Poverty Reduction

UNDP utilizes its broad regional and thematic expertise to support governments in preparing and implementing MDG-based national development strategies. While such strategies are crucial to achieve the MDGs at the country level, the vast majority of them are not yet ambitious enough.

To be properly aligned with the MDGs, a national strategy needs to address several key issues:

1. Ambition—are the targets far-reaching enough to realistically reach the MDGs?
2. Scope—does the strategy take into account all of the MDGs, or does it focus too narrowly on only a certain number?
3. Rigour—are the targets substantiated by a solid analysis of what inputs are needed to achieve them?
4. Timeframe—is the strategy grounded in a long-term assessment of those needs?
5. Financing—is the budget sufficient to finance the necessary inputs?
6. Monitoring and Evaluation—is there a strategy for evaluating progress and making changes?

To address each of these questions, UNDP works with its partners to support governments through the four key steps of preparing an MDG-based national development strategy:

1. Launch an effective and inclusive process for MDG-based planning;
2. Take inventory: reviewing existing strategies and defining the baseline;
3. Conduct a detailed, long-term assessment—or MDG needs assessment— to estimate the infrastructure, human resources, and financial requirements required to achieve the MDGs;
4. Develop a short-to-medium-term national strategy drawing upon the MDG needs assessment

Bringing these various processes to the local level is another important area of work. UNDP is partnering with SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, which provides grants and assistance to develop the capacity of local actors to promote MDG localization. This includes setting local goals and targets, planning how to achieve them, and strengthening local institutions to ensure they can be achieved. It also involves establishing links between national policies and frameworks and their application at the local level.

In addition to signing up to support MDG-based national development strategies, world leaders resolved at the 2005 World Summit to adopt quick-impact initiatives, or quick wins, designed to bring vital well-being gains to millions of people in a short amount of time. Examples of such quick wins include eliminating school fees, distributing free, insecticide-treated bed nets to children in malaria endemic zones, and providing farmers with affordable replenishments of soil nitrogen and other soil nutrients. For a full list of these initiatives, see the MDG Data and Resources section. These quick wins are already proven to work, they are affordable and their results can be easily measured and monitored. UNDP works with governments to support their implementation as widely as possible.

At the request of programme countries, UNDP offers training programmes for government officials on MDG-based national development strategies.