The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation

14. The Long Road toward the Millennium Development Goals

fourteen The Long Road toward the Millennium Development Goals n The Millennium Declaration and Its Development Commitments n Making the Millennium Declaration Operational n Implementation, 2000–2004 n The Recommendations of the Millennium Project n The Midpoint Report: Progress Achieved, but Core Goals Still Distant n The Global Partnership: Lagging Behind n Some Concluding Observations In 1996, the OECD Development Assistance Committee brought the conclusions arrived at in several UN global conferences together in a comprehensive, future-oriented policy document called Shaping the 21st Century: The Contribution of Development Co-operation.1 At that point, DAC countries were providing almost 95 percent of global official development assistance. The policy document established a common policy platform for DAC member countries. Although development cooperation in the form of financial and technical assistance for national capacity-building remained important, it considered the OECD’s macroeconomic, trade, finance, and other policies toward developing countries to be a crucial part of an integrated approach. The policy was embedded in an ambition to attain coherence between the various, often conflicting policy areas.2 It took the United Nations Millennium Summit to broaden the strategy and give global legitimacy to the aspirations and goals. The Millennium Declaration and Its Development Commitments The General Assembly designated its fifty-fifth session in 2000 as the Millennium Assembly and decided to convene a summit as part of that assembly.3 The Millennium Summit of the United Nations, which took The Long Road toward the Millennium Development Goals n 443 place in September 2000, brought together the largest-ever gathering of world leaders. Representatives of 191 nations attended, including 147 heads of state and government. The setting was special, in itself fostering special and solemn commitments. The summit was not just ceremonial; at it, world leaders adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration.4 From our perspective, the summit’s most important outcome was the commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs conceptualized development and poverty eradication as integral parts of a broader perspective that included peace and security; protection of the environment; human rights; democracy and good governance; protection of the vulnerable; and particular attention to the worst off, with special reference to Africa. Improvements within such areas would also affect poverty eradication and development. Increasingly, they have been defined as development objectives in their own right as well as objectives in a development cooperation context. Some of the particular commitments to development and poverty eradication were general but nevertheless important because they highlighted the direction of joint efforts. Others were quantified, to be achieved by a fixed date. These call for special attention. Most of the MDGs had been formulated in similar terms before as recommendations from specialized global conferences and meetings during the 1990s (and integrated into the DAC’s 1996 strategy document). The Millennium Declaration gave them added authority. In brief, the summit resolved:5 n To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s­ people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water n To ensure that, by the same date, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of education n To reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters and reduce the mortality of children under five by two-thirds by 2015 n To halt and begin to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the scourge of malaria, and other major diseases that afflict humanity by 2015 444 n The Lost Decade and a New Beginning n To provide special assistance to children orphaned by HIV/ AIDS n To achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020 More generally, Millennium Assembly participants also resolved:6 n To promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger, and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable n To develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work n To encourage the pharmaceutical industry to make essential drugs more widely available and affordable by all who need them in developing countries n To develop strong partnerships...