millennium development goals

• Bringing the fight against corruption to the Millennium Development Goals

  In a few days, an array of world leaders and thinkers – from politicians to Nobel Prize winners- will meet in Liberia to debate the state of the world’s development and where we are going.

  
  They have been called together as part of a high level panel put together by the United Nations to set out the key priorities that must be tackled if we are to end poverty on the global and local level. In Liberia’s capital of Monrovia, panel members will discuss issues that will succeed those outlined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will end in 2015.

  When the MDGs were adopted in 2000, they set forth global pledges such as to collectively cut hunger, guarantee gender equality and get all children enrolled in elementary school. These aims grew out of promises outlined in the Millennium Declaration. More than 13 years later, too many of the declaration’s commitments are unlikely to be met. Much of this derailment is seen as the failure to address governance and corruption as part of the priorities- a point TI has been arguing.

  Read more at Transparency International

• Caribbean Input on the Post- 2015 Global Development Agenda

  Since the turn of the century the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have guided global efforts surrounding the eradication of poverty, diseases, gender inequalities and environmental crises. The goals will have reached their target date in two years’ time.
   
  As such, the international community is currently in the process of negotiating the global development agenda to be put in place after 2015. In order to capture diverse perspectives on how HIV and health should be reflected in the period after 2015, UNAIDS is hosting an online consultation until February 3rd which is open to all people.

   

  Read more at SKNVibes

   

   

• Commissioner Piebalgs Participates in the UN Panel on Post- 2015 Development Agenda

  
  Today EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, will take part in the second UN High Level Meeting on the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda beyond 2015, which takes place in Monrovia, Liberia. The meeting will be co-chaired by David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia.

  
  This meeting will focus on the lessons learnt from the implementation of the current set of MDGs and further elaborate on the principles and main elements of a post-2015 agenda. This will bring the panel one step closer to finalising the report, which is to be submitted to UN's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by the end of May 2013.

  Read more at Andric Piebalgs Member of the European Commission

• Consultations in Viet Nam on the post- 2015 development agenda

  
  The United Nations in Viet Nam has initiated a series of consultations with a broad range of Vietnamese citizens on the new development framework to be put in place in 2015, once the current Millennium Development Goals expire.
  As part of this process, the UN is consulting with representatives from eight target groups to seek their views on the world they want. The eight groups include ethnic minorities, the urban and rural poor, people with disabilities, people living with HIV, young people, the elderly and the private sector.

  
  Since the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by world leaders in 2000, they have helped to set global and national development priorities. With the MDGs expiring in three years, work has started at global, regional and national levels to define what kind of global development framework should be put in place after 2015. The UN is leading part of this work.

  Read more at United Nations Viet Nam

• Corruption blocking millennium goals for weak, say NGOs

  In India, women, dalits and minorities are not going to achieve millennium development goals set by the United Nations for 2015.

  Corruption is forbidding these sections from doing so, reveals a study by civil society organisations. 

  Releasing a report card on status of millennium development goals on the ground, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (Do Not Break the Promise Campaign), says that aggregated data on various human development indicators like poverty, health,  nutrition and education mask the real picture.

  The real picture, according to the campaign, is that marginalised sections are nowhere near the development goals.

  The campaign, which is joined by several NGOs, carried out the study in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Manipur.

  Read more at Deccan Herald

• Crowdsourcing the Post- 2015 Development Agenda

  With the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals fast approaching, the United Nations is already planning its post-2015 agenda. But rather than looking inward, it has partnered with various civil society organizations, including Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and CIVICUS, to produce The World We Want 2015, a website that encourages discussion, solicits opinion and crowdsources on a global level. The conversations will be moderated, synthesized and presented to a high-level panel that will formulate an agenda based on this global feedback.

  Read more at The Independent

• Forget post- 2015 development goals- a global new deal is what’s needed

  Many familiar problems were raised at the Liberia meeting of the UN high-level panel tasked with drafting global post-2015 development goals: extreme poverty, lack of productive employment, environmental degradation and growing inequality. But these big questions are still being met with small answers, suggesting that the international community remains in the wrong frame of mind to meet such major challenges.

  
  A recent Guardian editorial noted how "small", "technocratic" and "fragmented" the discussion within the international development community has become. But it missed a major reason for this: the continued but misplaced faith in "market fundamentalism". This adds to the perception that globalisation is an irresistible force beyond the control of governments, a process driven by countless invisible hands, infallible business acumen and continuous technological revolution, and reaching its zenith with the unleashing of finance.

  Read more in Poverty Matters Blog

• Fragile States and the Post- 2015 Development: The Need for Resilience Architecture in the Face of MDG Failure

  Fragile states constitute a global development crisis. Government capacity and public institutions in these states are weak and international aid approaches are often fragmented and piecemeal. Extreme poverty doubled in fragile states in just five years between 2005 and 2010[1], and not a single Millennium Development Goal (MDG) has been achieved in low income and conflict affected fragile contexts. The failure of MDGs in these volatile contexts means that the most basic standards of care do not exist for a widening number of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.

  The UN Secretary-General has tasked the UN High-Level Panel on Post-2015 Development to address conflict and fragility as part of its broader mandate to envision development beyond the MDGs. Despite this task, the UN’s preparatory report to inform the Panel’s work scarcely mentions fragility[2]. Instead, it takes up issues shared more broadly among developing countries, such as peace and security, sustainability, and human rights. In order to deliver on its mandate of tackling fragility, the High-Level Panel must significantly elevate this development crisis and seek out new models for resilienceas part of the post-2015 development agenda. Any model for resilience must address foremost the reasons why the MDGs did not work in fragile states.

  Read more at Yale Journal of International Affairs

• Global Goals for Human Rights and Governance After 2015: Part II

  Over the past fifteen years a nascent consensus has begun to emerge that some aspects of good governance and human rights are integral to development as both a means and an end. Although in the past it has been difficult for the global community to agree on governance and human rights goals due to both political disagreements and technical uncertainties around measurement, it is indeed technically feasible, and increasingly politically possible on a global stage, to include governance and human rights goals and targets as part of post-2015 development priorities.

  
  Global development goals should meet four criteria.

  Read more at Council on Foreign Relations

• Global Goals for Human Rights and Governance After 2015: Part VI

  As discussed in previous blog posts in this series, good governance and human rights are essential to human well-being, and should be included in the post-2015 global development agenda. Rule of law and access to justice are linchpins of these concepts.

  
  Globally, the United Nations Development Program estimates that four billion people live outside the law’s protection, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and neglect. Empowering individuals and communities to assert and realize their rights can ensure that the law protects against government corruption and discrimination, and gives a voice to the least politically powerful, who might otherwise be ignored. Rule of law and access to justice can also acts as a powerful economic lever, allowing small farmers and entrepreneurs the opportunity to protect their assets and enforce contracts. And rule of law and access to justice are universally applicable issues, in rich and poor countries alike, making these goals particularly appropriate for a global development agenda that aims to have far-reaching scope and relevance.

  
  Read more at Council on Foreign Relations

• Global Post- 2015 Development Agenda Initiative (2)

  The adoption of the Millennium Declaration in 2000 by all 189 Member States of the UN General Assembly was a defining moment for global development cooperation. In recognition of the need to translate this commitment into action, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted. Since their endorsement by the UN General Assembly, the MDGs have defined a common framework of priorities for the development community. In September 2010, a High Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly convened to review progress on the MDG targets and agreed on a concrete action plan to accelerate progress towards their full achievement by 2015. It also called on the UN System to continue informing the global debate on development and to lead the international discussion on a post 2015 development agenda.

  
  The 2011 Annual Report of the Secretary- General: Accelerating progress towards the MDGs: options for sustained and inclusive growth and issues for advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015, lays out the broad principles of the post-2015 process. These include the need to foster an inclusive, open and transparent consultation process with multi-stakeholder participation, and to use established global, regional and national mechanisms and processes to ensure that such deliberations incorporate the lessons learned and experiences from all stakeholders. At the substantive level, the Report recommends drawing on the values and principles in the Millennium Declaration and on a thorough, broad based and inclusive review of the MDGs, which should be put in the context of the global development challenges ahead, as the starting point for the discussion of a new development agenda beyond 2015. 

  Read more at United Nations Armenia

• Government of Finland: EU Ministers for Development- post- 2015 development goals and Mali

  Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala will attend the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Development Cooperation being held in Dublin on 11 and 12 February. The agenda for the meeting includes, among others, the post-2015 international development goals and the crisis in Mali.

  
  The existing UN Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015. Preparation of the following international development goals is under way. Finland considers it important that during the drafting process the EU acts coherently and supports the UN's responsibility for leadership in the matter. The ministers will also discuss this topic at a working dinner, where the participants will include former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, Special Advisor of the UN Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg.

  Read more at 4- traders

• Have your say on the Post- 2015 Development Agenda

  This January UNA-UK has been asking its members and supporters to participate in the UN’s My World survey – a global initiative allowing members of the public to feed their ideas into the process to devise the successor framework to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

  
  Successfully creating a representative and inclusive post-2015 development framework will depend on the ability of the process to incorporate the views and opinions of people across the world. This initiative, spearheaded by the United Nations, provides a great opportunity for you to have your say in the post-2015 development debate.

  
  The results of this survey will be shared with world leaders as they consider the world's future development priorities following the expiry of the MDGs in 2015.

  Read more at UNA- UK

• HIV in the Post- 2015 Development Goals- Let’s Keep the Momentum Going

  The International Development Committee (IDC) today publishes its Post- 2015 Development Goals report calling for a simple and measurable set of global targets to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire in 2015.

  With specific reference to health, the report states that “there is a strong argument that the post-2015 framework should include one overarching goal on health based on Universal Health Coverage, rather than the three health-related goals which feature in the original MDGs.  This should be done in such a way that the current vital emphasis on maternal and child mortality is not lost.”

  Read more at International HIV/ AIDS Alliance

• International Development Committee on Post- 2015

  On 22 January, the International Development Committee published a report on the post 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the report, the Committee supports Prime Minister Cameron’s emphasis on the eradication on poverty. Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce, chair of the committee stated "Aiming to eradicate extreme poverty is ambitious, of course, but for the first time in human history it is also eminently achievable. The MDGs have been successful in halving extreme poverty, but progress has been very unequal. Now is the time to focus on those who have been left behind."

  Read more at United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe

• Invitation to Attend Dialogue Meeting on Addressing Inequalities, 18 February 2013

  Participate in the Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and make your voice heard.

  The Public Dialogue Meeting on Addressing Inequalities in the Post-2015 Development Agenda is the culmination of the Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, a joint civil society/UN consultation, co-convened by UNICEF and UN Women and sponsored by the Governments of Denmark and Ghana. The meeting is held in Eigtveds Pakhus, room III, in Copenhagen on 18 February 2013 from 9.00-15.00.

  
  The consultation on addressing inequalities is one of eleven thematic consultations that the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) initiated in 2012. The aim of the Global Consultation on Inequalities is to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals and to discuss options for addressing inequalities in a new development framework after 2015.

  Read more at Udenrigsministereit Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
   

• It’s time the UN reviewed development goals

  The countdown to the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda is a time for debate about how the development community and countries around the world should collaborate on improving wellbeing, sustainability and social justice from 2015.

  
  Look beyond the proposals and the wrangling over priorities, imagine a new development framework in place and fast-forward two decades: how many questions will we be able to answer about what has and hasn’t worked?

  
  The value of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is clear when we reflect on progress made in the past decade or so: with the benefit of hindsight, answering questions about the MDGs’ impact has been far from straightforward.

  Read more at Business Daily

• Key Tweets from the Post 2015 High Level Meeting in Monrovia

  David Cameron arrives in Monrovia to co-chair the Post-2015 High Level Meeting. Watch the video on The Guardian. Visit monrovia2015hlp.org to learn more about the meeting.

  
  This week in Monrovia, Liberia a high level meeting is taking place to look at global development for post 2015 after the expiration of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Co-Chaired by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono along with 27 members of the high level panel will collectively determine the aid and development agenda for the next twenty years.

  
  From the high level meeting several key tweets emerged at the #post2015hlp hashtag.

  Read more at Mom Bloggers for Social Good: A Global Coalition of Mothers Who Care

• Liberia buzzes at latest talks on Post- 2015 Development Agenda Begin

  The bunting has been hung, there is a smell of fresh paint at the airport, and posters dotted around Monrovia suggest something big is happening in the city this week.

  
  On Tuesday, the technical sessions of the UN high-level panel (HLP), which has until May to come up with a vision to shape the post-2015 development agenda, began. On Friday the Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and her HLP co-chairs – David Cameron, Britain's prime minister, and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of Indonesia – are expected to offer a clearer idea of what that vision may be when they issue the panel's first communique.

  
  What is it likely to contain? Job creation is expected to make an appearance. The World Bank's 2013 World Development Report, published last year, said more than 600m new jobs will be needed over the next 15 years, particularly in Africa and Asia. An estimated 200 million people around the world are unemployed, of whom more than a third are under the age of 25. There is concern among leaders about what to do with the "youth bulge" – the young people who have benefited from the millennium development goal (MDG) to get more children into school, but have few opportunities once their education is completed.

  Read more at Poverty Matters Blog

   

• Liberia: HLP Must Formulate New Global Development Goals

  Our country, Liberia is currently hosting a United Nations High Level Panel Post 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) meeting. The 26-member panel was set up by United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, in May 2012 to advise him on the Global Development agenda after 2015 (At the expiration of the current Millennium Development Goals).

  
  High level Panel Must Formulate Clearly Defined and Achievable New Global Development Goals
  The panel is co-chaired by Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Indonesian President SusiloBambangYudhoyono. Academics, diplomats and civil society leaders from all regions of the world are also here participating in the meeting.

  Read more at allAfrica