Minar Pimple
Regional Director, Asia and the Pacific
UN Millennium Campaign
I.
Learning from the MDGs
What should the Post-2015 Development
Framework look like?
History of the MDGs



International Development Goals (IDGs) emerged from a series of
international conferences (e.g. gender, children, health, education and
population) in the 1990s.
In 2000, the Millennium Declaration was adopted but did not contain the
MDGs in their present form. In 2001, a team of UN experts created the
MDGs with indicators, without any inter-governmental process.
“I and several of [Kofi Annan’s] staff literally went into the proverbial windowless committee
room and wrote the MDGs. I have spent many a year since wishing I had taken a little
more time to write them as I might have made them slightly more inclusive and polished.”
(Mark Malloch Brown, former UNDP Administrator, Feb 2011)
Mainly European donors supported the MDGs, while the MDGs faced strong
opposition and skepticism from many governments as well as Northern and
Southern NGOs for the initial five years. By the latter half of the decade, the
MDGs had gained traction and became an important organizing principle
for a large number of development actors.
Strengths of the MDG Framework
Driven by donors, MDGs had most impact on donors and aid levels.
 The limited number of goals and targets on which there is global consensus




and through which popular support and political action can be mobilised.
MDGs provided useful leverage for arguing for increased aid volumes. (i.e.
Millennium Project’s estimated resource requirement became the target for
G8 in Gleneagles in 2005.)
MDGs contributed to focusing aid on the social sectors in general and on
some specific areas, such as primary education and child health.
MDGs became a useful vehicle for CSOs to hold their governments to
account for the public promise.
MDGs encouraged the collection of better data to assess their progress.
Weaknesses of the MDG Framework
Lack of participation in the formulation process, which created resentment
among many developing country governments as “donor /UN driven agenda”
 Some argue that by focusing on social sectors, MDGs have effect of reducing




the importance attached to aid focused on infrastructure, agriculture and
industrial development .
Masking inequalities by focusing on the global and national averages.
Lack of commitments by rich countries with the Goal 8 without specific
quantified targets or dates.
MDGs left out some key issues of importance to development (e.g. climate
change, conflict, security, disability).
Translation of global goals into nationally applicable targets and policy
making was inappropriate for some countries with completely different
development trends.
Emerging scenarios
 There is an emerging consensus on formulating a new
agenda which retains the simplicity and the affirmative
action nature of the MDGs, supplemented with other goals
and targets reflecting the changed global context
 At the same time, there is a corner advocating for simply
extending the time scale of the existing MDGs due to its
current traction as well as the fact that many key Goals are
likely to be missed.
Critical issues & changed international
context





Revisiting values and principles of Millennium Declaration
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate change
Inequality, vulnerability and exclusion
Jobless growth and growth with low quality employment
Migration and urbanization, with increasing global
population
 Poverty in middle-income countries
 Financial and economic crises making donor countries more
inward-looking
 New multilateralism particularly among emerging economies
(e.g. China, India and Brazil)
Proposals for Post-2015 development
agenda
 Main themes
o Human rights
o Inequalities
o Sustainability
 Specific themes
Population dynamics
Peace and security
Stable and inclusive economic growth
Productive employment and decent work
Food security
Governance (including principles of inclusion & participation,
promoting transparency & accountability)
o Building resilience of vulnerable population groups
o
o
o
o
o
o
Emerging Post 2015 key messages
 The core values contained in the Millennium Declaration
remain valid: The Post 2015 framework is an opportunity to
incorporate issues that were part of the Millennium
Declaration but were not reflected in the MDGs – e.g. human
rights, environmental sustainability, peace and security
 The Post 2015 development agenda must be universally
applicable but flexible to meet specific needs of countries and
peoples
 Global partnerships must be re-defined to make it truly
“global” with a clear accountability framework for both
developed and developing countries
II. Processes to Formulate a
Post-2015 Development Framework
Call for a participatory, inclusive process
 There is a general understanding that the Post-2015 must not
repeat the shortcomings of the MDGs.
 UNSG as well as civil society coalitions call for a more
participatory, inclusive process which is responsive to the
voices of people directly affected by poverty and injustice.
 However, preparatory processes and consultations for Rio
+20 have so far failed to meaningfully integrate CSOs at the
national level.
 UN-wide communications and outreach function is being
established to gather inputs and feedback from civil society
and facilitate dialogue on post-2015 framework, using a new
web platform.
Ongoing initiatives on participatory
post-2015 discourses
1) UN Development Group project on Post-2015 consultations
 National consultations in 50 countries, including: Bangladesh,
China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Pakistan, PNG, Solomon Islands,
Timor-Leste and Vietnam
 9 thematic consultations on key themes and cross-cutting issues
(themes to be finalized)
 Global conversations with three sub components: mobilization,
web platform and crowd-sourcing
2) “Breaking Point” research project (jointly by the Commonwealth
Foundation & UN Millennium Campaign)
 Including: India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and
Samoa
UNDG Communications and Advocacy
Strategy
 UNDG has developed an integrated communications and
outreach strategy aiming to harmonize efforts on MDGs,
Rio+20 and Post-2015,
 Key Focus:
1) Reminding the commitments to and principles of the
Millennium Declaration (i.e. freedom, human rights,
equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature) in
achieving the MDGs and developing a new agenda.
2) Emphasizing the positive gains by the MDGs and the
need for unwavering commitment to the MDGs in the
remaining years until 2015.
Roadmap to 2015 – Major UN and CSO
processes
Dec 2011
March 2012
April 2012
GA Resolution mandating SG to initiate the Post-2015 process
UNDP and UNDESA draft papers on UN’s vision and roadmap
Meetings on post-2015 held: by Berlin Civil Society Centre; by
UNMC; and by UNICEF and Save the Children
May 2012
Post-2015 meeting by Beyond 2015
May 2012 – Q1 of 2013
UN national consultations on Post-2015
June 2012
Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development
July 2012
UNSG appoints a High Level Panel of Eminent Persons
Sep 2012
CIVICUS General Assembly (many meetings on post-2015)
Feb 2013
UN High Level panel to deliver report
Sep 2013
UN Special Session on the MDGs
2014 – 2015
Intergovernmental negotiation process
on post-2015
Post 2015 ASG
High Level Panel
2013
SG Report
High Level
Event
Informal
Influence
Informal
Influence
Post 2015 Outreach
Strategy Group
Global
Conversation
Digital Platform
UNDG 50 Country
Consultations and 9
Thematic
Consultations
Crowdsourcing/Aggre
gation
Expert
Group
Mobilisation
UN Task
Team
Rio+20
/SDGs
Useful Resources
‘The World We Want – Beyond
2015’ A Toolkit for National
Deliberations
(A partnership publication by:
GCAP, Beyond 2015 and the
UN Millennium Campaign)
Thank you for your attention