The Obligation to Count: The Politics of Monitoring Maternal Mortality in Nigeria

This chapter explores the relationships between political practices and evidence making in maternal health in Nigeria’s efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Many actors become invested in the exercises of counting maternal outcomes and making decisions about care that will impact these outcomes, and all of these are woven into the exercise of politics in this region. Contestation over the real meaning of “getting the numbers” thus becomes commonplace but also focused less on medical than political goals.