The Millennium Goals brought together for the first time a shared vision on development representing a global partnership based on a shared responsibility by all countries. Developing countries have primary responsibility for achieving the Goals. But rich countries acknowledged in Goal 8 that poor countries can not achieve the goals unless rich countries increase and improve the effectiveness of their aid as well as change the rules of trade to foster development. The Goals can be achieved only if governments of both rich and poor countries live up to their promises.

The Millennium Goals have their limitations. They do not capture other commitments in the Millennium Declaration on governance, transparency, participation and human rights that are not simple to measure, but are essential, including for the achievement of the Goals. Furthermore, while the first 7 Goals reflect international consensus derived from earlier UN conferences, the content of Goal 8, involving rich countries commitments, was only discussed and agreed internationally in the years after the Millennium Summit, in other fora such as in the Doha Development Agenda, the Monterrey Consensus and the Paris Declaration. However, the essence of these commitments was reaffirmed in the Outcome Document of the UN Summit in 2005.
As the Goals were set at global level, they can only become meaningful, if they are adopted and adapted for local relevance: they should not be a “one-size-fit-all” cookie-cutter – but should be localized and customized to country circumstances. Priorities and degree of ambition should be locally determined and owned.

Achieving the Goals regarding social services such as education and health can be fairly straight forward by investing in these sectors at the country level. But country specific translation of the Goals requires also that the poverty goal is not neglected. This in turn involves a complex set of domestic and international policies supported by investment that would lead to income generation through “decent work” in the productive sectors, particularly agriculture and agro-processing, which are for most poor countries the relevant sectors to produce pro-poor, labor-intensive growth.

The U. N Millennium Campaign

The MDG’s have proven to have great value as a framework for citizens’ mobilization. Richard Jolly’s research for the UN Intellectual History Project shows that over the years the UN has set some 50 goals for economic and social development – often with more positive achievements than many people seem to realize. But the degree to which “goals set” became “goals met” depended on citizen support and the degree to which these goals were known and owned publicly, beyond the development agencies and UN officials. Citizen’s mobilization is key.
The Millennium Goals will not be achieved at the United Nations. The UN can create a platform for governments to make commitments but cannot force compliance by Member States. Only their citizens and their elected representatives – at the national level – can hold their governments to account for the promises these governments made at the UN.

Obviously, the world community has the resources and the know-how to achieve the Goals. At the Millennium Summit agreement was reached on the division of labor between rich and poor countries. Thus, as the U.N. Secretaries-General (both Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon) have repeatedly stated, when talking about the Millennium Goals “The lacking ingredient is political will.” Political action at the national level is essential. As politics is local, voters are local, and achieving the Millennium Goals needs to become an attractive “vote getter” issue at the national level. But this requires awareness of the Goals and citizen advocacy to remind governments of their promises.

Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former Chair of the U.N. Development Group Mark Malloch Brown decided in 2002 to launch a campaign for this purpose, and – in consultation with all Heads of Agencies – invited me to create and lead this effort, as an interagency UN initiative, but functioning at “arms length” from the UN system. It was the first time ever the UN initiated an effort to build awareness of internationally agreed objectives and to inspire and mobilize citizens to hold their governments accountable for their achievement. The UN and the Millennium Campaign can not and does not involve itself in the domestic partisan politics of members. The Campaign only focuses on helping to strengthen constituencies for pro-poor policies and advocacy for the implementation of promises already made – as embodied in the negotiated outcome documents of international meetings in which all governments – of any political persuasion – have joined the consensus.
Living up to these promises requires public opinion awareness and citizens’ advocacy which would suggest to political leaders that they will win – not loose – votes if they support policies to achieve the MDGs. The UN Millennium Campaign convenes, informs, helps facilitate, inspire and mobilize citizens and their organizations to advocate in developing countries more pro poor, inclusive and transparent policies to achieve goals 1-7; and in rich countries more pro development policies, embedded in goal 8 such as more and more effective aid; debt relief; better trade opportunities, and less trade distortion through agricultural subsidies.

In country after country the Campaign partnered with local civil society, often already engaged in development, and reached out to other actors, local authorities, faith-based organizations, youth networks, unions and popular media (e.g. “MTV“http://www.mtv.com), fostering the use of the MDGs as a common rallying framework for action.

At the international level the Campaign initiated civil society networking in the Global Coalition against Poverty (GCAP) and partnered with international networks, ranging from UCLG (Local Authorities) and multiple Parliamentarian networks to the World Scout Movement to promote awareness of the Goals and action for their implementation. These efforts resulted in a host of local events and activities at national level, promoting the Goals and many invitations to address relevant committees in National Parliaments.

Successes and challenges

The work of the MC is very similar to development cooperation. Outsiders who demand visibility or claim credit undermine local ownership, which is critical to effectiveness. But it is safe to say the Campaign contributed to raising awareness of the MDGs and to rallying large numbers of people behind pro-poor policies by bringing on board, including through GCAP, large parts of civil society, which was at first quite skeptic (in the north) or lacked ownership (in the South) of the Goals; and in engaging many actors and organizations who never had world poverty prominently on their agenda before, such as youth organizations, local authorities, broadcasters and faith-based organizations. All these efforts across the globe cumulated in over 43.7 million people, in 127 countries participating on October 16th 2007 in breaking the Guinness World Record – set the previous year at 23.5 million – for the largest number of people to “STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY”:http://standagainstpoverty.org in 24 hours. People around the world from all walks of life came together in their schools, streets, market places, in front of government buildings and local councils, in workplaces and houses of worship, at sports and cultural events and at public landmarks physically and intentionally standing up against poverty, inequality and in support of the Millennium Development Goals. In countries where participation and media coverage was extensive, politicians are certain to pay attention. And as the credibility and legitimacy of the MDGs as the most effective rallying point for meeting development challenges is built, they figure more prominently on political agendas.

Even if not all governments live up to all their promises, many in both the South and the North are doing better than before.

In developing countries, increased citizens’ demands for accountability foster improved governance and transparency, key to achievement of the Goals. MDG Campaigns in “lagging” E.U. countries have helped to cement the political will of E.U. members to set a timetable and deadline to achieve the 0.7%/GNI for Development Assistance.

However, while in the North, various Campaigns have been successful in pressuring for increases in Aid budgets (0.7% easily fits on a banner), other components of Goal 8 appear more complicated to introduce in the public discourse.

Goal 8 is not just about ODA-levels: as promised in the Doha Development Agenda, rich countries need to reform their trade policies, which deny poor countries the chance to earn their way out of poverty by selling their products on our rich consumer markets. Even worse, our agricultural policies destroy their local markets: 70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas, depend on agriculture, but can not lift themselves out of poverty as they can not compete against our subsidized production.

But also the way aid is delivered matters as much as its volume: if it bypasses or undermines the primary responsibility of developing countries for their development it does not contribute and can even undermine the achievement of the MDGs in a sustainable way. The attitude of “we” (standing for experts/money) will save Africa ; “we” will end poverty fit in perfectly with the myth of Western superiority – and even reinforces it: we lecture – you listen; we give – you receive; we know – you learn; we take care of things – because you can not. Undermining Africans’ own responsibilities and self confidence, the donor community takes over.

The most important aid reform is to realize that donors do not develop developing countries, but that they develop themselves. This implies that the role of donors is to enable developing countries to take full responsibility.

At best, traditional donor driven projects have been islands of perfection in the midst of oceans of misery, which collapsed back into the ocean once the donor left, as governments could not afford to continue to pay doctors or teachers, or even the electricity bills. Moreover, each project – of which there might be thousands – burdened the government with a host of rules and reporting requirements, draining weak local capacity, leaving governments unable to run their own countries and to be accountable to their own citizens.

Aid by itself cannot “buy” the MDG’s. Particularly “one project (or village) at a time” will not make a dent, if it bypasses and ignores government policies and responsibilities.

The good news is that for the first time ever, donors have agreed they are part of the problem – and agreed to become part of the solution and allow recipient countries to take their responsibilities. In the Paris Declaration in 2005 the donor community signed concrete commitments with indicators and deadlines for their achievement: to respect home-grown strategies; to align donor support to these; to work together to coordinate and harmonize procedures; and to do away with individual projects, evaluations and missions. In the Declaration developing countries on their part recommitted themselves to exercise leadership in developing and implementing their national development strategies through broad consultative processes; make progress towards building institutions and establishing governance structures that deliver effective governance and equitable access to basic social services for their citizens; take leadership in the public financial management reform process; and intensify efforts to mobilize domestic resources.

Achievement of the Millennium Goals will not happen unless developing country governments take full responsibility for their actions, their governments work properly and they are accountable to their own citizens. That is the “GLOBAL DEAL”, embedded in the division of labour in the MDG’s, codified in the Monterrey Consensus and reconfirmed in numerous international conferences since. Even the poorest countries can perform better – as many of them are proving. Moreover, even in the most aid-dependent countries aid is a minor part of overall development finance and mobilization of domestic resources and spending these well is the only way to ultimately finance the achievement of the Goals in a sustainable way. This is what the Millennium Goals are about: an agreement between governments of rich countries and poor each of which must be held accountable by their own respective citizens.

In the North the focus should be on trade, and aid, ensuring it supports home grown and owned country strategies: earmarking for certain Goals is inconsistent with this. In the South the focus should be holding governments to account for their efforts to achieve the Goals, particularly for citizens who are most likely to miss them: the excluded and most vulnerable.

Conclusion

IF governments live up to their promises, the results are stunning: even some of the poorest countries (Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Bangladesh) are on track to achieve several of the Goals, while Ghana is likely to achieve the poverty Goal next year!

The “secret” of these success stories is, on the one hand, improved policies of these countries (Goals adapted to become National Goals, clear strategies translated in budget priorities, focus on delivering results, greater accountability and transparency at all levels, public debate and involvement), and, on the other hand, donors lining up behind and supporting these national policies and priorities generously and effectively.

The trends at the global level call for optimism: historical estimates suggest that the number of extreme poor has been consistently above 1 billion since the late 19th century. Since then the global population has quadrupled, but economic progress has overcome this demographic explosion. During the last decade the number of extreme poor has been fallen by 200 million, and on present trends will be indeed be halved by 2015. Today more children go to school than ever in human history, tens of millions more today than in 2000. Even if not all the Goals are achieved everywhere on time, the individual success stories and global acceleration call for celebration and prove the Millennium Goals are achievable – IF all governments honor their pledges…