The Millennium Development Goals And Women Empowerment In Nigeria

Abstract

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent a worldwide collaborative effort set to put the wheels of national development in motion in Nigeria and other countries. They were to reduce poverty and hunger, tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation etc. Although all the goals silently revolve around women, this paper highlighted the effects of the MDGs on women empowerment in Nigeria, using the secondary source of data and certain indicators which were derived from goals three and five of the MDGs. The paper revealed that despite the huge resources put into the implementation of the goals, the actual change in the status of women in the Nigerian society is far from the targeted standard. With the targeted year 2015 by the corner, the paper suggested some policy measures that will ensure the needed progress for reaching the 100 per cent achievement benchmark.

Key words; Women, National Development, Gender, Goals, MDGs, Policy Measures, Empowerment