Strengthening national strategies to achieve the MDGs

The year 2005 saw renewed global support for the fight against poverty and the achievement of the MDGs. G8 leaders, meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July agreed to write off the debt owed by some of the poorest countries. Fifteen European Union countries committed themselves to increasing aid levels to 0.7 percent of Gross National Income by 2015 and the United Kingdom-sponsored Commission for Africa helped secure further support for development on the continent. The widespread Make Poverty History campaign and the overwhelmingly generous public response to the Indian Ocean tsunami also pointed to a growing sense of solidarity among people around the world. The 2005 World Summit, held at the UN in New York in September, produced the "strong and unambiguous commitment by all governments, in donor and developing nations alike, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015."

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Meeting the MDGs presents a significant challenge to developing countries and the international community—but not an insurmountable one. The world has the financial, technical and economic means to achieve the MDGs, and national efforts to meet them are being supported by a global coalition of development partners—including bilateral donors, UN agencies, regional development banks and the Bretton Woods Institutions.

Progress now depends on operationalizing the MDGs at the country level—translating the goals into national policies, incorporating them into key economic decisions and national development strategies. The need to focus national development policies more strongly on the MDGs within a flexible framework, allowing for national priorities and specificities, was one of the central recommendations of the UN Millennium Project Report Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, published in January 2005. Headed by Jeffrey Sachs and supported by UNDP, the Millennium Project is an independent advisory body charged with putting forward the best strategies for achieving the MDGs. Its Report stresses the primary importance of individual developing countries adopting strategies ambitious enough to meet the MDGs at the national level.

The Millennium Project has supported several developing country governments in their efforts to prepare MDG-based poverty reduction strategies. The lessons learned formed the basis for a handbook on Preparing National Strategies to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, published in 2005. Working backward from the MDG targets to define the policies and investments needed between 2005 and 2015, the handbook puts forward strategies to align existing planning processes with the MDGs.

These efforts are now being complemented by an Integrated Package of Services, developed by the Millennium Project and UNDP, and aimed at helping governments translate the MDGs into reality. The integrated package constitutes a 'one-stop-shop' that provides governments with a range of capacity development services. It is based on a three-pronged approach: First, it is designed to help countries broadly assess what technical and financial resources are needed to achieve the MDGs over the long term. Using its experience in supporting country-level MDG Reports, UNDP facilitates the translation of the MDGs into national policy frameworks by helping collect and analyze data on poverty, examining options for expanding the public revenue base and assessing a country's capabilities for planning, resource management and policy-making. Second, UNDP helps countries identify and develop the policy frameworks needed to promote long-term human development. It advises on formulating policies, developing knowledge and skills and building learning networks to support national strategies targeted towards the poor. Third, once MDG-based policies have been developed, the challenge is to implement them. UNDP helps governments strengthen their capacity to deliver by supporting, for example, public administration reforms, enhanced accountability mechanisms and a stronger role for the domestic private sector.

The world has the financial, technical and economic means to achieve the MDGs, and national efforts to meet them are being supported by a global coalition of development partners.

The integrated package of services also helps pull together the UN's efforts to achieve progress on the MDGs and incorporate them into a unified development agenda. It provides a framework for UN Country Teams to capitalize on their expertise and harmonize their development work while offering opportunities of closer collaboration with the Bretton Woods Institutions.

The rollout of this new set of services started in January 2006. In Niamey, Niger and Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, UNDP brought together senior government officials, policy specialists, UN economists, academics, civil society leaders and representatives of international financial institutions to work towards effective planning and implementation of MDG-based development strategies. Other training programmes have been held in Mongolia and Pakistan where governments are now working on MDG-based national strategies, and more will take place in other regions, based on country demand.

Finally, support for the MDG effort is being sustained around the world by the Millennium Campaign and its partners. An initiative of the UN, the Campaign brings together civil society groups, youth organizations, parliamentarians, trade unions and the wider public who use their commitment and creativity to encourage governments to keep their promises to achieve the MDGs. Since it was created in 2002, the Campaign, which is financed by a trust fund administered by UNDP, has generated over 40 national MDG campaigns. In 2005, it stepped up its action by launching a toolkit to assist individuals and civil society groups in campaigning for the MDGs. In addition to building advocacy skills and providing practical tips, the manual offers ways of achieving enhanced results by linking groups together nationally and globally.