World in the New Millennium: Guided

by the Millennium Development Goals

Prepared by
Rufael Fassil
University of Bremen/DENGO
January,2004
 Outline
 Introduction
 Defining the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs)
 Strategy for achieving MDGs
 Progressing towards MDGs
 MDGRs and PRSP
 MDGs Challenges
 Conclusions
 Issues for Discussion
 INTRODUCTION: BASIC FACTS AND FIGURES

IN NEW MILLENNIUM ,
 Half the world‘s population=< $2 a day
1 billion=< $1 a day
 In a developed world,
100 million= < $1 a day
5 million =homeless
37 million=jobless
 40 million =living with HIV/AIDS
 840 million adults= illiterate
 1.2 billion =without access to safe drinking water
Every year, 500,000 women =die from complications of pregnancy
and childbirth

OUR WORLD HAS THE RESOURCES TO ERADICATE POVERTY?

 Wealth 10 richest =$ 133 billion= 1.5 *total national income of the
LDC´s
 Cost of eradicating poverty =1% of global income.
 6 DC´s spend= $ 700 million in nine days on dog and cat food.
 Today‘s world spend= $ 66 billion on cosmetics
$ 800 billion =Military expenditure
 BASIC FACTS ..Contd..

Extreme poverty can be banished from the globe?

 Over the past three decades in developing

countries:
 Access to safe water=doubled
 Life expectancy= increased by a third
 Child death rates=halved
 Malnutrition rates=declined by a third
 Children out of primary school= fallen from
more than half to less than a quarter
 What are MDGs?

1. Eradicate poverty and hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
 In General, MDGs are about Human Development

What is human development?

 Key capabilities

Living a long and healthy life

Being educated
Having a decent standard of
living
Enjoying political and civil
freedoms to participate freely in
the life of one‘s community
 MDGs, cont…

 Essential conditions for human development

Environmental sustainability

Equity – especially gender

equity

Enabling Fair global

Partnership
 1.2 ORIGIN OF MDGS

The Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) are:
 The International Development Goals (IDGs)
+
 Goals of the Millennium Declaration

1.3 Why MDGs?

 2) WHAT IS NEEDED TO ACHIEVE THE MDGS ?

 US$ 50 billion in annual basis

 Consistency b/n economic and social development policies

 Social policy to be multi-sectoral , participatory and flexible

 Good system for monitoring & evaluation

 Coordination among all stakeholders and beneficiaries

 Developed countries open their markets to the products of

developing countries and let developing countries compete
in the global market on fair terms
 Commitment of resources(MDGs)

 WB/IMF: At annual meeting of the WB/IMF(Sept.2002),

discussed the MDGs =decided to support MDGs

 EU contribution - EU leaders promised =an additional $7bln a

year to support the implementation of MDG

 USA -US promised to increase aid spending= by 50% or 5bln

a year.

 Financing for Development at Monterrey, Mexico in 2002,

Leaders reach in consensus =started to match these
commitments with resources and action.
 3) STRATEGY FOR ACHIEVING THE MDGS

Four complementary initiatives:

(Mark Malloch Brown is overall coordinator of the MDGs in the UN system )

 the Millennium Project (Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Special Adviser

to the Secretary-General on the MDGs )…

 the Millennium Reports,…

 the Global Millennium Campaign…, (Eveline Herfkens,
former Development Minister from the Netherlands, Executive Coordinator
for the MDG Campaign) and

 Operational country-level activities …i.e. the three

functions to fulfil at the country level are to tailor the targets, to report on
progress and to develop capacity
 Who keeps track of the MDGs?

 World Bank and UN =keep statistics and progress

reports.

 Country-level monitoring= UN agencies,

Organization for Economic Co-operation &
Development's (OECD), Development Assistance
Committee (DAC), the Bank and IMF as well as
each countries.

 The country-level reports=Complemented by the

UN Secretary-General's global reports on
implementing the MDGs .
 4) PROGRESSING TOWARDS MDGS
Achievements(MDGR) (UN SG MDG Report July 2003 i.e. complied from 80 countries) are mixed:

 On all broad objectives- human rights, Democracy, good

governance, the resolution of conflicts – we are moving too
slowly

 Human needs neglected and promises unmet. If we carry on

the way we are most of the pledges made in MDG are not
going to be fulfilled

 There are marked differences between regions (uneven)

 There is an urgent need for renewed commitment by political

leaders to open trade and increase aid and debt relief, to give
developing countries a fair chance to reduce extreme poverty
within their borders.
 In response to the question as to whether it
was likely or not that the Millennium Goals
will be fully realised by 2015???

% Very Likely Neutral Unlikely Very

Likely unlikely
OECD +25 1.5 24.2 22.7 37.9 13.6
DC +53 13.3 40.3 19.4 19.4 7.5
LDC +55 55.5 11.1 33.3
Africa+60 16.7 45.8 12.5 16.7 8.3
Asia+70 17.6 58.8 11.8 5.9 5.9
Latin 8.2 26.1 17.4 30.4 17.4
America+30
Total +40 5.6 34.3 21.3 27.8 11.1
 5) MDGRs AND PRSP

 They are not competing but complementing each other

 The MDGs are not a programmatic tool. The PRSP is the

medium term ―national roadmap‖ of policies and actions
required to reach these longer-term, country-tailored targets
i.e. MDGs time frame is longer than PRSPs (3 year)

 MDGs process is a UN lead and PRSP is a BW(WB/IMF) lead

process but both have full recognition with all key
development stakeholders

 MDG-reports and PRSP-progress reports are complementary

tools, with different audiences and objectives….
 How Well Do PRSPs Track MDGs?

Looking across 25 completed PRSP till Feb 03,

• Broad convergence in coverage of key areas – in particular,

human development, poverty, economic growth – though
often not around specific MDG indicators.

• Countries also set goals in categories not included among

MDGs. For example, economic growth, rural development,
and macroeconomic objectives.
 6) CHALLENGES

Five key Challenges for achieving the MDGs:

Do Countries have:
 The Data and Capacity to Measure and Monitor
Progress?
 The Policies to Achieve the MDGs?
 The Resources to Achieve the MDGs?

 Ownership
 Country political Commitment
 7) CONCLUSIONS

 Most of the Goals are set in the social (not economic) sphere,
relating to improvements in health and education…

 MDG targets must be tailored and customized to country realities

and priorities….

Preliminary assessments by the UN and the Bank seem to indicate

that:

 For MDG achievement ,need credible implementation plan, owned

by the implementers—that is, by the countries.

 But, this means both developing and developed countries, given

the essential roles of both in achieving the MDGs, as set out in
Monterrey Mexico)….

 Critical role for multilateral agencies to support country efforts

(i.e. ….)
 Conclusions ….

Genuine Commitments of IMF/WB:

Three main areas where the IMF/WB should change their

approach and there role needs to be radically reviewed if
it is to assist Poor countries to achieve the MDGs:

 The Fund needs to show greater flexibility in its economic

targets, demonstrating a longer-term focus,

 The Fund needs to end its pessimism towards increasing aid

flows to poor countries and stop designing economic policy
around this view.

 The influence of the Fund as ‗gatekeeper‘ for poverty

focused aid needs to be decreased.
  ISSUES FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION

 How comprehensive are MDGs? i.e. Are the

strategic interests and programmatic priorities of
different Countries, regions and Institutions
adequately reflected in the MDGs ?

 Are MDGS Feasible?

 How (to what extent) the current the

status of UN will impact on the realization
of MDGs?
  Major References

1. MDG, Millennium declarations, MDG Report and Human

development Report 2003: UNDP web site (www.undp.org)

2. The Millennium Declaration: Mobilising Civil Society

Organisations. By John W Foster: Article published in the UNDP
Development Policy Journal, Volume 3, April 2003

3. Choices, UNDP human development magazine: Number 2,

volume 12, June 2003

4. The IMF and the Millennium Goals: Failing to deliver for low
income countries. Number 54, Oxfam Briefing Paper,
September 2003
Thank You!!