Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals

Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals

Suleiman Haruna

Code of Conduct Bureau

The first of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and in doing so, halve the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day in the next nine years. It is also expected that the proportion of people who suffer from hunger will be halved during the same period.

Poverty, as discussed in the Nigeria MDG Report 2005 is essentially about human deprivation. It is about lack of or limited access to essential capabilities that could facilitate long and healthy life, becoming knowledgeable, maintaining an adequate standard of living and participating meaningfully in decisions affecting one’s life. The document further explains that 2900 calories are required per person per day for healthy living and the cost of this per year comes to about N21, 000. Adding the non-food expenditure component, the percentage of Nigerians living in poverty comes to 53.8%. Out of this, 51.6% are said to be living below the poverty line ($1 per day). Poverty was said to be more pronounced in rural areas, higher among large households and those with lower levels of education. It is also more pronounced among farmers (!) and forestry operators. Female-headed households tend to be less poor than male headed ones. Poverty has been explained, especially by modern day motivational speakers, as a state of mind. They believe that one remains poor for as long as he believes he is poor. This however negates most religious and cultural beliefs in predestination. The word “poor” or “talaka” in Hausa society for example, has a dual meaning. It stands for royal subjects as well as a person that is not financially endowed. As “talakawa” therefore, the poor see themselves as destined to live and die poor, so all their efforts do not go beyond their subsistence requirements. In this situation, poverty is not seen as an enemy to be fought but as a part of life. Education however has brought a revolution in this regard, especially with the younger generation. It is the same story in many rural societies.

The most critical indicator of poverty is hunger. Hunger itself is determined not necessarily by the number of times one eats a day, but by the quality of food one eats. This in turn is determined by one’s literacy level, or social exposure. A rural dweller can eat carbohydrate-concentrated foods three times a day and believe they are doing the right thing, but this cannot satisfy his daily nutritional needs.

Eating amala, eba or tuwo with some dry and therefore nutrition-desiccated leaves or vegetables, sometimes with no oil, seasoning or meat/fish and no fruits and vegetables can never satisfy these needs. The implications for this state of affairs is that the productive capacity of these Nigerians wane very quickly, their IQ rarely gets higher than average and their life expectancies remain very low. Given a national perspective, it affects the performance of the economy.

Certainly, poverty in the urban areas is exacerbated by unemployment, unwarranted retrenchments in the formal sector and non-payment of retirees’ benefits in the public sector. Another is the undue social disturbance caused citizens by peremptory enforcements which render them homeless and jobless without any form of restitution to cushion the social impact of these actions.

In the rural areas, famine, drought and pestilence can affect productivity and therefore may result in hunger. Other factors include lack of infrastructure, use of modern techniques and skills and poor environment for growth which is exemplified by the shortage of necessary inputs and poor marketing opportunities. Beyond hunger, poverty is entwined in an egg-chicken relationship with all the MDG. Goal 2 aims to achieve Universal Primary Education for all children. The first point of consideration is that these children belong to parents and these parents lord their idiosyncrasies on them. Most poor parents see their children as tools to enhance their economic well-being, hawking, farming, marriage, even prostitution end up being the opportunity cost for the education of these children. Even when these children attend school, other factors like distance, lack of parental motivation, and attending school on an empty stomach, will certainly affect enrolment and increase falling rolls. I am happy that 2006 budget has earmarked N3b for the school feeding program. The policy environment for the UBE has changed however, with the introduction of the 9 year primary education effective 2006. Considering that many girls will leave school around 15 years of age, many may end up getting married and lose the opportunity of continuing their education. Another challenge then crops up for gender activists. Factors like culture and religion are more influential in the preponderance of gender disparity, which the third MDG set out to achieve. Poverty however claims a secondary role. Many housewives do not engage in any commercial activity. Neither do they have any skill, when future economic stress occurs as a result of bread winner’s death or job loss, all other things fall apart. Women who have education or skill will have lesser problems to contend with, and poverty hardly becomes their lot. Deprivation however becomes the lot of many women on account of illiteracy, widowhood, heavy burden of domestic labour, lack of capital and lack of collateral for loans as well as heavy agricultural involvement with very low output. Poverty when overcome can pave way for the attainment of the promotion of gender equality and especially the empowerment of women.

Child and Maternal mortality rates have reached critical levels in Nigeria. Figures from MDG report 2005 and Health-Related MDG report 2005 indicate that infant mortality rates have fallen from 9.1% in 1990 to 10% in 2003, an under 5 mortality rate of 13.5% in 1999 to 20.1% in 2003, a maternal mortality rate of 0.704% in 1999 to 12% in 2005, in all the cases the percentages are of live births. Reducing child and maternal mortality rates are the fourth and fifth MDGs Nigeria has already been slammed by the World Development Index, 2006 which pegged the life expectancy of Nigerians at 45, Save The Children, A development organization also rated Nigeria among the worst countries for motherhood and child rearing, just last month.

High cases of child and maternal mortality are products of poverty and illiteracy; they are exacerbated by dearth of medical facilities, and other infrastructure necessary for life. A report just released by OECD/ADB titled African Economic Outlook has revealed that 85% of Nigerian roads are un-tarred. Since the days of National Health Policy of 1988 which introduced Primary Health Care (PHC) Centers, not many more of these centers have actually been built. Rural dwellers still find it difficult to get medical attention. As a result most children are not immunized and pregnant women still see ante-natal as alien and have no choice but to deliver at home under base conditions. Figures from the Ministry of Health indicate that only 60% of pregnant women receive ante-natal care, 2/3 of births occur at home, 17% have no assistance during delivery and 25% are assisted by untrained persons. Complications in these instances can prove fatal. It is cheering news that 2006 budget has set aside N5.4b to building 150 more PHC centers.

The problem with ATMs (Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria) is grave; with between 3.2 and 3.8 million infections (15-45 yrs) in 2003. For 2005 however, figures indicate a downward slide in HIV/AIDS cases in Nigeria. For malaria, it is not so cheering, despite the Roll Back Malaria program with its trademark Insecticide Treated Nets. A prevalence of 1,875,380 cases is reported in 1998, Tuberculosis is still in the doldrums even with the DOTS program. 27,840 patients were in the record books in 1998 with 940 deaths. The spread of Malaria and TB has a lot to do with sanitation. Government should not just stop at enlightening the public on the need for hygiene, but should ensure adequate appropriation for sanitary officers and inspectors to do their work, Malaria is said to reduce 1% of GNP each year, 71% of expenditure on malaria comes from households, 25% of house hold income goes in malaria control and treatment.

AIDS itself kills the poor more than the rich. The poor do not have the resources to treat themselves and only a few hundred thousand patients get help from government and elsewhere. So most of them end up dying, leaving behind orphans who become more burden to other family members, circumstances like these could lead to child labour and denial to education and other child rights, completing the cycle of poverty. I do not agree with the State of the Worlds Children 2004 Report, which states that of all the MDG, Girl child education is the most critical. To me, reducing extreme poverty is. Past attempts to reduce poverty in Nigeria, from Operation Feed the Nation, to Better Life programme for Rural Women, NDE, Family Support Programme, FEAP, Poverty Alleviation Programme, NAPEP have all recorded tangential successes. This, apart from the corruption factor, is because people are not motivated and mobilized for development. People need to be enlightened that they have potential not just by using more modern methods and techniques but by being a little more forward thinking. Not necessarily by accepting loans but by forming cooperative associations. Societies that have initiated and upheld these strategies have benefited from them greatly and today, the poverty level of these societies has dropped considerably. Cuba, Russia and China have invested highly on the poor and they have succeeded in controlling poverty. Even in Nigeria, one would do well to check the Poverty Profile for Nigeria released last year by the National Bureau for Statistics. North-West has the highest incidence of poverty while South-East has the lowest. This clearly sends a message for action to the appropriate Governments. ##ENDS## Suleiman Haruna JUNE 2, 2006