On the 15th of May 2015, 19 journalists from 14 media houses converged at the Boardroom of the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Center in Abuja, Nigeria to attend a seminar on the Post 2015 Development Agenda The Millennium Development Goals set a few, highly effective targets for the world in 2000, e.g. halve the proportion of poor and hungry and reduce childhood mortality by two-thirds. The goals have been a huge success. Now, the UN and the world is to decide which new goals will take over in 2015.
The Post-2015 development agenda is currently being negotiated in the UN and the UN’s Open Working Group has proposed 169 targets. But we need to know which are most effective. So, the Copenhagen Consensus Center in collaboration with some of the world’s top economists has highlighted phenomenal, good, fair and poor targets, and selected the 19 targets that are expected to produce the greatest benefits. The purpose of the seminar held in Abuja was to give journalists the tools and information they need to gain quality media coverage of the post-2015 process, focused on distinguishing the really great targets from the poor ones on a country by country basis. The seminar also gathered eminent speakers.
The Keynote Speaker at the seminar was Dr. Bjorn Lomborg from the Copenhagen Consensus Center. Three other international speakers and authors of papers on different topics for the Center joined the Seminar from different parts of the world and spoke for 20 minutes each via Skype. In addition to the International speakers were two speakers from Nigeria on Renewable Energy and Tuberculosis. Dr Isabel Galiana, an Environmental Economist and Lecturer at McGill University who authored a paper on “Renewable Energy in Nigeria”, was the first to speak. Ms. Hannah Kabir of Creeds Energy from Nigeria was present at the event and also gave a presentation on Renewable Energy. Dr Anna Vassall, a Health Economist authored a paper on “Tuberculosis” and presented for 20 minutes.
Dr. Mustapha Gidado, the country representative at KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation of the Netherlands gave his presentation after Dr Anna Vassall and they both participated in a Q&A session with the journalists. Also speaking via Skype from Athens, Greece was Dr George Psacharopoulos on “Education in Nigeria”. Mr. Solomon Adebayo from the World Bank contributed to the discussion during the Q&A session with Dr. George.
The Seminar was concluded with an explanation on Scholarship eligibility for a few of the participating journalists to report directly to the UN in New York City, and the journalist participated in a Q&A session with Dr. Bjorn Lomborg. Some of the journalists held a private Interview with Dr. Lomborg at different times during the day of the seminar.
To view Nigeria’s Perspectives on Post-2015 Development Goals please visit: http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/nigeriaseminar
