THE IMPACT OF MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS) ON THE STANDARD OF LIVING OF RURAL DWELLERS

INTRODUCTION In order to address the problem of poverty and promote sustainable development, the Unified Nations Millennium Declaration was adopted in September 2000 at the largest ever gathering of head of states committing countries both rich and poor to do all they can to eradicate poverty, promote human dignity and equality, achieve peace, democracy and environmental stability, the goals include those dedicated to eradicating poverty, achieving universal primary education, promote gender equality and empowering women, reducing child  mortality, improving material health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.    
However, several surveys indicate that there are limitations of utilizing the MDG as a framework for delivering development, hence it becomes imperative to conduct an empirical investigation on the subject matter. This is owing to the controversy surrounding whether Nigeria can meet the MDG goals before 2015. According to MDG (2004) report “based on available information it is unlikely that the country will be able to meet most of the goals by 2015 especially the goals related to eradicating extreme poverty  And hunger, educing child and maternal mortality and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases”. It further stated that “for most of the other goals (i.e. apart from goals) up-to-date data exists which shows that if the current trend continues, it will be difficult for the country to achieve the MDG targets by 2015”. It is against this background that the research sees the subject matter as an issue worthy of empirical investigation.
SUMMARY The study examines the impact of Millennium Development Goals MDG’s on the standard of living of Rural Dwellers in Lere Local Government Area. The population of study consists of the entire Staff of Lere Local Government. Out of the total 150 Staff, 50 were selected using the simple random selection sampling technique. The survey method was adopted as the research design. A questionnaire constitutes the main instrument of data collection. The mean score was used to analyze the five likert questionnaire inline with the research question. The analysis indicates that the MDG’s Goals that have been effective in Lere are basically achieving primary education, reducing child mortality in Lere as well as improving maternal health, however the problem militating against the achievement of other goals arise from corruption, inefficiency and wastefulness as well as Duplication of Project and Skeptics of meeting MDG’s Goals before 2015.
CONCLUSION Base on the research findings it is clear that the MDG’s Goal have not been achieved in totality. It is only three basis roles that have been achieved in Lere Local Government, Achieving primary education, reducing child mortality in Lere as well as improving maternal health. This is due the inability to efficiently implement project sequel to corruption and wastefulness of resources as well as duplication of project. Hence meeting the time lag of 2015 would not be realizable except if more effort is put in place.

Five Chapters and Questionnaire