On 17 June the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) launched a new report, entitled What Will It Take To Achieve The Millennium Development Goals? An International Assessment, which identifies eight concrete action points to accelerate and sustain development progress over the next five years. These action points are based on UNDP’s experience in 50 countries and include:

1. supporting country-led development and effective governance;
2. fostering inclusive and pro-poor economic growth;
3. increasing public investments in education, health, water, sanitation and infrastructure;
4. scaling up targeted interventions, including social protection and employment programmes;
5. investing in expanded opportunities for women and girls and advancing their economic, legal and political empowerment;
6. enhancing access to energy and promoting low-carbon development;
7. accelerating domestic resource mobilization to finance the MDGs;
8. ensuring the global partnership creates an enabling environment for the MDGs, particularly delivering on ODA commitments.

At the launch of the report, Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, said “We hope that Member States negotiating the outcome of the MDG Summit will agree on an action agenda which reflects the evidence of what works and includes bold initiatives is the eight priority areas outlined in the international assessment…. We should not squander the opportunities for progress now by narrowing our ambition and throwing up our hands in despair at the obstacles. Stronger global partnerships can speed up MDG progress. Meeting the MDGs means offering a better life to billions of people. The decisions our countries, communities, and organizations make are critical to realizing the MDG promise.”

The assessment further finds that there are important synergies among the MDGs, meaning that acceleration in one goal often speeds up progress in others, and that policy commitments are key for success. High per capita growth as a result of more agricultural productivity, employment creation and more equitable income distribution can contribute to rapid poverty reduction. Also, the report identifies the need for a balance between policies that favour demand, and supply-side investments in education, water and sanitation, and health a key for rapid improvements. It calls for gender equality, for social protection and employment programmes, livelihood diversifaction, domestic resource mobilization, and for a more effective global partnership.

The full report is available online.

Source: http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=amdg10&id_article=2690