MDGs of the Regional Commissions

The regional commissions are focusing on how to better assist their member States’ efforts to meet the commitment of MDGs, particularly those targets for eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, developing global partnerships for development, ensuring environmental sustainability, and promoting gender equality and women empowerment.  Their support to the MDGs has taken the forms of research, policy analysis and advocacy, promoting policy dialogue through their intergovernmental forums including the sharing of best practices, development of codes and indicators as well as monitoring the implementation of MDGs. 

For example, ECE’s work in promoting environmental sustainability includes the development of codes and standards, and monitoring and assessing the legally binding instruments—some of which go even further than the MDGs.  ESCWA has been working with the member States and the specialized agencies to provide reliable and comparable statistical data support for reporting on MDGs, in addition to compiling and disseminating MDGs data. ESCAP, through its report on “Promoting the MDGs in Asia and the Pacific:  Meeting the Challenges of Poverty Reduction” (2003), prepared with UNDP funding support, has taken a broader view of the state of achievement for the region. ECLAC is particularly concerned over the application of MDGs to the regional conditions, and has drawn attention to the major implications derived from the acute and multi-dimensional inequities prevailing in the region for both the measurement of progress and the formulation of policy. ECA has placed the MDGs and support for the implementation of NEPAD at the center stage of its work programme.  ECA convened a special session of its Big Table forum in Washington, D.C., in October 2003 to examine how best the policies and practices towards meeting the MDGs.  The discussions particularly emphasized the need for coherence between the policies of the BWIs, the MDGs and the PRSPs.