poverty reduction policies (PRPs) to redress the problems and challenges (Eriki and Okafor,

2005) thereby making Nigerians creative, innovative and resourceful to create more wealth and improve their general wellbeing. Some of the poverty reduction policies (PRPs) initiated by different  regimes  in  Nigeria  before  and  after  the  implementation  of  MDGs  include: National  Accelerated  Food  Production  Programme  (NAFPP)  and  Nigerian  Agricultural Cooperative Bank (NACB) in the year 1972 and 1973; Operation Feed the Nation (OFN),

1976; Green Revolution  Programme  (GRP), 1979; Directorate  of Food, Roads and  Rural

Infrastructure   (DFRRI)   ,   1983;   National   Agricultural   Land   Development   Authority

(NALDA);   Family  Economic   Advancement   Programme   (FEAP)  and  Family   Support Programme (FSP), 1987; National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), 2001; National Economic  Empowerment  and  Development  Strategy  (NEEDS);  However,  the  National Economic and Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS)  of 2004 with its States and Local  government  versions;  SEEDS  and LEEDS  respectively  are direct  responses  to the MDGs;  “Seven-Point  Agenda;    Economic  Transformation  Agenda  including  the  Vision

20:2020 presently under implementation (Raimi et al, 2011).

However, evidence in Nigeria shows that the proportion of people under the poverty line has continued to increase as shown below

Table 1.1: Poverty Profile for Nigeria

Year	Poverty Incidence (%)	Estimated Population (Million)	Population in poverty (Million)
1980	27.2	65	17.1
1985	46.3	75	34.7
1992	42.7	91.5	39.2
1996	65.6	102.3	67.1
2004	54.4	126.3	68.7
2010	69.0	163	112.47

Source: National Bureau of Statistics. HNLSS 2010

The proportion of the population living below the poverty line increased significantly from

1980 to 2010. The incidence of poverty increased during the period 1980-1996;  however, there was a decline in poverty level between 1996 and 2004. In spite of the observed drop in poverty in 1992 and 2004, the population in poverty was 4.5 million higher than the 1985 figure and 1.6  million  higher  than the 1996  figure.  According  to  Kankwanda(2002),  the reduction  in poverty level to  54.4%  in 2004  may be  traceable  to  reforms  introduced  to alleviate poverty since the declaration of the MDGS in September, 2000.

It was opined by Anyogu and Arinze-Umobi (2011) that the Nigerian economy is an agrarian one and women constitute  the majority of the poor. They however  said  that  women are characterized by landlessness, as women are not allowed to own land traditionally in many parts of Nigeria although women can today, acquire land by purchase or by allocation from government. Many are remote from development assistance due to time, health and illiteracy constraints.  The gender dimension of  poverty  is therefore greatly reinforced.Equal  gender relations are the key principles in the distribution of valued resources in any society. Gender

inequality  generally  manifests  as a pervasive  division  that channels  access  to social  and economic resources away from women and towards men (Ahmed, 2004). The high incidence of poverty among women  is associated  with unequal  access to productive  resources  and control of assets. This, in addition to poor health, lack of education, personal insecurity and limited participation in public life, result in the double  disadvantage of poor women thus, perpetuating gender inequality (Department for International Development, 1997).

Therefore, a focus on poverty will necessarily mean a focus on women. This is because the

2011 United Nations Population Statistics indicates that women constitute more than  fifty percent of the global population. This is true because in most nations of the world, females represent about fifty percent or more of the population and yet the fact of  their profound marginalization and vulnerability has remained the bane of global development (Wiest et al.,

2004). Most women all over the world share a common feature of marginalization in many spheres  of  life  (Igbuzor,  2005).  Poor  women  bear  a  disproportionately  high  burden  of maternal mortality and morbidity and this is traceable to the lack of empowerment of women in accessing education. According to Department for International Development (2007), it is difficult to exaggerate how vital gender equality is. It further stated that gender inequality has nothing to do with political correctness,  but  everything to do with justice. It is not about tinkering with social conventions,  but  about unlocking more than half the world’s poorest people from being trapped in poverty.

As a result of these observed phenomena in almost all developing economies of the world, there  was  a  consensus  call  for  global  approach  to  the  problem  and  solution  to  poverty worldwide. Therefore after keen observation and deliberation, the  international community decided  to  present  common  goals  towards  poverty  eradication  globally.  This  was  what brought about the subject matter “Millennium Development Goals”.

The Millennium Development Goals was to act as policy guidelines on international efforts to   combat   extreme   poverty   and   promote   sustainable   development   among   member countriesadopted by one hundred and eighty-ninenations and signed by one hundred andforty seven heads of state and government  in New  Yorkduringthe  UN  Millennium  Summit  in September,  2000.  The  MDGs  consisted  of  eight  goals,  decomposedinto  eighteen  (18) quantifiable targets andmeasurable by forty eight (48) indicators to beachieved in a period of fifteen years starting fromyear 2000. This was corroborated by Social Watch (2008), which

reported that the overall goal of the Millennium Declaration which gave birth to the MDGs was a reinstatement of commitment to free all men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing  conditions of extreme poverty by the year 2015. As a result  of this, Bello (2007)  argued  that  the  year  2000  has  often  been  recognized  by  the  United  Nations, governments and concerned citizens alike, as the year when the world had an unprecedented opportunity to put in place the policies and resources needed to  fight global poverty and achieve  international  development through non-discriminatory  education especially gender based.

The MDGs were the highest-level expression of the international community’s development priorities.   They  committed   the  international   community  to   an  action   agenda   which emphasized  sustainable,  human development  as the key to fulfilling  social and economic progress. All 189 Member States of the United Nations pledged to achieve these goals by the year 2015 (Abama and Kwaja, 2009).  Though the MDGs were eight in number, assessing goal one and goal three which were focused on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger as well as promoting gender equality and  empowering women (United Nations Development Report, 2011) are the primary focus in this study.

By targeting $1.25 per day poverty, Millennium Development Goal 1 directs attention to the poorest  nations  and  the  poorest  groups  within  the  country.This  goal  wascentred  on  the eradication of extremepoverty and hunger. This goal had two majortargets;the first target was measuredby the proportion of the population livingbelow US$1.25 per day, poverty gap ratio and  theshare  of  the  poorest  quintile  in  national  consumption.The  second  target  was  the halving of the proportionof people who suffer from hunger, measurableby the prevalence of underweight childrenunder five years of age and the proportionof the population living below minimum level ofdietary energy consumption.

Also, the promotion ofgender equality and the empowerment of women which was the third goal had a target aimed ateliminating gender disparity in primary and  secondaryeducation, preferably by 2005 and to alllevels of education not later than 2015. Thebenchmarks for this target were the ratio of girlsto boys in primary,  secondary and  tertiary education;ratio  of literate females to males of ages15-24 year old; share of women in wage employmentin non- agricultural sector; and the proportionof seats held by women in the parliament.

Since the adoption of these goals in 2000, member countries of the UN (Nigeria inclusive) have made great strides towards the attainment of these goals. Nigeria has in collaboration with  UN  agencies  like  United  Nations  Educational,  Scientific  and  Cultural  Organisation (UNESCO),  United  Nations  Children’s  Fund  (UNICEF),  United  Nations  Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank (WB) and other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) executed  projects  aimed  at  meeting  the   set   targets  for  the  attainment  of  the  goals. Conspicuous among these measures was  the huge investment  in various measures for the fight  against  poverty and  the  education  of women  and  girls.  For  instance,  the  National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) described as a medium term strategy was one of the poverty eradication measures put in place by the Nigerian Federal Government (Chukwuemeka, 2009).

In Nigeria,  some  laudable  efforts  were made  to put  in place  the  necessary  mechanisms required for the elimination of gender discrimination so as to ensure gender parity and human dignity. The National Gender Policy, which replaced and reinforced  the previous National Policy on Women, was particularly targeted at the gender inequality problematic in Nigeria. In the face of the above, the history of development policies in Nigeria has somewhat been that of lackadaisical attitude to the gender  variable. The first two decades of development planning  in  Nigeria  from  1963  when  it  became  a  Republic,  for  instance,  was  largely characterized by gender- blind and gender-insensitive development policies (Ejumudo, 2013). In the same vein, Nigeria, particularly since the wake of the 1980s, embraced gender-biased economic policies where women’s interests were subsumed within the national interest and gender  sensitivity  was  almost  inconsequential,  infinitesimal  and  a  non-issue.  With  the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals by the United Nations in September 2000 more interest has been generated and a better attention paid to the pursuit of gender sensitive policies at both global and national levels.

Cognizance  of the  fact  that the  time  frame  for the attainment  of the MDGs  elapsed  in September, 2015 accompanied with the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals with  seventeen  goals  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  nine  targets,  mindful  of  the  important

position  women  occupy  in  21st   century  economies,  especially  in  Nigeria,  aware  of  the

increasing poverty among the Nigerian citizenry, especially among the female gender,  and bearing  in mind  the  revolving  role of education  in the  attainment  of these  goals,  it   is pertinent that for empirical evidence, and a need for contributions to the  advancement  of

knowledge, better economic policies for the fight against poverty among women in Nigeria, one begins assessing Millennium Development Goal one and Millennium Development Goal three to know the extent to which these goals were achieved and to identify priority areas for SDGs realizing that goal 1 and goal 3 are the bedrock for the attainment of the other goals.

1.2      Statement of the Problem

The Nigerian economy which now boast of having the largest economy in Africa and also characterized  by vast human and material resources that guarantees economic  growth and development  aims  to  attain  sustainable  development  by 2030.  Sustainable  Development Goals which replaced Millennium Development Goals now acts as the development policy guidelines to attain this objective. This is because according to Kakwanda, 2002; Edoh, 2003; and Mahammed, 2006, a nation’s first goal must be to end poverty and satisfy the primary needs for all its citizens in a way that  will not jeopardize  the opportunity  for the future generations to attain the same objective and also eradicating poverty is regarded as the most important  goal  of  human  development  which  must  be  about  improvement  of  human wellbeing, removal of hunger, disease and promoting productive employment for all.

However,  more  than  fifty percent  of  the  population  in sub-Saharan  Africa  still  lived  in extreme poverty in 2015 (Millennium  Development  Goals Report, 2015).  Meanwhile,  for Nigeria to have attained the target one of the MDGs, poverty was supposed to be reduced from 42 per cent in 1990  to 21 per cent in 2015.  But by  2010,  Okpe and Abu, (2009) perspicaciously  remarked  that  Nigeria  witnessed  a  monumental  increase  in  the  level  of poverty. According to them, poverty level stood at 74.2 per cent in the year 2000.

On another front, women in Nigeria as in most African countries are disproportionately poor; disempowered  and  severely  constrained  by  lack  of  access  to  basic  services  and  other productive assets.Several factors including; girl child marriages, gender biases against girls’ education, women’s limited mobility, women’s lack of control over fertility decisions, gender gaps in wages amongst others further contribute in making women  disadvantaged  and ill- equipped to face the economic challenges of the time.

Meanwhile, gender inequality within the overall society and across all sectors reflects wide disparities between men and women. This, thus contribute to uneven development and the feminization of poverty. For example, Canadian International Development Agency, 2012 is

of the opinion that 65% of those living below the poverty line are women among the 70% of population estimated to be living below the poverty line.

In addition, Ejumudo (2013), asserted that gender parity in school enrolment has a  multi- dimensional advantage and a multiplier effect notably because it will help to reduce poverty, lower mortality rates and promote concern for the environment, aside from the opportunity to learn skills and acquire knowledge that will encourage their participation in the development process through social, economic and political decision-making.

The problem poses a concern to the researcher because despite the diverse poverty reduction policies  (PRPs)  and romance  with MDGs,  the  wellbeing  of the  Nigerians  has not really improved  as  evidenced  from  reliable  socio-economic  data.  International  rating  agencies especially UNDP reported that the indices of poverty in Nigeria are worsening, with about

70% of the population living below poverty lines of less than a $1.25 a day (Ani, 2011). Also taking note from the assertions of Ejumudo, 2013; gender equality is not only seen as an end or intrinsic value in itself and as a human right issue, but as a pre-requisite  for attaining sustainable development and its centrality to attaining all other MDGs.  More importantly, realizing that the Millennium  Development  Goals elapsed  in  September,  2015 which has given way for Sustainable Development Goals, the researcher intends to specifically assess the Millennium Development Goal one and Millennium DevelopmentGoal threeperformance using selective indicators from the targets in order to identify priority areasand  implications for Sustainable Development in Nigeria. This has led to the following research questions;

1.3      Research Questions

1.   How has MDGsdevelopment policy impactedon the poverty situation in Nigeria?

2.   To what extent hasMDGs development policy had impact on employment in Nigeria?

3.   What  is  the  impact  of  the  MDGs  policy  on  the  wage  level  of  women  in  the  non- agricultural sector in Nigeria?

4.   What is the effect of the MDGs development policy on educational parity in Nigeria?

5.   What are the post priority areas for post MDGs policy focus in Nigeria?

1.4      Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of the study is to assess Nigeria’s MDG one and three performance and its implication for Sustainable Development. Specifically, the study intends to consider the following:

1.   To assess the impact of MDGs development policy on the poverty situation in Nigeria

2.   To measure the impact of the MDGs development policy on employment in Nigeria

3.   To analyse the impact of MDGs development policy on the wage level of women in the non-agricultural sector in Nigeria.

4.   To examine the effect of MDGs development policy on educational parity in Nigeria

5.   To identify priority areas for post MDG development policy (SDGs) in Nigeria

1.5      Research Hypotheses

Ho1:    There exists no significant impact of MDGs on the poverty situation in Nigeria

Ho2:    There exists no significant impact of MDGs on employment in Nigeria.

Ho3:    There exists no significant impact of MDGs on the wage level of women in the non- agricultural sector in Nigeria

Ho4:    There exists no significant effect of MDGs on educational parity in Nigeria

1.6      Scope of the Study

Geographically, the study covers the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Content wise, the study is concerned  with  assessing  the  MDG  one  and  MDGthree,  that  is;  eradication  of  extreme poverty and hunger; To cut in half the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day, to achieve decent employment for women, men and young people and promote gender equality and empower women – Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by

2005 and in all levels of education by 2015.  The scope also reflected pre and post MDGs era of goal one and goal three.

However, the targets that represented MDGs in the study are the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 dollar a day, decent employment for women, men and young people and they  will  be  used  as  proxy to  poverty  situation  in  Nigeria  and  employment  in Nigeria respectively which captured objective one and two of the study. Also, the gender disparity in education and economic empowerment of women will be used as proxy to educational parity in Nigeria and wage level of women in the  non-agricultural  sector in Nigeria respectively captured objective three and four of the study.

Therefore,the  specific  variables  that  were  used  for  the  study  under  these  targets  were; percentage of population below $1.25 a day, poverty gap ratio at $1.25 a day, share of poorest quintile  in  national  consumption,  GDP  growth  per  employed  person,  employment  rate, proportion of employed population below $1.25 per day, proportion of family-based workers in employed population, share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector, and gender parity indices for primary, secondary and tertiary level enrolment.

1.7      Significance of the Study

This study shall benefit the government with relevant and reliable information on the extent to which the MDG one and three were achieved in Nigeria and also contribute to the debate on  sustainable  development,  its  implications  as  well  as  recommend  policy  options  for sustainable development in Nigeria.

Also, it is hoped that the expected results of this research work should sway policy makers and advisers in closely related fields in framing and implementing policies for  sustainable development in Nigeria.To the researchers, this shall become another body of closely related works so as to readily provide a pool of data for subsequent works.

1.8      Limitation of the Study

Just like every standard research study, this study was not void of limitations. One of  the limitations of this study was data availability. In fact, the study found it difficult to  assess documents that had reliable start and end data set between the baseline period and the end of implementation period. Furthermore,  the study was not a sponsored one and  so could not experience the smooth process that it would have if it had adequate funds.

1.9      Organization of the Study

The study is organized in five chapters; the first chapter detailed the background of the study showing the related works, policies and the existing debate, followed by the statement of the problem that showed  the research and economic problem of the study that translates  into research  questions  and  objectives  of the  study.  The second  chapter  detailed  the existing theoretical  and  empirical  literature  on  the  subject  matter  while  chapter  three  showed thetheoretical framework and model specification employed in the study and the presentation of results  and evaluation  of hypotheses  were  discussed  in chapter  four. The last chapter captioned as chapter five, summarized the study, concludes and proffered recommendations from the findings and then proposed areas for further research.

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