In the year 2000, over 148 countries signed up to the Millennium Declaration, which articulated a bold vision and established concrete targets for improving and saving the lives of those threatened by diseases and hunger.

As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, the United Nations and the international community at large have started work on a new development framework.

Many countries, particularly in Sub-Sahara Africa have seen important progress across all goals, though uneven. In Nigeria, this has been no different as results from the MDGs Performance Tracking Survey in 2012 indicate that Goal 3. Gender Parity has already been achieved ahead of the 2015 deadline; while Goals 4 and 5 have strong prospects of being met by 2015.

In recognition of the important role of data and in demonstration of the commitment of the Federal Government to meeting the targets of the MDGs, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) commissioned the 2014 MDGs Performance Tracking Survey. According to a report published on its website, the 2014 survey was the second of such exercise embarked upon by the NBS and was designed to generate specific indicators to monitor progress of the MDGs across the goals.

NBS also notes that the findings will also help policy makers to identify gaps and challenges to the realisation of the goals and proffer solutions to ultimately achieve a successful completion of the MDGs targets by 2015. The survey generated several indicators across seven of the eight MDG goals to track progress.

Equally as important to drafting a new development framework, is the need to assess the impact and effectiveness of the MDGs on the lives of people.

Starting from the first goal, the survey concludes that extreme poverty and hunger has been prevalent in the African continent for decades. In view of this, the MDGs sought to halve between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

“For this report, the prevalence of underweight in under-five children was measured. In 2014, the percentage of underweight prevalence was 25.50 per cent which is a positive decrease by 6.9 per cent in comparison with 27.40 per cent in 2012. This shows that there is a lower prevalence of underweight children in 2014.”

The achieving universal primary education target is that by 2015, all children (boys and girls) would have completed a full course of primary schooling. The indicator for this target is the net attendance rate. In 2014, the net attendance rate for primary school was 68.70 per cent which represents a 3.2 per cent decrease from 71.00 per cent recorded in 2012.

Secondary school net attendance ratio was 57.4 per cent in 2014, recording a minimal increase of 4.7 per cent from 54.80 in 2012. Primary 6 (six) completion rate was about 74.00 per cent in 2014 which dropped by 15.6 per cent when compared to the 2012 figure.

The report noted that there was only a slight increase in literacy among young women by 0.15 per cent from 2012 to 2014 while the proportion of boys and girls attending primary school declined in 2014, while those attending secondary schools increased minimally. However, primary six completion rate recorded a slight decline in 2014.

On the goal of eliminating gender inequality and empowering women, the NBS survey showed that, which aimed at eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015, the survey revealed that in primary schools, the GPI in 2012 was 1.00 per cent which increased in 2014 to 1.02 per cent. In secondary schools, the GPI 8 ratio was 1.02 per cent in 2012 and decreased by barely 1 per cent in 2014 to 1.01 per cent. This indicates that for every male, there is a female being enrolled into schools. With this, Nigeria has achieved the target.

On the goals of reducing under-five mortality rate for the period 1990 to 2015 by two-thirds, the survey used the under-five mortality rate, Infant mortality rate and immunisation coverage as. “Under-five mortality rate in 2012 was 94 (per 1000 live births), which positively reduced to 89 (per 1000 live births). Infant mortality rate stood at 61 (per 1000 live births) in 2012 which decreased to 58 (per 1000 live births) in 2014.

“To further combat infant mortality, incentives such as full immunizations against killer diseases such as Polio (1, 2&3), Diphtheria, Pertussis & Tetanus (DPT 1, 2&3), Measles, Hepatitis B (1, 2&3) and Yellow fever were administered. Babies immunized with Polio at birth in 2014 were 52.8 per cent, Polio (1,2&3) averaged at 57.6 per cent in 2012 and 63.5 per cent in 2014, DPT 1,2&3 averaged at 53.1 per cent in 2012 and slightly increased to an average of 57.2 per cent in 2014. Measles immunisation coverage was 63.1 per cent in 2014 which shows an increase of 13.1 per cent compared to the figure in 2012.”

On the target of reducing maternal mortality ratio by three quarters and to achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015, the survey found that in 2014, the proportion of women who die from pregnancy related problems, child birth and six weeks after delivery, reduced to 243 (per 100,000 live births) as compared to 350 recorded in 2012.

This was probably because skilled attendance at delivery increased by 9.3 per cent in 2014 as compared to the figure in 2012 while contraceptive prevalence rate increased by 6.9 per cent to 18.5 per cent in 2014 as compared to the 2012 figure, which could indicate that women have increased their dependence on contraceptives as a method of family planning.

Adolescent fertility rate (15-19) stood at 74 (per 1000 live births) in 2014 which was a decrease from 79 (per 1000 live births) recorded in 2012. About 68.8 percent of ante natal visits at least once by skilled personnel were recorded; this was an increase when compared to the 2012 figure. Ante natal coverage at least 4 times by any provider also increased to 60.6 per cent from 57.40 in 2012. This shows that the number of women being attended to by skilled personnel or by any provider while on an ante natal visit increased which positively influenced the decline recorded from Maternal mortality rate.

The goal of effectively combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases is aimed at halting HIV/Aids by 2015 commence the reversal of the dreaded disease; achieve by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it; have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

The survey found that the percentage of the population (15-49) with comprehensive knowledge about HIV prevention increased to 32.10 per cent from the previous year. The percentage of women (15-24) with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV was also significantly low at 32.80 per cent, a decline by 0.6 per cent from the previous year.

Interestingly, the acceptance attitude towards people living with HIV dropped to 11.00 per cent from the previous year, implying that stigmatisation of people living with AIDS is still an issue to be tackled. The proportion of women who knew a place to be tested for HIV increased to 69.20 per cent from the previous year. But a significant decline of 56.7 per cent was observed in the percentage of women who have been tested for HIV and know the result. The report suggested a need to enlighten the population on the importance of knowing their HIV status.

On Malaria, there was a decline in the number of household with at least one insecticide treated net (ITN) to 38.9 per cent with proportion of pregnant women and children (under-five) sleeping under ITN reducing to 28.50 per cent and 34.70 per cent respectively. The percentage of people who are aware of anti-malaria treatment also reduced to 53.50 per cent.

“Consequently, there is a need for more awareness on the use of ITNs especially for pregnant women and children and on the treatment for malaria”, the report advised.

On the target of halving the proportion of the population without access to sustainable safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, the survey shows that the number of people with access to improved source and use of improved drinking water stood at 62.20 per cent, which is 14.8 per cent less than the MDG’s benchmark of 77 per cent.

This reveals that there is an improvement from the 57.80 per centre recorded in 2012. People with access to and use of improved sanitation facilities stood at 33.30 per cent, a decline by 1.2 per cent as compared to 2012.