Olowu
OIYP action partner, MDG e-workshop participant, Nig.
The Millennium Development Goals are important for development to thrive. It is in the least another reason to develop under the watchful eyes of the rest of the world. These goals bind the Third World to the First World. And achieving these goals mean 'the world' can proceed to set new goals.



I feel the most critical of these goals is poverty. And addressing the poverty debacle means for instance that I can afford a better education and many others can afford to go to school at all. A reduction in poverty levels would no doubt impact positively by reducing hunger, enhancing access to education, and helping the health related MDGS (goals 3, 4, 5, 6) by making better health care affordable.



Significant part of my direct involvement on MDG projects has been around reproductive and sexual health issues, programmes integrating health, education and poverty reduction, and more recently health reforms. Reproductive health is not an MDG but it has strong linkages to the health related MDG goals: reducing under-five mortality, maternal mortality and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria.



Discussing the MDGs and what we want to achieve has been very easy. Moving towards the goals has been very challenging because the outcomes are typically not visible and do take time to manifest. The impact in real terms has not very significant because the scope of the programmes has been limited and the reach minimal. I feel that with adequate support, if youth initiatives can be replicated and multiplied, more impact would be felt and we'll be more effective catalysts in helping our government and nation to meet these goals.



Everyone is a stakeholder. As individuals and groups, we should not compromise the efforts of government. And governments need to be more sincere and open about their activities.



I would like to see government take a more serious look at poverty reduction. The challenges to meeting the MDGs have to be tackled head-on. A major challenge is that of adequate resources and I think that debt relief by creditors has really been helpful in this regard. Also the human and institutional capacity to achieve these goals is important. The challenge here is to formulate and effectively implement strategies for making education, health services and economic empowerment opportunities accessible to the people in greatest need such as adolescents, women and the poor.



Practically, there is no short cut to achieving the MDGs. If people need to have money to get out of poverty, we need to get them jobs. And the economy needs to grow and provide opportunities for jobs to be created. Developing or growing an economy takes time, like growing a tree!



The MDG e-workshop has helped me to step away from my involvement with the MDGs and take a non-cursory look at how others– my community, other communities and OIYP Action Partners see the MDGs. I conclude that our perceptions differ based on our locations, needs and worldview. The learning from the forum however, is very relevant in developing our MDG-related projects.



I am currently working with neighboring communities in developing specific action plans which would improve access to education by otherwise deprived children.