| |
Contributions from
the Column
Focus
UK development cooperation
Dutch development cooperation reform
No development model Eastern Europe
Multilateralism versus bilateralism in foreign aid
The Utstein Group
The Millennium Development Goals
Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
03/2003
|
|
The Millennium Development Goals
There is international consensus on the development agenda, based on partnership, country ownership and mutual accountability. Since publication of the international development goals (IDGs) in Shaping the 21st Century, the DAC has been seeking broad ownership for them, particularly within the United Nations. The Millennium Declaration in September 2000 provided formal UN endorsement of the goal of halving the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day by 2015. It offered an occasion, and strong demand, to add more recent conference goals to the IDGs – on hunger, HIV/AIDS an other major diseases, and housing. And it recognised the balance of responsibilities between developing and developed countries.
In 2001 the UN Secretariat prepared a report by the UN Secretary-General entitled „Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration“. As part of that report, the Secretariats of the UN, IMF, OECD and World Bank agreed a formulation for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that lists 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators. Grouping the many targets of the Millennium Declaration under eight goals provides continuity with the seven IDGs.
The eight goals are:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
Goals 1 to 5 and 7 are identical to the IDGs. Goal 6 replaces the IDG of universal access to reproductive health services, acknowledging that this goal was consciously omitted from the Millennium Declaration. Goal 8 is new. It uses the language of the Millennium Declaration – consistent with references in Shaping the 21st Century to adequate resources and policy coherence – to balance the responsibilities of developing and developed countries when reporting on development progress.
Source: DAC Report 2001, p. 125
|
