Gender in niGeria report 2012 - Economic Commission for Africa

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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).
Gender in Nigeria Report 2012: Improving the Lives of Girls and Women in Nigeria 45 Scaling up the provision of safe, affordable family planning services is a key element in any effective strategy to reduce the number of maternal and neonatal deaths. An immediate increase in the health budget, universal free education for all girls, and free access to safe care during delivery, are required if Nigeria is to reduce maternal deaths. Enormous political will and civil society pressure are required to make this happen. Reductions in maternal mortality, especially for women in the poorest wealth quintiles, will not materialise unless consistent and concerted efforts are made to improve the quality of emergency obstetric care services, and ensure free access to them. None of these actions will occur without sustained political will and advocacy from civil society. Education has a key role to play. A woman’s educational status correlates closely with her health seeking behaviour and better health outcomes. Making schools more attractive and less costly places for all adolescent girls can influence decisions to delay marriage and childbirth. Education has a role to play in redressing the gender power balance that currently costs the lives and health of many young women. If these changes are not made, women and adolescent girls in Nigeria will continue to face serious challenges to their health and well-being. Long-term gains for the survival and well-being of the next generation of children will only emerge when more girls complete secondary and tertiary education. Even with education and support from their families, poor women are deterred by cost from seeking urgent treatment. The costs that health and education services impose on the poor need to be addressed. Nigeria is certainly not as resource constrained as many other African countries. It can afford a comprehensive social protection package for its population that would improve access to health facilities and the uptake of health services. In addition to proper funding and resources, Nigeria must establish a system to register births and maternal deaths and engage in a national effort to investigate and understand the causes of all maternal deaths.
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Gender in Nigeria Report 2012: Impr
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Contents FOREWORD..................
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List of tables Table 1. Indicative
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