Millenium Development Goals

Nigeria vs. Bangladesh

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and PovertyThis goal starts out to have half the people who are living on $1.25 a day (starting 1990 and ending 2015).

In order to achieve a better total number (more reasonable number) of people employed (women, men, and young people).

To have half the people who are suffering from hunger (starting 1990 and ending 2015)

This goal would cover the people who are extremely poor, families that are unemployed, people who don’t have much of an education, and people who are in poor living conditions.

Nigeria

In Nigeria, the amount of underweight children has gone from 35.7% in 1990 to 27.4% in 2012, which is a great improvement. Also, the percent of the population that is suffering from hunger has gone down.

Poverty, however, has remained relatively unchanged. There has not been an increase in jobs to go along with the increase recent increases in economic growth.

BangladeshHow is Bangladesh doing in relationship to the first goal?

Bangladesh has done quite well up until today to do their best to eradicate poverty. This tremendous growth has helped the country’s increased life expectancy and lower the fertility rate (considering it to be one of the highest population densities in the world).

In 1991-92, the poverty rate was about 56.7%, but dramatically decreased to about 37%! Proving to show that this reduction has been the most rapid this decade than any others.

The first target goal has been reached as Bangladesh brought the poverty gap down to 6.5 compared to the goal for 2015 of 8.

Bangladesh is finding it a challenge to attain a food security of some type among the challenges of having a income inequality.

Using these numbers to estimate, I believe that Bangladesh may be able to make their goals.

Comparison

Bangladesh seems to be doing very well when it comes to reducing its poverty. Nigeria, however, is doing quite poorly. Even though the Nigerian economy is growing, poverty levels have remained relatively the same. Bangladesh on the other hand has already met its goal.

When it comes to eradicating extreme hunger, both countries have done very well and are nearing their goals. However, Bangladesh is having some struggles with attaining food security. Other than that, both countries seems to be improving greatly.

Goal 2:Achieve Universal Primary EducationThe purpose of this goal is to have all boys and girls achieve and complete a full course of Primary education (or primary schooling) by 2015.

This goal covers pretty much the entire population that doesn’t have any schooling and helps them get an education through making it easier for these people to get one. As said above, it’s for boys and girls, so it will also help promote more gender equality. This would also create more competition, in a good way, for the students to excel more and create more opportunities for other students to do better.

Nigeria

Nigeria has made great strides in providing education to all. The net enrollment ratio and the net attendance ratio are up from 62.1% in 2008 to 70.1% 2012. The literacy among young male adults has increased slightly from 64.3% to 66%.

The north of Nigeria, however, is suffering from a lack of education and completion rates, mainly due to security risks in that region of the country. There several organizations that are striving to reduce the regional disparities within the country so that all children can receive a basic primary education.

BangledashHow is Bangladesh doing in relationship to the second goal?

Considering the free education that Bangladesh has provided, the country is well on their way to attaining their goal. The education they’ve offered has been very accessible to the citizens and have increased the adult literacy rate as well.

The main concern is that the quality of the primary and secondary education levels still remain a challenge. And mentally and physically challenged children aren’t able to acquire this education as well.

The net enrolment is 98.7% of the total population for primary education. The literacy rate among adults has almost doubled. And the ratio of children who complete the first four years of primary education has gone from 43% to 79.5%.

Bangladesh may not attain their goal of 100% of children going to school, as mentally and physically challenged children still aren’t attending. But in other regards, I think they’ve done extremely well.

Comparison

In regards to the second goal, both countries seems to be making great progress in their own individual ways. Literacy rates and completion rates have increased greatly in Bangladesh, same as Nigeria. But both countries do have their own unique challenges.

In Bangladesh, education is still somewhat out of reach for the physically and mentally handicapped and in certain parts of Nigeria, children are suffering from a lack of education due to certain security risks that are in those regions.

Both countries overall are making great strides in improving their education.

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower WomenThe purpose of this goal is to completely eliminate gender separation. The first step is to eliminate it in the primary and secondary educational levels by the year 2005. The second step is to have it completely eliminated in the country by 2015.

By having this goal, women will be able to be more equal to men in the workforce, education and in the home, creating less domesticated violence in the home and more equality. This equality can also happen in politics.

Nigeria

In Nigeria, there has been a steady yet gradual increase in the ratio of girls to boys in education. The ratios in 2008 showed that there were about 78 girls to every 100 boys in the primary, secondary and upper school levels. 2012 shows that the ratio is now 102 girls to every 100 boys. Within the government, very few women hold positions, but reforms are being made that are very promising for the future of women. It seems that Nigeria is doing very well at making some solid strides towards gender equality.

BangladeshHow is Bangladesh doing in relationship to the third goal?

This goal was already attained at the national level in the primary and secondary education levels and has made a lot of progress in attaining this gender equality and empowering women in Bangladesh.

The government of Bangladesh has been determined to attaining the goals of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and adopted the National Policy for Women’s Advancement in 2011 and other programs to make sure that these programs are helping sustain women for their development in the society.

In the government, about 20% of the seats are filled in Parliament by women. Unfortunately, there is still a low wage employment among women in the country. The ratio is that one out of every five women are employed in a wage paying job that’s not in agriculture.

My estimation is that the first part of this goal has been attained, and the main thing that needs to be worked on is the low wage employment, there needs to be more women in a higher wage employment than where they’re at currently.

Comparison

With regards to the third millenium development goal, both countries are improving and moving towards their goals. However, in Bangladesh, the primary and secondary schools have already attained this goal, while Nigeria still has some room for improvement, even though there have been some great improvements.

Both countries still need some improvement with inequality on the national government level, with both governments having a very small amount of women working in them. However, both are making plans and measures to have more equality for women and have more working in the government.

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Rates

The main objective for this goal is to reduce the child fatality rate of children who are under 5 by two-thirds of the current rate from 1990 to 2015. By having this goal, it will help there to be a larger population, a greater workforce, and have a more educated people as the education rate becomes better in the respective countries.

This will cover all the younger children to be healthier and start their lives better. This would affect families and prevent them from being in depression as they would have had someone die in their family at a very young age.

Nigeria

In 2008, the ratio of infant deaths under the age of 5 was 157 to every 1000. The number has dropped in 2012 to 94 per every 1000. This is a great improvement on the part of Nigeria. The goal to reach by 2015 is to have a decrease of 50% in the infant mortality rate, which looks very achievable for Nigeria. The government has been doing its part to see that many women receive prenatal health care and medicine that they need for their children.

Bangladesh

How is Bangladesh doing in relationship to the fourth goal?Bangladesh has already attained the goal for reducing the mortality

rate under 5 goal. To show this in numbers, the goal for 2015 was to have 48 out of 1000 live births, in 2011 they already achieved 44 out of 1000 live births.

The goal for reducing the infant mortality rate is also on track, the only things that are not helping this part of the program is the fact that one quarter of the deaths of children is shown through drowning or other childhood accidents, something that becomes more challenging to conquer.

The main thing that would prevent Bangladesh from attaining their goal is getting the immunizations all completed for as many children as they can, they currently have 87.5% of children who have received these immunizations where they need to have 100% of the children vaccined.

Comparison

Both countries have made great improvements with regards to child mortality rates and infant care. Bangladesh has already achieved its goal in that only 44 out of 1000 infants die under the age of five. Nigeria has made great strides as well, decreasing the infant mortality rate from 157 to 94, but the country still has some more progress to go before it reaches its goal. The only thing that would prevent both countries from achieving their goals are getting vaccines and immunizations to those who need it. Both countries still struggle in getting medicine to all of its inhabitants.

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

The first part of this goal is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters. As part of this section of the goal, it is hoped that more skilled physicians will be present at birth.The second part of the goal is have universal access to reproductive health care such as having prenatal health care coverage. Within this second part of the goal, the contraceptive ratio and the adolescent birth rate are considered so that improvements in these areas can be made.

Nigeria

In 1990 it was estimated that about 1000 mothers died per 10000 live births. In 2008, this number dropped to 545. And in 2012 the figure was 340. Nigeria has made great progress in this goal. The Midwife Services Scheme has had a great part in reducing this number by helping with births and helping that the women receive the treatment that they need.

Bangladesh

How is Bangladesh doing in relationship to the fifth goal?The first few target goals are relatively close to the goal that was

created, making it possible for them to attain their goal. The aspects of this goal that may not be attained would be the antenatal care and other things regarding that.

Maternal mortality has declined from 2001 (322 deaths) to 2010 (194), which makes a 40% decline! The average rate of decline of maternal mortality as shown in the Bangladesh Maternal Mortality Survey shows to be about 3.3% every year. This may be just enough to help Bangladesh reach their goal.

Comparison

Nigeria has developed a great system for improving the Maternal Health of the country by implementing midwives to help the antenatal care of the country. This is where Bangladesh struggles, because they have issues with providing antenatal health care, although this issue may be because of neglect by the citizens, so an awareness needs to be brought up.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/Aids and other diseases

The first part or target of this goal is to stop the spread of HIV/Aids by the year 2015 and begin the reversal of the spread. The second target is to achieve universal access to treatment for HIV/Aids for all those who need the treatment.The third target is to halt the spread of malaria and other major diseases and begin the reversal of the spread of these diseases.

Nigeria

Nigeria has also had a lot of success in this area reducing the figures from 5.8 to 4.1 in 2012. Also, with women 15-24, the amount of HIV/Aids has decreased from about 5.4 in 2000 to 4.1 in 2012. As a nation, Nigeria has meet its target for the millenium goals, but there are some individual areas that are more affected than others and require more aid.

Bangladesh

How is Bangladesh doing in relationship to the sixth goal?The appearance of HIV/AIDS is less than .1% in the country, making it

below the epidemic level. The deaths caused by malaria have also be reduced by a lot as well. Other than that, they’ve done pretty well in keeping the communicable diseases at bay.

Bangladesh has also achieved the rates for the MDG targets for tuberculosis detection and cure.

It seems as though almost all of these goals has been met, so they should be met by the end of the year.

Comparison

Bangladesh has seen the best progress in respect to this goal, and don’t necessarily require as much aid as Nigeria does. But both countries have achieved their goals for the Millenium Goals.

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

The first target is to integrate principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of natural resources.The second target is to reduce biodiversity loss by achieving a decrease in CO2 emissions, consumption of ozone depleting resources and by decreasing the rate of loss in forested areas and certain marine habitats. The third target it to decrease the amount of people who do not have access to a clean and sustainable water supply by half. The fourth target is to achieve a significant improvement in slums and in the lives of slum-dwellers.

Nigeria

Nigeria has had a consistent problem with this goal. The country seems to be declining in the access of clean and sustainable drinking water for all rather than improving.

Also, some of Nigeria’s most precious natural resources are in danger. The area of forest within Nigeria shrank by a third in a little over a decade.

The government is trying different acts and measures to try to improve these negative trends, but seem to be unsuccessful so far.

BangladeshHow is Bangladesh doing in relationship to the seventh goal?

The country’s goal for attaining the area covered with trees, which is about 20% is very close to being attained, at it’s current 19.4%. However the current density of the tree coverage (10%) is far from it’s goal (70%). Also, since 1991, there’s been a steady increase of CO2.

The target percentage of marine areas is currently at a 2%, less than the goal of 5%.

However there is a lot more of the population that is able to attain clean water, it’s not accessible for all, but it’s much better than what it was before.

I’m not too sure if they’ll be able to attain their gal considering the tree density they still need to attain.

Comparison

Both of the countries don’t seem to be doing very well with respects to this goal, however, Nigeria seems to be having a more challenging time with their natural resources since most of them seem to be in danger without any effect from the acts they’ve tried to pass. Bangladesh on the other hand is struggling with their marine areas and the density of their forests.

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for DevelopmentTarget 1: To develop a more open, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory trading system. Target 2: Address the needs of the least developed countries.Target 3: Address the needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries. Target 4: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems facing the developing countries. Target 5: Provide access to affordable and essential drugs in developing countries.Target 6: In cooperation with the private sector, make new technologies available to developing countries.

Nigeria

Nigeria has done well in this area by decreasing its debt servicing to nearly .1%, from where it was previously at, 15. 2%. In order to help Nigeria not fall into crippling and hurt its chances of achieving its goals, it is vital that Nigeria improve its human and capital resources so that outside countries can invest in Nigeria, helping to boost the country’s economy. Right now, not too many investors are interested in Nigeria, which is ultimately hurting the country.

BangladeshHow is Bangladesh doing in relationship to the eighth goal?

The assistance given to Bangladesh over the past years has decreased from 5.6% to 1.6%, which made the disbursement drop from US $15.75 to US$ 12.01.

Throughout the period, the rates have dropped, but only until 2011 where the share of grants went up 48% of the total Official Development Assistance after this long period of time.

It’s been noticed that certain areas of the development of the country have been receiving more attention, which has helped the country a lot. The country currently has plans to develop their telecommunication systems better to better improve its quality throughout the country.

There haven’t been that many goals set in this area for the country, but from what I’ve seen, it appears as though Bangladesh will achieve their goal by the end of the year.

Comparison

Nigeria is doing very well considering the debt that it’s reduced in the past 25 years. Bangladesh on the other hand has decreased the assistance they’ve been given and have developed plans to improve it’s independency of other countries. I feel as though Bangladesh is in a better position in this goal than Nigeria.