The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on Millenium Development Goals, Dr. Precious Gbeneol, has stated that Nigeria is making steady efforts towards its attainment.
Gbeneol said this at the epoch making event of the launch of the UN Secretary General’s Integrated Implementation framework held at the UN Headquarters in New York on June 6, 2012.
This framework is designed to specifically track financial and policy commitments made towards the achievement of the MDGs.
Gbeneol noted that Nigeria has demonstrated leadership by fulfilling the commitments made when debt relief was granted by the Paris club in 2005 by devoting the entirety of the debt relief gains to MDGS interventions.
Speaking further, the SSAP reiterated that Nigeria has appropriated these funds annually in the national budget for pro-poor activities, which has had wide-reaching effects on the vulnerable.
According to Gbeneol, in spite of challenges confronting the nation, modest efforts towards attaining the goals are on with maternal and infant mortality falling, HIV prevalence reducing, improvements in gender parity and access to safe drinking water and sanitation recording modest progress.
On the efforts of the office, she said her office is leading the drive to improve the availability of reliable disaggregated data for national planning.
She stressed that Nigeria MDGs information system is being populated with results from a nationwide needs assessment, Baseline Facility Inventory, DRGs mapping and the ongoing poverty mapping.
On the United Nations Secretary General’s integrated Implementation framework to benchmark progress on the MDGs, Gbeneol commended the Secretary General’s forthrightness in developing the framework and added that it will equally enable Nigeria track commitments pertaining to MDGs that has been made.