Gender in niGeria report 2012 - Economic Commission for Africa

44 Gender in Nigeria Report 2012: Improving the Lives of Girls and Women in Nigeria
Table 23 also shows that the higher the educational level of the mother, the greater
the likelihood that children will be fully vaccinated, while table 24 reveals the impact of
mothers’ education on child nutrition and growth.
Table 24. Mother’s education level and child stunting. Nigeria.
Mother’s education
Child stunting below 2 (height for age) (%)
level
No Yes Total
No education 49.7 50.30 100
Primary 60.92 39.08 100
Secondary 70.89 29.11 100
Higher 79.49 20.51 100
Total 60.80 39.92 100
Source: NBS (2008).
The key point from table 24 is that mother’s education correlates with child health and
child growth.
6.6 Emerging issues: gender health
and maternal mortality in Nigeria
Nigeria has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. One
woman dies in childbirth every ten minutes and she is most likely to be poor and young.
Nigeria spends only 6.5% of its budget on health care. In health as in education
there is no lack of excellent policies, demonstrating that awareness of the need for
gendered spending is growing.
Spending and implementation have not matched policies. There has been little
investment in infrastructure or service improvement. The health sector remains seriously
underfunded.
Women and girls in the poorest quintile are 6.5 times more likely to die than
women in the wealthiest quintile.
Girls who give birth before their fifteenth birthday are more at risk of dying
than those who are over eighteen. The proportion of mothers under 18 is gradually
declining.
The reasons for high mortality include poor access to safe delivery and lack of
adequate, timely and affordable emergency obstetric care. Where women lack
autonomy and mobility, it compounds these factors.
Affordability. “Cost is one of the most important barriers to health care use”
(FMH, 2011). Most of the cost of health care is borne by households. This is particularly
relevant to Emergency Obstetric Care, which represents a catastrophic expense for a
poor household.
Only 36% of women deliver in a health facility or with a qualified birth attendant.
Table 23 shows the strong correlation between a mother’s education and the place
where she delivers.
Family Planning. Though fertility rates are declining, contraceptive use is still relatively
low (8.2%) (USAID, 2009), and the unmet need for family planning is relatively high
(17%). Addressing this unmet need could potentially avert tens of thousands of maternal
deaths by 2015 (USAID, 2009).