Arab States

Millennium Development Goals- Arab States

Even though the Arab world has made substantive strides in human development over the past three decades, the region’s overall progress has faltered over the 1990s. The Arab Millennium Development Goals in the Arab Region 2005 Report (AMDGR) depicts a diverse picture in terms of progress towards achieving the MDGs. While the high-income Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have demonstrated the most advanced progress towards achieving the MDGs, the least developed countries (LDCs) including Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, in addition to Iraq and Palestine will fail to meet most of those goals by the year 2015. The majority of middle-income Maghreb and Mashreq countries, on the other hand, vary in their potential for reaching individual goals.

Supporting the achievement of the MDGs and reducing human poverty therefore constitute a key pillar of UNDP’s work in the Arab States region.

At the Regional Level

The regional programmes for MDG achievement address critical regional deficits and emerging human development priorities in the region targeting poverty reduction (MDG 1), gender equality and women’s empowerment (MDG 3), scaling up the response to HIV/AIDS (MDG 6) and water resources management (MDG 7).

At the Country Level

Supporting the achievement of the MDGs and reducing human poverty constitutes a key pillar of UNDP’s work at the country level.   On average, one third of UNDP programme resources at the country level are allocated to programmes and activities in support of the achievement of the MDGs and poverty reduction.   A recent mapping of UNDP’s work in this area at the country level shows that activities include support to:

1.   Poverty monitoring and reporting: key priorities include building of statistical capacity to monitor trends in poverty and inequality, and establishing monitoring and reporting systems to track progress towards achieving the MDGs

2.   Information and communication technology development addressing issues of equity and improved access to education, health, human rights awareness, provision of public services as well as transparency in government;

3. Promotion of gender equality and women’s access to and participation in national development priorities;

4. Civil Society to enhance their participation and capacity for achieving the MDGs both at the national and local levels;

5.  Local poverty initiatives, as in support to micro-credit schemes      and   micro financing.  more...

Capacity 2015 MDG-Related Activities in the Arab States Region:

The Capacity 2015 Arab States Programme is focused on five simultaneous tracks of:

1.      Mainstreaming MDG-Based Development into Planning Process, advocacy 

      for the MDGs and Leadership Skills;

2.      Localizing the MDGs;

3.     Direct MDG-Related Interventions: Gender Empowerment and 

      Environmental Sustainability;

4.      Development of tools, how-to-guides, concept papers on focus areas;

5.      Knowledge Sharing of Best Practices and Lessons Learned. 

Given these priorities, almost all of the programmes' activities in the region are MDG related. Having concluded the start-up phase and closed or converted all previous Capacity 21 projects, the Capacity 2015 Arab States Programme is now active in several countries promoting MDG-based development.