The year 2015 is an important year in the international development space. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched in 2000 to make global progress on poverty, education, health, hunger and the environment will expire. This will be succeeded by the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs are currently being drafted and the proposal contains 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues. It is due to be adopted at the United Nations (UN) Summit in New York in September 2015.
In Nigeria, the year 2015 is also a significant year in the political space. It is the year in which a new party takes control of the government at the center for the first time in 16 years. How did the outgoing party fare as regards the MDGs? While there may have been progress in socio-economic factors, it has not led to achievement of the MDG targets, especially Goals 4 and 5. The numbers of preventable maternal and newborn deaths are still high. With approximately 2% of the world's population, Nigeria is responsible for 14% of maternal deaths worldwide. This is second only to India which accounts for 17%. The current maternal mortality in Nigeria is 576 per 100,000 live births.
In my interaction with people working in multilateral organizations and international foundations; everybody appears to have pressed the "pause" button and is waiting to see the direction to be taken by the APC led administration as regards the health of its people..
It is important that the administration rank the health of its citizens, especially the vulnerable groups which include women and children. Apart from the socioeconomic benefits of investing in women’s health, it is above all a human rights issue.
According to the All Progressives Congress manifesto on its website, it plans to “prioritize the reduction of the infant mortality rate by 2019 to 3%” and “reduce maternal mortality by more than 70%”. It also plans to “Provide free ante-natal care for pregnant women, free health care for babies and children up to school going age“.
While they have set a target of 2019 to reduce infant mortality to 3%, they are however silent on when they plan to achieve the 70% reduction in maternal mortality.
The absence of critical targets and indicators for some of their goals questions the validity and reliability of the health manifestoes. Indicators ensure that they can be monitored and measured. What gets measured gets done! This is the only way they can be held accountable.
The launch of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 offers the opportunity not only to reduce the maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030, but also to end preventable deaths of newborns and under-five children
A key question is how the new administration will fund the SDG's. In the Abuja declaration made 14 years ago, heads of state of African Union countries met and pledged to set a target of allocating at least 15% of their annual budget to improve the health sector. This has largely not been fulfilled.
Domestic resource mobilization will be critical to financing the health SDGs. More effective and transparent tax systems will ensure that more funds are allocated to the health sector,
Even as Nigeria is now ranked a lower- middle income country, the criteria and parameters for accessing international funds are not what it used to be. We cannot rely on aid. The government needs to be creative in its choice and combination of funding mechanisms for the SDGs. Additionally, Government needs to put in place incentives to encourage and support private sector investment in innovations and technologies that lead to improvement in the health of its citizens; especially women, newborn and children.
Dr Niyi Osamiluyi is a medical doctor and the CEO of Premier Medical Systems Nig. Ltd, an Health Information technology social enterprise