GRIPS Development Forum > Diversifying PRSP > ch2. Global Development Trend and PRSP
Millennium Development Goals
|In September 2000, the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly concluded on an historic note, with the adoption of the Millennium Declaration. This Declaration collectively committed their governments to work to free the world of extreme poverty. Towards that end, it endorsed the following International Development Goals for 2015: to cut in half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, of those who are hungry, and of those who lack access to safe drinking water; to achieve universal primary education and gender equality in education; to accomplish a three-fourths decline in maternal mortality and a two-thirds decline in mortality among children under five; to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and to provide special assistance to AIDS orphans; and to improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers.
Source: [Zedillo et al. 2001, Executive Summary p.1.]
|How the MDGs were born and how are they developed? [see also Table: Building International Consensus on Poverty Reduction from 1990 to Date in Box: PRSP]|
|What are the MDGs?|
| The eight goals of MDGs comprise 18 targets and 48 indicators. The first seven goals are mutually reinforcing and directed at reducing poverty in all its forms. The last goal, "global partnership for development" is about the means to achieve the first seven [see Table below].
|Why have the MDGs been commonly accepted as a framework for development?|
| MDGs have been formulated with broad support and acceptance from both developing and developed countries, as well as international development agencies including International Financial Institutions (IFIs).
MDGs are result-oriented with quantitative analysis. They provide measurable results and monitoring, not just for developing countries but also for developed countries and international development agencies.
Potentially, they can play an important role in strengthening donor coordination.
|How are the MDGs making progress?|
| Perspective of their achievement
The World Bank examined how many countries are likely to reach MDGs, based on the progress made in the 1990s using the data from World Development Indicators.
Costing: Additional aid required to achieve the MDGs is estimated as follows.
The International Conference on Financing for Development (March 18-22, 2002 at Monterrey, Mexico) agreed on a strategy for better resource mobilization to achieve the MDGs. The conference participants included 50 heads of the countries over 200 ministers as well as leaders from the private sector and civil society, and senior officials of all the major intergovernmental financial, trade, economic, and monetary organizations [Box: The International Conference on Financing for Development].
The UNDP will prepare, in collaboration with the UN development group, the Millennium Reports which entails country-by-country assessment of progress towards meeting the MDGs. The first pilot reports on Bolivia, Cameroon, Cambodia, Chad, Viet Nam and Tanzania have already been completed.
|Shantayanan Devarajan et al. , "Goals for Development: History, Prospects and Costs," World Bank Discussion Paper No. 2819, April.
UN Secretary-General , Road Map Towards the Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, September. [http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/56/a56326.pdf].
UNDP [2002a], Summary Report, Financing the Development Goals, An analysis of Tanzania, Cameroon, Malawi, Uganda and Philippines, March. [http://www.undp.org/ffd/MDGfinal.pdf].
UNDP [2002b], "UNDP to Unveil New Three-pronged Strategy to Promote Millennium Development Goals" Newsfront, March 22. [http://www.undp.org/dpa/frontpagearchieve/2002/march/22mar02].
World Bank, MDGs Website. [http://www.developmentgoals.org/About_the_goals.htm].
Zedillo, Ernest et al. , Report of the High-Level Panel on Financing for Development, June. [http://www.un.org/reports/financing/report_full.htm].
*This note was written by GRIPS Development Forum.