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The federal
government yesterday reiterated its claim that the nation can achieve
the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with proper coordination.

Senior Adviser to
the President on MDGs, Amina Ibrahim, spoke following the presentation
of the 4th quarter 2009, and 1st quarter 2010 report on MDGs by the
Presidential Committee on Assessment and Monitoring of MDGs.

Mrs. Ibrahim said
the nation has improved in three main sectors, namely health, education
and water and that about N112 billion invested in the 2009 budget in
those areas have yielded fruit.

“Going by the
recorded success, we believe we can reach the MDGs by 2015 but the
three tiers of government have to come together,” she said, noting that
of the N112 billion budget expenditure, health took about 35%, 23% went
to education and 25% to water.

“These are all areas that are reflective of the challenges we have in the MDGs.”

Documentation problems

The country is
actually making progress in the nine MDGs, said Mrs. Ibrahim, but the
agencies are grappling with the issue of documentation.

To address the
situation, she said the acting president directed that all agencies
involved in the implementation of the MDGs should “harmonise and get a
dateline data this year.”

“Data is a huge
challenge to us. If you ask now for the data of the success recorded we
will find it difficult and it is a very big challenge to us,” the
presidential aide added.

She said the
country is making progress, but it is not enough. The nation, will
“have to triple and quadruple” its progress in the next five years. She
did note that some initiatives have been thriving.

“The most successful intervention that we had, I think, can be that
of the governors, the conditional grant scheme. In 2009, 31 states
benefited from that.”