social_development

SOCIAL & HEALTH DEVELOPMENT

Our specialized services focus on aspects of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) formulated and signed by the Committee of Nations on September 2000. The eight MDGs include: eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; achievement of universal primary education; promotion of gender equality and empowerment; reduction in child and maternal mortality; combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases; ensuring sustainable development, and development of global partnership for development. At MMC we work as partners in progress with government agencies, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, companies and other interested stakeholders towards achieving the goals by 2015.

Adolescent Education & Reproductive Health

The future greatness of any nation is in its youth. Yet in many societies, the youth are often a silent and neglected group. Although they are currently gaining more attention, there is still a long way to go. MMC is committed to working with our clients on a range of adolescent projects including education, literacy, skills development, responsible behavior, leadership skills, responsible parenthood, and other developmental goals.

HIV-AIDS & Other STIs

HIV/AIDS is a major human challenge of the century. It has wrecked havoc on humanity, and so far, defied prompt curative measures. The anti-retroviral drugs used to reduce the effects of the virus in the blood streams are expensive and not easily accessible to many patients especially in developing countries. Aside, there are myths about the disease premised on misinformation, misconception, and culture. There is considerable level of false information about the disease especially in countries where incidence rates are high. Some people think that the spirits of the dead use the disease to punish those who have done abominable things. Others think that they are immune to contracting the disease despite their high-risk sexual behavior. Also, people have false knowledge and beliefs about the cure for the disease some of which are: having sex with a virgin, taking concoction from a native or witch doctor, and spiritual exorcism of all kinds. Correct knowledge is generally low, likewise risk perception.

In addition, there are cultural inhibitions which prevent people from talking openly about the disease, or going willingly for test, coupled with social stigma resulting from a positive test.
Despite considerable program effort on prevention and cure since the advent of HIV in human species in the 1970s, there is still need for concerted effort to increase correct knowledge and change perception among people mostly in countries where the disease is endemic or near epidemic. The best guarantee against the disease is still prevention through strategies based on abstinence, responsible behavior, and condom use (ABC). At MMC, we are committed to working hand-in-hand with companies, organizations, and agencies that are involved in reducing the threat of the disease to mankind.

Also, we work with clients that are interested in other sexually transmitted diseases in terms of their co-morbidity with HIV/AIDS and its spread among particular segments of a population such as: commercial sex workers, truckers, uniformed men and the general population. We provide our clients with technical expertise in impact evaluation study design and implementation, knowledge evaluation studies, and strategies for action-oriented programs.

Orphans & Vulnerable Children

Orphans whose parents died of AIDS and children at high risk of neglect and abuse due to poverty, hunger, armed conflict, family dislocation, and forced migration are increasingly a big challenge to most developing countries. The spread of HIV in some developing countries have produced over 3 million orphans the majority of which are in Africa. By 2010, estimates suggest that AIDS related orphaned children might increase to 25 million. This figure excludes millions of children that may become vulnerable as a result of poverty, hunger, and other causes. At MMC we work with government agencies, international organizations, and Non-Governmental Organization to respond effectively to alleviate the situation by providing technical assistance on effective strategies, design and implementation of projects on needs assessment, family capacity strengthening, community-based approaches, identifying challenges and solutions to accessing basic services, supportive culturally-sensitive environment, and realistic government legislation and policies.

Reproductive Health

It is often said that a healthy mother is a healthy baby, and a healthy family. However, this is rarely the case in many developing countries where maternal health gets the least attention. The result is persistent high infant mortality in some of these countries. Since the international population conferences in the 1990s, notable the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), more attention has been focused on women’s health issues broadly conceptualized as reproductive health. This includes women’s sexual health, maternal mortality, pre-natal and post-natal care, right to contraception and method choice, and reproductive rights in general.

MMC contributes to improving women’s reproductive health working with our clients on all fronts especially with respect to project management, research, and evaluation.

Poverty Reduction

Poverty reduction is perhaps the greatest challenge facing humanity in modern times. Its ramifications are many ranging from misery to malnutrition, infectious diseases, and to violence in poor communities especially in developing countries where the number of people living in absolute poverty is increasing. A good understanding of the complex and multidimensional nature of poverty in these countries is critical to developing appropriate policies and strategies for improving the situation. At MMC we work with governments, development agencies, and non-governmental organizations to establish sustainable poverty reduction strategies and programs to improve the quality of life of the most affected sub-groups in society. We design poverty reduction strategies and programs, monitoring and evaluation systems, produce profiles of poverty, organize training workshops, and support countries in benchmarking national and sub-national targets for reducing poverty and inequality.

We work with our clients to design and implement strategies and programs on micro-finance and enterprise in the poor, and poorest communities to enable them initiate economic ventures with the aim of increasing household income and purchasing power to meet basic necessities and needs and increase access to social services.

Social Marketing

Social marketing is now commonly employed to create demand for essential goods and services to improve people’s quality of life. It involves developing and implementing strategies to increase awareness, knowledge, and benefits for using basic social services. At MMC we help our clients produce evidence-based social marketing strategies. We design and implement studies that provide insight into target population’s interests and appropriate positioning of social products and services to meet their needs.

Census Project Management

Population Census is the biggest peace time operation, and a corner-stone of a country’s planning process. In most countries, Censuses are conducted decennially to obtain basic information on age, sex, education, residence, spatial settlements, housing, health, employment and other vital statistics. Basic information from a Census are important for a country to adequately plan and implement social and human development projects to eradicate poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and to improve access to social amenities and infrastructures in general. At MMC we assist governments and organizations to manage Census projects right from the beginning to the end. We assist in the management of key activities including Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD), Verifications and Quality Checks, Publicity, Logistics, Trial-Census, and Field Operation. At MMC we design monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for the Census process to ensure that resources are judiciously and efficiently utilized and milestones are accomplished at the desired time.

Gender, Disability and Youth

At MMC we give special attention to issues that put individuals and groups at a disadvantaged position. We coordinate case studies for our clients on a wide range of measures to promote social inclusion particularly as it concerns the involvement of women, the disabled and youth in public life, and within institutional hierarchies.

GOVERNANCE & DEMOCRACY

At MMC we believe that a well-coordinated multi-sector approach is the most effective method of achieving the MDGs (listed in section A.2). An enabling political environment is a necessary condition for successful implementation of the MDGs activities especially in nascent unstable democracies. To this end, we are partners-in-progress working with our clients to ensure that democratic principles and good governance are well institutionalized in countries where they are most needed. The following are our areas of focus towards creating an enabling political environment.

Democratic Principles & Processes

The wind of democratic change is usually accompanied by restructuring and re-modeling of political institutions in the direction of wider participation and a new engagement with civil society. MMC has a formidable array of expertise to help meet the needs of evolving democracies especially those of African countries. We have expertise in the area of legislative training, civil service reforms, government interfacing, federal, state and local government administration, governmental institutions and civil society. Rather than handing down a blueprint as a one-size-fits-all, we work with our clients to set realistic objectives within the socio-political milieu in which they pertain. With its home-grown and international expertise, MMC is uniquely positioned to assist in meeting challenges of our clients.

Legislature

At MMC we explore service in the legislative process at the Federal, Regional, State, and Local government levels through workshops, seminars, panel meetings, and lecture series. We draw on specific examples of successes and failures across developing and developed nations. We adopt a holistic approach designed to help enhance the capacity and legislative orientation of our clients. Also, we provide advice to governments and international organizations on specific legislative issues, the process of drafting a new legislation, review and evaluation of current ones, election law and legislative procedures.

Executive

The executive arm of government whether at the federal, state, or local level is vital to successful implementations of policies and the development of a nation. MMC provides in-house or off-site seminars, workshops, and lectures to government officials and related clients at various levels. Among other things, we give special services to our clients on; leadership and responsible governance, the electorate and public accountability, realistic manifesto and commitment, relations with other executive arms, and interface with the Media.

Judiciary

The judiciary is an important arm of any democratic government. In order to be functional and effective, it needs to be seen as credible and be alive to the primary responsibility of interpreting and illuminating the laws of the land and adjudicating as necessary. At MMC, we work with our clients to increase their understanding of the Judiciary and to forge good working relationships amongst them at the federal, state and local government levels of governance. We integrate the judiciary in the enlightenment process to bridge gaps between the legislative and Judiciary spheres as well as between the Executive and the Judiciary, and develop trust and cooperation across board.

Civil Service

MMC provides specialized services to civil servants at all levels of government. We organize in-house or off-site workshops, seminars, and lectures to enhance our client’s ability to manage change within the context of a rapidly evolving political environment. Our services are custom made to meet client’s specific needs. Key components of the topics that we cover include; the workings of government, time management and efficiency, quality control in service delivery, interdepartmental cooperation, and personnel recruitment and welfare.

Political Parties

In burgeoning transitional democracies, there is need to assist parties grow into institutions with democratic principles and values embedded in their operations. At MMC, we offer specialist seminars and workshops in all aspects of political party organization, renewal, membership and strategic insights. Although political parties each have their own philosophies and ideology, manifestoes, and reasons for their existence and relevance in the society, all share one common goal of attaining political power.

MMC is well equipped to provide mechanics of party development, growth, and other political or democratic formulations. How many political parties, for example, have a clear and well-thought ideology? How many have well grounded manifestos that clearly represent the ideals of their people? We contribute to helping political parties go through the learning curve and mature through training and advice in the following broad areas; party formation and structures, roles and functions of party secretariat, election processes and standards, understanding the polity, principles of democratic governance, electoral and voting systems, campaigning strategies, opinion polling and result forecasting, and rallies and fund-raising techniques.

Civil Society

There is a growing involvement of international NGOs in various aspects of development work in transitional democracies. In recent years, they have been assisted, complemented and even, in some cases, supplanted by local NGOs in providing specialized programs to improve social service provisions. We offer advice and undertake political risk analysis for our NGO clients to enable them make informed decisions in navigating the political landscape in which they operate.

CORRUPTION & PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY

Multifaceted Approach

Corruption and lack of public accountability are incessant cankerworms that have eaten deep into the economic and social fabrics of many societies in the developing world especially in countries of Africa. Corruption and lack of public accountability have led to massive waste of scarce available resources, and are hugely recognized in the development market place as stumbling blocks to significant economic stability and progress, conduct of free and fair elections, better quality of production and access to public goods, favorable people’s perception of government office and operations of public institutions, effective implementation of projects, and ability to attract external investments and funding.

At MMC we tackle corruption and accountability challenges using multidimensional perspectives. We conduct workshops, seminars and conferences for our clients examining ways and means of reducing and eliminating corruption. Also, we conduct commissioned studies for our clients examining various “faces and shadows” of corruption in the diverse segments of social class, ethnic and cultural groups, and effects on public goods and quality of life.