Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited the Dominican Republic for the first time on 4 August 2006, at the invitation of President Leonel Fernández, to learn about the country's progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The visit was prompted by the fact that the Dominican Republic was chosen as one of the UN Millennium Project's "pilot countries" in 2004-an initiative commissioned by Mr. Annan and directed by a distinguished economist, Jeffrey Sachs-and the only one so far that has created a Presidential Commission exclusively to coordinate, monitor and follow up on the MDG progress.

President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic (centre) and First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández present to Secretary-General Kofi Annan the results of the first "Pueblo del Milenio" MDG Needs Assessment for the province of El Seibo. PHOTO/COPDES, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The Secretary-General was deeply impressed with the Commission's presentation, stating that the Dominican Republic is "heading the right way" and setting a "model", which will be of great interest to many countries in the region and around the world. It is "an inspiration to the international community and an example to the developing world", he added. But, the remark that most caught the audience's attention was Mr. Annan's statement that "you cannot have security without development and you cannot have development without security". This encouraged many of those present to think beyond mainstream ideology regarding what type of model was being established in the Dominican Republic.

The "Dominican Model", primarily in its initial stages, is in reference to President Fernandez's commitment and dedication to the MDGs, both politically and institutionally, resulting particularly from his creation of the Commission. The idea of the "Model" has since taken on added value because of its evolving nature. The Commission has been a "work in progress" that adapts to the needs of the country and those who are disadvantaged and impoverished.

The Dominican Republic has become a model for both security and development. It is a living example of what United Nations discourse is preaching in this era of UN reform, particularly after Mr. Annan's efforts towards making the world body more in tune to the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. This work was enshrined in the two initiatives he has established: the UN Millennium Project and the Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. The United Nations was created "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war". However, 61 years later, the twenty-first century provides for an era where maintaining peace and security must focus on our greatest challenges, not necessarily inter-State conflicts, but non-traditional threats, including poverty, infectious diseases, environmental degradation, war and violence within States, terrorism and transnational organized crime, among others.

On 30 November 2005, First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández inaugurated, on behalf of the President, the local "MDG Needs Assessment and Costing Analysis". This process, commonly referred to as "Pueblo del Milenio", aims to "harness local leadership, activism and commitment to poverty eradication, so that local citizens themselves could lead their community's development process through a 'bottom-up community-based approach' that serves to identify the most pressing needs and solutions to achieving the MDGs at the local level". It also complements the presidential "top-down" approach by creating a "bottom-up" community-based approach to sustainable development in the country. It is hoped that a fusion between the National Development Plan and various provincial/local development plans, both based on the investments of the MDG Needs Assessment, will eventually lead to an integrated and shared vision for the country's sustainable human development.

The process has also served as a platform for bringing together the central government, municipalities, communities, political parties, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local UN agencies and the private sector in defining their own type of development and for working towards making the key investments needed to achieve the MDGs. These include increased support and efficient and effective spending in education, health, water, sanitation, energy, agriculture and nutrition. The "Dominican Model" has become a tool for citizens and their development, giving them a sense of ownership that is intrinsically important to achieving the freedom and rights encompassed in the MDGs and sustainable human development.

The Secretary-General, in his report to the Millennium Summit +5, stated that we live in a world of "interconnected threats and opportunities", and that "development, security and human rights go hand in hand". Studies show that a bidirectional relationship exists between development and security, meaning that "violent conflict destroys wealth" and "poverty weakens the State and its institutions, hence making it vulnerable to conflict". A Bangkok-based Millennium Project workshop in June 2004, utilizing World Bank data, revealed the relationship between the nation's wealth and its chances of having a civil war. It stated that a country with a "gross domestic product (GDP) per person of just $250 has a predicted probability of war initiating at some point over the next five years of 15 per cent ... while this probability of war reduces by half for a country with a GDP of just $600 per person". It further stated that countries with incomes of over $5,000 per person have a less than 1 per cent chance of experiencing civil conflicts.

The UN High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change defined threats to international security as "any event or process that leads to large-scale death or lessening of life chances". It categorized them into six clusters: economic and social threats, including poverty, infectious diseases and environmental degradation; inter-state conflict; internal conflict, including civil war, genocide and other large-scale atrocities; nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons; terrorism; and transnational organized crime. The Dominican Republic and its people are most affected by the economic and social threats and transnational organized crimes.

In the late 1990s, the Fernández Administration achieved one of the highest economic growth rates, which was at an average of 7.8 per cent, while the Mejia Administration that followed was responsible for negative growth rates-potentially the most profound economic crisis in the country's history-and 1.5 million more Dominicans living in poverty. This has translated into transnational organized crime, particularly because of the drug trade, and led to a significant loss of life. In terms of economic and social threats to health, about 3,249 infants of the poorest families died in 2005, including 200 women as a result of problems during pregnancy. Recently, dengue fever has become a major problem, causing over 30 deaths. The fight against the dengue outbreak is costing the country millions of pesos, to such an extent that its Ministry of Health has convened other ministries to get support for the enormous burden placed upon them. The support offered includes informational "mosquito prevention-based" workshops, which take advantage of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education's "reach" with schools and universities in the country, including over 33,000 families enrolled in the First Lady's Progressando programme. The MDGs are serving as a catalyst for more effective investments in primary health-care centres in the most rural areas of the country.

The High-Level Panel on Threats stated that meeting the challenge of prevention "begins with 'development', because it is the indispensable foundation for a collective security system that takes prevention seriously". This is in line with the "six lessons learned" presented by the Presidential Commission to the Secretary-General during his visit. They are: poverty is all part of one big problem; a holistic approach equals the MDG Needs Assessment process; achieving the MDGs requires a "larger focus"; go local-people are poor locally, not nationally; MDGs equal the "fabric" of Government and society; and, most importantly, MDGs equal "preventing problems rather than confronting" them. Preventing problems, rather than tackling them, is important not only in ethical and practical terms because of potential lives lost and human suffering, but also in financial terms. Although it is difficult to put a cost on problems, threats or conflict, a study showed that the net present value for the cost of a conflict is 250 per cent of the value of GDP at the time the conflict starts-or for a "typical developing country", the total costs associated with conflict are around $54 billion.

The most important outcome of the High-Level Panel is that the world needs a "new consensus", the essence of which should be based upon a fundamental principle that "all nations, wealthy and poor, must share responsibility for each other's security". The Dominican Republic's development work towards achieving the MDGs is not only a model for development and security, but is also a catalyst for helping to prevent problems instead of having to confront them. The Dominican Republic is doing its part in addressing the problems. It is not only working for its people but also serving as a "model" for others, and it is fulfilling its responsibility towards achieving the MDGs.