The MDGs and the Least Developed Countries: The Challenges for Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States
By Cheick Sidi Diarra01.03.2008
When world leaders vowed at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000 to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty”, they recognized that special measures would be required for the weakest members of the international community to achieve this goal.
The Norway-Tanzania Partnership Initiative: A Model for Reducing Child Mortality and Improving Maternal Health
By Jon Lomøy01.03.2008
On 29 November 2007, Norway and the United Republic of Tanzania signed a bilateral agreement to support Tanzania’s efforts to reduce child mortality and maternal mortality. The modality for support is to channel funds through a common financing basket for the health sector, together with a number of bilateral and multilateral partners, with no earmarking of the Norwegian funds.
Stepping Up Efforts to Reach the MDGs: The Spain-UNDP Fund
By Leire Pajín Iraola01.03.2008
There has been too little progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At present, 40 per cent of the world’s population is living below the minimum sanitation threshold, two thirds of all illiterate people are women and over 65 per cent of the people affected by HIV/AIDS live in Africa.
A Global Partnership for Development: The United Kingdom Is Committed to Playing Its Part
By Douglas Alexander01.03.2008
At the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, the international community declared it would spare no effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which included halving global poverty, getting all the world’s children into school, reducing infant and maternal mortality, and providing clean water and sanitation.
Trading an End to Poverty: Bridging the MDG Implementation Gaps Through Trade
By Patricia R. Francis 01.03.2008
We live in an age of wonders. From nano-surgery to space stations, networking sites to solar cells, Internet start-ups to smart capital, the world is a more connected, attractive and safe place than was dreamed possible, even fifty years ago.
Trade and the MDGs: How Trade Can Help Developing Countries Eradicate Poverty
By Santiago Fernández de Córdoba , Antoine Bouhey01.03.2008
Developing countries depend on national and global economic growth to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. In this regard, international trade is recognized as a powerful instrument to stimulate economic progress and alleviate poverty.
Financing for Development to Reach the MDGs: The Experience in the Arab Region
By Abdlatif Y. Al-Hamad01.03.2008
Across the Arab region, progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been uneven. Arab countries with higher income per capita stand with better prospects for achieving the Goals than their low-income counterparts.
Tackling Poverty Reduction: The Role of the Islamic Development Bank
By Amadou Boubacar Cisse01.03.2008
Poverty reduction is the greatest challenge facing humanity today. An ideological commitment to reduce or eradicate this phenomenon should be contemplated as part and parcel of social moral responsibility and shared human values across countries and generations. Failure to do so will have unprecedented repercussions on human development.
Scaling Up Development Efforts for Africa: A Global Partnership for Development is Vital for the Region
By Donald Kaberuka01.03.2008
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constitute a shared vision of global partnership based on mutual accountability. Developing countries have the primary responsibility for achieving these Goals.
The MDGs in the African Region: Efforts Need to Be Scaled Up to Accelerate Development
By Abdoulie Janneh01.03.2008
The midpoint to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—the time-bound and quantified targets, agreed by world leaders at the 2000 Millennium Summit, for improving the human condition and ensuring gender equality and environmental sustainability—was reached in September 2007.
The MDGs in Asia and the Pacific: Regional Partnerships Are Key to Addressing Gaps in Implementation
By Noeleen Heyzer 01.03.2008
Progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Asian and Pacific region is uneven. We achieved success in some, but faltered in others. Even in areas of success, in-country and intra-country disparities persist. The pace of progress is too slow.
The MDGs in the Western Asian Region: Regional Cooperation and Policies Needed to Promote Development
By Bader Al-Dafa01.03.2008
As the world marks the midpoint between the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 and the target date for their achievement in 2015, an assessment of the Arab region’s progress on these is both timely and essential.
The MDGs in Latin America and the Caribbean: Employment Remains a Challenge for Poverty Reduction
By José Luis Machinea01.03.2008
There is no doubt that Latin America is on track to meeting its commitment to halve the 1990 extreme poverty rate by the 2015 target deadline. The most recent estimates by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) show that some 14 million Latin Americans escaped from poverty in 2006 and another 10 million are no longer destitute.
The MDGs in the European Region and Beyond: A Holistic Approach Needed to Correct Uneven Progress
By Patrice Robineau 01.03.2008
The regions covered by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)—the whole European continent, North America and Central Asia—are characterized by a tremendous diversity in levels of economic development. While most countries of Western Europe and North America have levels of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita well above $20,000, for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) and South Eastern Europe (SEE), the level is below $10,000.
The Millennium Campaign: Successes and Challenges in Mobilizing Support for the MDGs
By Eveline Herfkens01.03.2008
It was the best news for decades, when in 2000 world leaders acknowledged that the most urgent matter at the dawn of the new century was to put an end to poverty, and that the world has the resources and the know-how to do so.
Indigenous Peoples and the MDGs: Inclusive and Culturally Sensitive Solutions
By Eveline Herfkens01.03.2008
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summarize the development targets agreed to at international conferences and world summits during the 1990s. At the end of the last century, world leaders distilled the key goals and targets in the Millennium Declaration adopted in September 2000.
Ahead of the Curve: A series on Development Pioneers at the United Nations
A new series in the UN Chronicle will highlight the major intellectual contributions and policy consequences of work undertaken by major researchers who worked with the United Nations system during their careers.
Hans Singer: The Gentle Giant of UN Economists
By Richard Jolly 01.03.2008
Of the many economists who have worked for the United Nations, Hans W. Singer was the one who did more, and for more different parts of the Organization, than any other.
W. Arthur Lewis: Pioneer of Development Economics
By Kari Polanyi Levitt01.03.2008
W. Arthur Lewis’ best-known contribution to development economics was his path-breaking work on the transfer of labour from a traditional to a modern capitalist sector in conditions of unlimited supplies of labour.
About this Issue
Volume XLV Number 1, 2008
The Millennium Declaration embodies a global partnership for development. Endorsed by world leaders at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, the Declaration represents the commitment by developing countries and their partners in the developed world to build upon a universal framework for the eight Millennium Development Goals, to be achieved by 2015. While the first seven MDGs target concrete obstacles to development (in the areas of poverty and hunger, education, equality, health and the environment), MDG 8—develop a global partnership for development—represents the underpinning of all these Goals.
In the previous issue, we examined the first seven MDGs, asking whether we are on track to achieve them by 2015. In this issue, we focus on MDG 8 as the foundational goal, creating the conditions for achieving MDGs 1 to 7. While developing countries are called upon to improve governance to ensure that development initiatives reach those groups that would benefit most, the donor nations in the developed world are asked to make broad policy commitments to enable access to resources for development.
Goal 8 outlines six areas in which rich countries should increase assistance to respond to the needs of the poor in the developing world and to empower them to invest in their own development. The first three targets—aid, trade and debt—aim to enable developing countries to compete within the global market. The other three targets—employment, medicines and technology—seek to provide them access to the infrastructure and knowledge systems necessary to develop their societies.
Since the Millennium Declaration, the pledges spelled out in MDG 8 have been reaffirmed in various international forums. The Monterrey Consensus (2002) recognized the need for a substantial increase in aid, specifically for donor countries to reach the United Nations aid target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income in official development assistance (ODA), and to pursue debt relief for countries that strengthen governance. The Doha Ministerial Declaration of the World Trade Organization (2001) affirmed the objective of duty-free and quota-free market access for products from the least developed countries (LDCs). The World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) called on Members States to fulfil their commitments on market access. The 2005 World Summit reaffirmed that “national efforts should be complemented by supportive global programmes, measures and policies aimed at expanding the development opportunities of developing countries”.
However, The Millennium Development Report 2007, the latest update on the implementation of the MDGs, notes that development aid has been falling: only five countries have reached the 0.7 per cent ODA target; debt relief is declining—and despite donor pledges to double aid to Africa by 2010, aid to the LDCs has stalled. While the debt service burden of developing countries has lightened, an overall agreement on improving their trade prospects has still not been adopted and “represents an important opportunity lost”.
With half the time left until the 2015 deadline, the heads of the UN system and major international organizations have come together within the MDG Africa Steering Group to develop a consensus on how to best scale up progress, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, which is off track to achieving the MDGs. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon first convened the Steering Group on 14 September 2007. On 10 March 2008, it met for the second time to review a set of recommendations and initiatives and to identify ways in which these scale-up efforts can best be implemented. Plans are also underway for a high-level meeting on the MDGs that will be convened on the eve of the next UN General Assembly session on 25 September 2008. The event, which will bring world leaders, civil society and the private sector together, aims to bridge “the implementation gap”, Mr. Ban identified in his address to the Steering Group, and to help “translate existing commitments into action” and “strengthen the accountability of all parties” in a global partnership for development.
About the Cover: This picture, taken by Olivier Asselin, shows shells and sticks (used for counting) and a slate lying on a desk in the village primary school in Essaout in the south-western Ziguinchor region of Senegal. Young people comprise nearly half of the more than 12 million inhabitants of Senegal, but persistent poverty and chronic food insecurity continue to threaten children’s welfare and growth.
Senegal is making progress in the areas of nutrition, safe water access and education, devoting 50 per cent of its national budget to education and health services. UNICEF PHOTO: Olivier Asselin