Development Co-operation Report 2013: Ending Poverty

This article by Ousmane Aly DIALLO, is part of Wikiprogress Series on the Post 2015. It highlights the main points of the recent Development Cooperation Report 2013.

The Development Co-operation Report (DCR) is the key annual reference document for analysis and statistics on trends in international development co-operation. This year, the DCR explores what needs to be done to achieve rapid and sustainable progress in the global fight to end poverty. 

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) galvanized political support for poverty reduction. The world has probably already met the MDG target of halving the share of the population living in extreme poverty (USD 1.25 per day). Yet progress towards the MDGs across countries, localities, population groups and gender has been uneven, reflecting a fundamental weakness in current approaches. As the United Nations and its partners shape a new global framework to take the place of the MDGs in 2015 , they face the urgent challenge of ending poverty once and for all. As this Development Co-operation Report (DCR) makes clear, this will take more than business as usual.

New goals for ending poverty

To recapture the Millennium Declaration’s vision, the new international development agenda must reflect principles of solidarity, equality, dignity and respect for nature. Its goals must effectively guide core aspirations, targets must be easy to monitor, and must include strategies for economic and social transformation. The report made numerous proposals for developing these elements, including:

Move from poverty to inclusive well-being

Create a new headline indicator to measure progress towards eradicating all forms of poverty, which could complement the current income-poverty indicator

Include targets and indicators to track whether people are becoming newly poor.

Include a goal of reducing income inequality, or a set of indicators of inequality across the various goals.

Take a twin-track approach to gender: a goal for gender equality and women’s empowerment coupled with a way of revealing gender gaps in all other goals and targets

Combine national and global goals and responsibilities

Base a new global goal of reducing income poverty on national poverty measures that are internationally co-ordinated and consistent.

Make the new agenda applicable to all countries, but with responsibilities that vary accordingto a country’s starting point, capabilities and resources.

Set targets nationally but within global minimum standards.

Improve data for tracking progress

Adopt a specific goal, target and indicator to increase the availability and quality of data fortracking progress towards these new goals, and invest in national statistical capacity

The report stresses the ambition and the credibility of this goal (ending poverty once for all) and as well as the importance of sound political leadership to achieve it. In Africa, during the last 13 years, the leadership of the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his 

 focus on development results, food security and poverty reduction have been exemplary. The reports highlights also the successes of Ghanaian presidents hailing from different political parties, but who have coincided in championing poverty reduction and food security for the poorest. This has enabled Ghana to implement a successful development strategy focused on building the private sector, developing human resources and implementing good governance. Furthermore

Balancing Poverty and Environmental Sustainability

While it is not always easy to balance poverty reduction with environmental sustainability, important progress is being made. Over the past decade, for instance, Brazil has greatly reduced extreme poverty and inequality while at the same time cutting deforestation by 80%. Ethiopia aims to become a middle-income country without increasing its greenhouse gas emissions and has developed the innovative Climate- Resilient Green Economy strategy to guide it in doing so.

The role of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation is just what is needed. This unique coalition of governments, civil society, the private sector and international institutions was launched at the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in 2011. Its aim is to catalyse and co-ordinate global efforts and resources for more effective development. The Global Partnership will play a key role in helping development actors work together, discuss the pros and cons of diverse policies and instruments, share good practice, foster collaboration and promote concrete action – crucial pre-conditions for successfully implementing the post-2015 development agenda. It is up to all of us, now, to make use of this novel, inclusive partnership to improve our development co-operation efforts.

Development Co-operation Report 2013 - Ending Poverty - Highlights