Measuring the attainment of the sustainable development goals in Nigeria: A multi-disciplinary analysis

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals agreed to by world leaders and set in motion in 2015 for accelerating all components of development by the year 2030.  Since its establishment, several countries have struggled to establish mechanisms for implementing and achieving substantial outcomes for the goals.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country has some of the most daunting development indicators in the world. It has been posited by several commentators that Africa as a continent will be unable to achieve the targets in the SDGs unless Nigeria makes substantial progress in achieving the goals. This is because Nigeria accounts for one-fifth of Africa’s population, and has the largest Gross National Product (GDP) and youth population in the continent.

It is against this background that this special edition of the African Journal of Reproductive Health focuses on assessing the attainment of the SDGs in Nigeria.  The edition features seventeen original research articles, and an editorial that elucidate various aspects of this theme, with the idea to galvanize further actions and research for achieving the goals in Nigeria and by implication in the African region.  The strength of this publication lie in the use of a multi-disciplinary approach in the assessment, by featuring articles and anecdotes from diverse fields including sociology, gender, population dynamics, inequality, environmental, and social standards.

The articles, analysis, and futuristic projections were put together by a multi-disciplinary team at the Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria, one of Nigeria’s most pre-eminent and dynamic Universities that meets international standards. We are grateful to Dr Muyiwa Oladosun, a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics and Development Studies of the University for being the Guest Editor of this special edition of the journal.  Dr Oladosun is a demographer and development practitioner with interest in knowledge evaluation, fertility behavior, child mortality, and the conceptualization and modelling of developmental trajectories.

His work in this edition of the journal has included the announcement of the special edition and compilation of the papers, scrutiny of the submitted papers and coordination of the peer review process, further review and feedbacks to the authors, and final editorial checks leading to the acceptance of the papers. His in-depth expertise in the discipline and his association with several academics in his university and his collaborative and multi-disciplinary research experience has greatly helped to facilitate the publication of this edition.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a scientific analysis of the performance of the SDG indicators in any African country. We believe that the repetition of the assessment in other African countries stand the chance of identifying the bottlenecks and challenges that need to be overcome, propelling the rationale use of optimal scientific processes and methods to address the achievement of the SDGs in the region.  We believe that only through such objective and impassionate assessment and analysis will the African region achieve the developmental milestones embodied it the SDGs, and meet up with the rest of the world.