The President, who was represented by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, made the remark in Abuja where
he declared open a 2-day Presidential Summit on the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 Development Agenda.
Jonathan said Nigeria had made significant progress toward scaling up MDGs indicators in view of the baseline statistics so far obtained.
“The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation recently recognised Nigeria efforts which have reduced by half the proportion of Nigerians who suffer from hunger, way ahead of the 2015 deadline.
“In education, by our focusing on Access and Quality, especially at the basic education level, we have taken proactive steps to stem the challenges that keep children out of school in some parts of the country.
“Our Almajiri Education Programme has increased access to Basic Education for the Almajiris.
“Various programmes are also targeting other disadvantaged groups, including girls, nomads, street children, as well as youths and adult illiterates.
“Nigeria has achieved the gender parity targets for primary and secondary education levels, even as we continue to provide incentives to ensure sustained female enrolment in school.
“Significant progress has also been made in the drive to attain the health MDGs.“
According to the president, the death of children under the age of five years has declined from 157 in every 1,000 live births in 2008, to 94 in every 1,000 live births in 2012.
He said that though the trend was recorded against the infant mortality rate, “the rate of 61 deaths per 1,000 live births needs to be reduced by further 50% to meet the 2015 target“.
Jonathan said that the country had been able to reduce the Maternal Mortality Ratio progressively, adding: “In 1990, it was estimated that 1,000 mothers died per 100,000 live births.
“In 2008, this figure declined to 545 and in 2012, it declined further to 350.“
He said the progress made so far was driven largely by the Midwife Services Scheme, and the increased percentage of skilled health personnel attending to births.
According to him, the country has continued to experience a reduction in HIV prevalence.
The president said that in 2012, HIV infection reduced from 5.8 per cent to 4.1 per cent, with the prevalence rate in the general population currently at 3.5 per cent.
Jonathan said that the reduction in HIV prevalence rate met the criteria for the attainment of Target 6A of the millennium development goals.
He said that the government was implementing a comprehensive HIV and AIDS plan vigorously with the objective of reducing cases of mother-to-child transmission and attaining zero transmission.
He said that though the overall progress was commendable, government in collaboration with stakeholders had embarked on “mobilising the attention needed to focus on those particular goals where progress has been slower, than expected“.
President Jonathan said that in conformity with the UN Secretary General’s request for member states to accelerate progress on MDGs and also aggregate citizens’ demands for post-MDGs era, Nigeria had embraced the UN MDGs Acceleration Framework (MAF).
“This tool focuses on reducing maternal mortality, while building on the success of policies such as the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS), Community Health Extension Workers Programme (CHEWP), the Village Health Workers Scheme (VHWS) and the Saving One Million Lives Initiative.
“Efforts are also being strengthened on other initiatives such as the ground-breaking mobile-money technology, which is being implemented across the federation to scale up Conditional Cash Transfers.
“This multi-faceted programme, designed to stimulate demand for services, targets education, basic health care, as well as the transfer of agricultural enterprise.“
He said he was encouraged to note that at the various stages of the National Consultations on the Post-2015 Development Framework, the recommendation to complete the “unfinished business“ of MDGs was well-articulated.
“There exists, at this time, a broad consensus that the current MDGs must not be side-lined.
“We must now increase our efforts, in these remaining 500 days, to complete the MDGs Agenda.“
The president charged the participants to examine the nation’s dependence on primary commodities comprehensively and suggest ways by which it could escape the subtle trap of low-value addition and low productivity agriculture.
“Your recommendations, hopefully, will eventually align with our administration’s blueprint to urgently transform our economy, from one dominated by primary extraction and low-creativity agriculture and services, to one of high value addition.“
Jonathan expressed the hope that the Post-2015 Development Agenda would have a positive impact on the development trajectory of nations around the world, if the new set of goals tackled the issues that were neglected under the current framework.
In his remark, Mr Daouda Toure, who is UN Resident Coordinator and also UNDP Resident Representative, said the post-2015 agenda would provide Nigeria with a lot of opportunities to fulfil its shared responsibility.
According to him, from all indications, the new agenda will be a continuation of MDGs and will seek to complete the unfinished business of MDGs.
“It will address new development challenges in a way that the MDGs did not foresee, from climate change to food security, population bulge, inequalities, socio-political instability, non-communicable diseases and unemployment,“ he said.
Toure assured that UN and other development partners would continue to work with the government to achieve the new global development agenda.
Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Mrs Precious Gbeneol, said the summit was part of government’s efforts at setting the post-2015 agenda for the improvement of the lives of the citizens. (NAN)
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