United Nations Millennium Development Goals and Challenges of Development in Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
There is no gainsaying the fact that development is essential and inevitable in every human society. Thus, every society strives towards development invariably giving rise to uneven or unequal development. In other words, it gives rise to a situation whereby some societies develop at a greater pace than others.This can be attributed to the divergent developmental challenges peculiar to that society.
For the society to develop, therefore, it must surmount all these hurdles. Nigeria and other States tagged the Global South have long been bedeviled with a plethora of developmental woes thus necessitating the launching of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the United Nations in 2000.The MDGs include eight goals the major thrust of which is to halve poverty by the year 2015.
Though modest in its entirety, the MDGs mark a departure from previously internationally generated development programmes and policies as it is centered on human welfare with no conditionalities attached. The Marxist Theory of the State was employed in the broad task of this study which is to explore the MDGs and challenges of development in Nigeria. This study equally shows the link between political corruption and policy implementation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION – – – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of Problem – – – – – – 5
1.3 Objectives of Study – – – – – – – 10
1.4 Significance of Study – – – – – – 10
1.5 Literature Review – – – – – – – 11
1.6 Theoretical Framework – – – – – – 65
1.7 Hypotheses – – – – – – – – 70
1.8 Methodology- – – – – – – – – 70
CHAPTER TWO
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND POVERTY
REDUCTION – – – – – – – – 73
2.1 The Millennium Development Goals – – – – 73
2.2 Poverty Reduction Programmes of the
Millennium Development Goals – – – – – 97
2.3 Incidence of Poverty in Nigeria – – – – – 100
CHAPTER THREE
POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION – – – – 120
3.1 Implementation of the Millennium Development
Goals in Nigeria: An Assessment – – – – – 123
3.2 Political Leadership and Implementation of the Millennium Development
Goals – – – – – – – 151
3.3 Implications of Policy Failure on Sustainable Development – 157
CHAPTER FOUR
DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES AND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – – – – – 164
4.1 The National Development Plans – – – – – 165
4.2 Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) – – – 169
4.3 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) – – – 173
4.4 National Economic Empowerment
Development Strategy (NEEDS) – – – – – 176
4.5 Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) – – – – 185
4.6 National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) – – 185
4.7 Seven Point Agenda – – – – – – – 193
4.8 Reasons for Failure of Global Development Initiatives – 212
4.9 Alternative Development Initiative – – – – 216
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Summary – – – – – – – – – 220
Conclusion – – – – – – – – – 222
Recommendations – – – – – – – – 227
Bibliography – – – – – – – – 229
INTRODUCTION
In its quest to serve as an agent of international economic development, the United Nations from time to time launches one initiative or the other to facilitate its aims. One of such initiatives is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs came into being at the United Nations Millennium Summit held in New York on September 8, 2000.
It was at that summit that United Nations member countries made the following declaration: We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. The aim of the Millennium Development Goals is to accelerate economic development by improving social and economic conditions in the world’s poorest countries.
According to OECD Development Cooperation Directorate, these goals derive from earlier international development targets and were officially established at the Millennium Summit in 2000, where all world leaders present endorsed the United Nations Millennium Declaration from which the eight goals were promoted.
The goals require that every State meet a set of obligations and that other States who have achieved those goals, have an obligation to assist those who have not. The key word here is ‘assist’ which by implication points to the fact that the State(s) being assisted will shoulder most of the responsibilities required for the attainment of the MDGs by the year 2015.
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