Transition from MDGs to SDGs in Nigeria -By Otive Igbuzor

There is the need to improve capacity for execution. It is unthinkable that every year, Ministries, Departments and Agencies cannot implement their budgets with the monumental developmental challenges facing us as a nation.

There is the need for state and local governments and the MDAs to have overarching development strategies. No nation, state or organisation can accelerate its development without an overarching strategy to guide its priorities, programmes and actions.

Nigeria needs to develop its leaders and focus on policies and practices that will lead to poverty reduction and development.

There is the need for better co-ordination and synergy between Federal Government, state and local governments.

There is the need to mainstream citizen participation and ownership in the development process in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s development agenda must go beyond focus on the economy to include political, economic and environmental development. It has been proved that economic growth is necessary but not sufficient for the development of nations. Economic growth without job creation does not reduce poverty.

Meanwhile, it is clear that the context of 2000 when the Millennium Declaration was made is different from the context of 2015 when the Sustainable Development Goals was adopted. In 2000, there was relative stability, prosperity and coherence when western economies were on the rise and the conditions were good for forging agreements on global targets for development. In 2015, the world is encountering more complex problems of climate change, population pressures, increasing urbanisation, multi-polar world and increasing breakdown of the division of the world into North and South, East and West. Second, the geography of poverty has also changed. The Brookings Institute notes that only 10 per cent of the global poor live in stable, low income countries, 40 per cent live in fragile and conflict-affected countries and 50 per cent in middle income countries. The institute also shows that within these countries, the distribution of poverty demonstrates huge inequities across different population groups and fragile states, which are home to some 1.2 billion people did not meet the MDGs. Furthermore, the period is characterised by multiple crises, instability and terrorism. It is therefore not surprising that the SDGs are more holistic and address a lot of issues not contemplated by the MDGs.

The SDGs are a new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agenda and political policies over the next 15 years (2015-2030). The SDGs are a follow-up of the MDGs. The SDGs are necessary because we have come to the end date of the MDGs and poverty is still very high with over one billion people living on less than $1.25 a day –the World Bank measure on poverty.

There are 169 targets to achieve the 17 goals. The targets under goal one include reducing by half the number of people living in poverty by 2030 and eradicating extreme poverty (people living on less than $1.25 a day).

The goals were chosen from a global consultation process. Nigeria participated actively in the consultation process. A Nigerian, Hajia Amina Mohammed, OFR, is the Special Adviser to the UN on the Post 2015 Development Agenda. The new goals were agreed upon at the UN Summit in September, 2015 and will become applicable from January, 2016. The expected deadline is 2030.

There is therefore a nexus between effective public administration and development of societies. Scholars have argued that Public Administration is a strategic factor in economic and social development and determines the success of any development plan. The inadequacy of administration in many countries have been identified as an obstacle to development hence the need for Public Administration Reform. The need for Public Administration Reform is widespread across the world such that the United Nations Development Project supports 380 projects in 112 countries covering various aspects of Public Administration Reform. Indeed, it has been estimated that 80 per cent of the plans of the world are incapable of being fulfilled because of poor administration. Scholars are in agreement that for public administration to deliver on development, it should live up to the Weberian image of efficiency, rationality, specialisation, non-partisanship and non-political bureaucratic hierarchy. Unfortunately, the image that we see in many developing countries is that of corruption, irrationality and incompetence.

It is well-established that development is about improving the quality of life of citizens. Meanwhile, the major function of public administration is to provide services including health, education, transport, waste disposal, issuing licences, providing information, providing internal security, regulation and enforcement of legal duties. Indeed, public administration helps to provide the enabling environment for economic growth and prosperity for citizens as well as securing and strengthening democratic institutions, systems and mechanisms.

But in Nigeria, there are huge challenges with public administration. It is no longer news that there is dysfunction in public administration in Nigeria leading to failures in service delivery, a lack of accountability and poor performance of the machinery of government. The cost of governance is very high with the Federal Government spending over 70 per cent of its total budget on recurrent expenditure. There are huge challenges of policy planning and co-ordination. The structures and systems in the public sector are not delivering services efficiently and effectively to the citizens of Nigeria. There is a huge capacity gap in the public sector and the MDAs are not working optimally. The budgetary process is marked with a lot of challenges and there is hardly any year when the budget has been passed in the first month of the year.

As we transit from the MDGs to the SDGs, there is a great need for public administration reform in Nigeria. There is the need for concrete strategies and plans for improved policy and planning co-ordination, improved human resource management structures, systems and skills and improved budget transparency, consultation, oversight and credibility. In this regard, it is important to give priority to planning. Indeed, no plan should be made without consideration of its public administration implications. Any plan too ambitious for its administration context will fail. It is clear that plans do not implement themselves. The condition of public administration determines what kind of plan will work.

In addition, there is the need to take on board the lessons from the implementation of the MDGs and have focus on development. The achievement of the SGDs should not be made the responsibility of an office but all levels of government. In this regard, there is the need to incorporate the SDGs into a national strategic plan which is needed urgently in the country. This should be followed with concrete policies, programmes and projects to achieve the SDGs. In all of these, there is the need to focus on the big issues of inequality and social justice.

The challenge of development is a huge one facing many nations including Nigeria. For development to take place in any country requires effective public administration. But there are problems with public administration in Nigeria. Therefore, as we transit from the MDGs to the SDGs, there is a great need for public administration reform in the country.

Dr. Igbuzor is Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development.