MDG Report 2009

2009/07 - United Nations (UN); Report on the Millenium Development Goals 2009

Abstract:

The Millennium Declaration set 2015 as the target date for achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which established quantitative benchmarks to halve extreme poverty in all its forms. As the date approaches, less than six years away, the world finds itself mired in an economic crisis that is unprecedented in its severity and global dimensions.

Progress towards the goals is now threatened by sluggish — or even negative — economic growth, diminished resources, fewer trade opportunities for the developing countries, and possible reductions in aid flows from donor nations. At the same time, the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent, with a potentially devastating impact on countries rich and poor. Today, more than ever, the commitment to building the global partnership embodied in the Millennium Declaration must guide our collective actions.

[Download the full publication (pdf)]

Using Indicators to Encourage Development? Lessons from the Millenium Development Goals

2009/02 - Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS); DIIS Report 2009:01, Author: Richard Manning

Abstract:

The Millennium Declaration included a highly significant innovation – universal support by the world’s governments for a short list of development results to be achieved by a set date. As the target year of 2015 approaches, the paper compares the MDG framework that emerged from the Declaration with other ways of measuring and incentivising progress, sets out some initial hypotheses about its impact and addresses issues about its structure and coverage. This leads to proposals about how to get the best value from the MDGs over the years to 2015 and five hypotheses about how the world might approach the issue of what framework, if any, to put in placeto measure and incentivise development progress after 2015.

[Download the full publication (pdf)]

What is Required to Meet the MDGs and What are the Key Elements of a Post-2015 Architecture?

2009/08 - Paper of the High Level Policy Forum - After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs; Author: Sumner, Andy

Abstract:

The MDGs continue to matter, but they were born in a more stable context and they need to be outfitted for a world of greater instability and uncertainty

One way of managing uncertainty is to establish clear links to indicators relating to vulnerability of the poorest

Work has to begin now on the legacy of the MDGs with the launch of an ‘MDG plus agenda’

[Download the full publication (pdf)]

Global parameters for the implementation of the MDGs up to and beyond 2015 – challenges and current discussion

2009/08 - Paper of the High Level Policy Forum - After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs; Author: Ohme, Stephan Klaus

Abstract:

In order to counteract any dilution of the MDGs and thus any diminishment in the politically binding consensus with regard to their achievement, and also in order to ensure that achievement can be “monitored”, steps should be taken to forestall the political temptation to expand the goals and indicators at this point. This would put their clear definition and determinability at risk, which in the past has been a source of diverging donor and national development policies. Added to that, there are major differences in the views on potential additional goals in ideological terms. It is therefore preferable to concentrate on measurable goals that encompass the various dimensions of poverty (cf. Human Development Index). Achieving this and thus putting the Millennium Declaration into practice would in itself constitute a considerable achievement, especially in the face of global economic recession.

[Download the full publication (pdf)]

International Norm Dynamics and ‘the End of Poverty’: Understanding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

2009/08 - Paper of the High Level Policy Forum - After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs; Authors: Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko / Hulme, David

Abstract:

Since their emergence in 2001, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have become accepted as consensus objectives of international development efforts. They have generated controversies and literature that focus on the economics of whether and how they can be achieved. However, little work has been done to understand why they became so widely accepted as an international normative framework of development. This paper focuses on the MDGs as ideas and international norms to explain how they emerged, became institutionalised, yet stalled in implementation and behaviour change. The paper applies Finnemore and Sikkink’s analytical framework of international norm dynamics, and argues that the MDGs have proved an effective mechanism to promote the broad norm of eradicating global poverty. Finnemore and Sikkink note that broad and vaguely specified norms are difficult to implement. Global poverty eradication is an example of such a norm, but the MDGs gave it specificity and then provided an effective vehicle for its diffusion and institutionalisation. This paper introduces the concept of the ‘super-norm’ to clarify the nature of poverty eradication, as being a composite of several sub-norms. The paper also introduces the concepts of message entrepreneurs (as distinct from norm entrepreneurs) who play a key role in this process, who are motivated primarily by organisational objectives rather than ideational commitments. This in turn influences the content of the norm itself. In its conclusion, the paper explains the way in which both realist and constructivist ideas have to be utilised to explain the faltering advance of extreme poverty being seen as morally unacceptable in an affluent world.

[Download the full publication (pdf)]

The Global Development Cycle, MDGs and the Future of Poverty Reduction

2009/08 - Paper of the High Level Policy Forum - After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs; Author: Gore, Charles

Abstract:

Although the MDGs can, in modified form, usefully live on, the argument of this paper is that the current MDG paradigm is no longer helpful. It is necessary now to build a new international development consensus around global sustainable development. Policies to promote poverty reduction and the achievement of a modified list of MDGs should in future be embedded within a different policy approach which is based on more equal terms of development partnership and which recognizes that the best way to achieve desirable social objectives is through the sustainable development of productive capacities in a way which creates jobs and livelihoods and mitigates climate change. In the end this will be the most effective path for fulfilling “the collective responsibility to uphold the principles of dignity, equality and equity at a global level” recognized in the Millennium Declaration.

[Download the full publication (pdf)]

After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MGDs

2009/08 - Paper of the High Level Policy Forum - After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs; Author: Kasongi, Donald

Abstract:

A post 2015 paradigm should be ready to address the following:

1. Be comprehensive in identifying human dimensions for change
2. A global paradigm defined by a convergence of cross state aspirations that are rooted into country specific plans and strategies.
3. Guided by a cross-national methodological framework for action and monitoring
4. Appreciating the complexity of poverty and not based on reductionism
5. Re-examine institutional reforms towards broader inclusiveness in global decision making processes to reflect governance that is meaningful for poverty reduction.
6. Inclusion of indicators for state stability

[Download the full publication (pdf)]

Poverty Reduction and the MDGs Paradigm

2009/08 - Paper of the High Level Policy Forum - After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs; Author: Sheperd, Andrew

Abstract:

Reducing vulnerability, increasing livelihood resilience, and social protection provides the thread running through this contribution. Arguably helping people manage risk is the basic function of a good state. At least ensuring social protection is something we know that states can do. It is not asking the impossible. By 2010 there will have even been enough experimentation in low income countries to know what works there too. Systematic international support for low income countries’ social protection policies can surely be constructed by 2015.

[Download the full publication (pdf)]

What next after the MDGs: lessons from the financial and food crises

2009/08 - Paper of the High Level Policy Forum - After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs; Author: Melamed, Claire

Abstract:

In 2015, and since, it has been assumed that development was mainly a one- way street, and that gains made would be kept. The crises of 2008 have shown that this can’t be assumed but must be built into policy from the beginning. Any post 2015 international strategy for development will have to make sure this lesson is translated into policy outcomes. More stable financing and a more comprehensive response to shocks would be an important start.

[Download the full publication (pdf)]