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

Can We Really End Poverty? A debate on the Future of Development

At the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, the largest ever gathering of world leaders pledged to work together to help the world’s poorest people. They agreed on a set of targets that became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The deadline they set themselves to meet these was 31 December 2015.

With just over two years until the MDGs expire, how much progress has been made and what should happen next?

There have of course been successes: the world has already met the first MDG target of halving the world’s population living in extreme poverty (on less than USD 1.25 per day). But 1.2 billion people are still living in extreme poverty and vulnerability remains high. At the same time, problems in measuring poverty present barriers to effective policy making.

Progress has also been uneven – not all countries, regions, age groups, social sectors or genders have benefited equally from the advances that have been made. The truth is, the quality of life has not improved for all.

This December, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will launch their new report on Ending Poverty. To coincide with this, Intelligence Squared will host a panel of experts to discuss the key issues that the report raises. How should we measure poverty? What can we learn from local solutions for tackling poverty? How can the fast progress made by middle-income countries like China provide lessons for Africa? How can we be “smarter” about how we use aid flows? How do we ensure that the next set of goals will be not just about “getting to zero” poverty, but about staying there?

On 5 December, thought-leaders from the world’s leading development think tanks, the OECD, civil society and national governments will offer different perspectives on these questions, and discuss what an international development framework could look like beyond 2015.

Watch the debate live-stream from 7pm-8.30pm on 5th December.

Speakers

• Sabina Alkire, Director at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford 
• Jamie Drummond, Executive Director and Head of Global Strategy at ONE 
• Homi Kharas (via Google+ Hangouts), Executive Secretary of the UN High Level Panel on the post-2015 development agenda. Senior Fellow and Deputy Director for the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution 
• Priyanthi Fernando, Executive Director for the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) in Colombo, Sri Lanka
•  Erik Solheim, Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee and Former Minister of the Environment and International Development, Norway     

Africa Regional Consultative Meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals

The Africa Regional Consultative Meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 31 October to 5 November 2013. Organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), this event will comprise an experts segment from 31 October to 2 November 2013 and a ministerial segment from 4 to 5 November 2013.

The meeting will provide a platform for African countries to identify, articulate and reach consensus on the region’s sustainable development priorities and goals, which will take into account those emerging from the region’s Post-2015 Development Agenda Process embodied in the African common position on the same. In this regard, it will prepare Africa to speak with one strong voice and rally international support around SDGs that are well-aligned with the region’s sustainable development priorities and aspirations. The consultative meeting is expected to adopt an outcome document that will serve as Africa’s common reference document and collective input to the work of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group on SDGs.

The SDGs were one of the key commitments of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Rio+20 recognized that SDGs could be useful for pursuing focused and coherent action on sustainable development. It underlined that goals should address and incorporate in a balanced way all three dimensions of sustainable development and their interlinkages.

As a follow-up to Rio+20, the Africa Regional Implementation Meeting (Africa-RIM) was held in November 2012. The RIM deliberated on the main outcomes of Rio+20 and their implications for Africa. This meeting adopted the Africa RIM Outcome Document, which represents Africa’s collective input to the Rio+20 follow-up processes, including the sustainable development goals. In this regard, the Africa-RIM agreed on the need to have an effective, broad-based, bottom-up and consultative process to flesh out the goals, indicators and targets that should underpin the SDGs. The RIM also agreed that the goals, targets and indicators should be informed by among others, the outcomes of the Africa process on the Post-2015 development agenda.

Considering the cross-cutting nature of sustainable development, the meeting will bring together policy makers and high-level experts from the economic, social, environmental and governance spheres representing government and inter-governmental institutions, the private sector, civil society organizations and other major groups, as well as international development partners.

For more information about this conference, please visit this website: http://www.uneca.org/arcm-sdg2013

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013: The Multiple Dimensions of Food Security

The newest edition of the State of Food Insecurity in the World series by FAO presents updated estimates of undernourishment and progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and World Food Summit (WFS) hunger targets. A total of 842 million people in 2011–13, or around one in eight people in the world, were estimated to be suffering from chronic hunger, regularly not getting enough food to conduct an active life. The MDGs are within reach for many developing regions as a whole although there are significant differences across regions and considerable and immediate efforts are needed to achieve them.

The 2013 report goes beyond measuring food deprivation. It presents a broader suite of indicators that aim to capture the multidimensional nature of food insecurity, its determinants and outcomes. This taxonomy gives a more nuanced picture of the world states' food security status as well as impacting on the implementation of targets and the establishment of effective policy measures by policy makers, that will eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

 Food security dimensions at the national level

Drawing on the suite of indicators which captures the various dimensions of hunger (availability, access, utilization and stability), the report also examines the diverse experiences of six countries (Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, Nicaragua, Tajikistan and Uganda) in more detail, finding a mixed picture of progress and setbacks. Bangladesh, Ghana and Nicaragua have all managed to halve the prevalence of undernourishment since the beginning of the 1990s. Although many factors comes into consideration, this progress is largely due to the commitment of consecutive governments to long-term rural development and poverty reduction that has shaped the dynamics of change. Nepal, although in a state of conflict, for a long time is now on track to meet MDG1.

On the other end,Tajikistan and Uganda seem unlikely to reach the target. Uncomplete land reform in Tajikistan and low agricultural productivy in Uganda being the main obstacles.

Although their path have been different, the experiences of these 6 countries show the importance of social protection and nutrition-enhancing interventions, policies to increase agricultural productivity and rural development, diverse sources of income and long-term commitment to mainstreaming food security and nutrition in public policies and programmes.

The report also highlights the impact of remittances, which have globally become three times larger than official development assistance, on poverty and food security. This report suggests that remittances can help to reduce poverty, leading to reduced hunger, better diets and, given appropriate policies, increased on-farm investment.

Links to the reports

The State of Food Insecurity in the World: The multiple dimensions of food security Executive Summary

The State of Food Insecurity in the World: The multiple dimensions of food security

Ousmane Aly DIALLO

État de l'insécurité alimentaire dans le monde 2013: les multiples dimensions de la sécurité alimentaire

La plus récente édition de la FAO sur L'état de l'insécurité alimentaire dans le monde  met à jour l’impact de l'insécurité alimentaire dans le monde ainsi que les progrès vers l’atteinte des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement (OMD) et des Objectifs du Sommet Mondial sur l’Alimentation.

Près de 842 millions de personnes, une personne sur huit, souffrait de faim chronique selon les estimations de l’étude. Elles ne disposaient dans d’assez de nourriture pour mener une vie active selon l’étude. Malgré ces chiffres, les OMDs restent toujours de portée pour bien des régions en développement, même si on note des différences entre elles. Des efforts importants et urgents doivent être faits pour réussir ce pari, cependant.

Le rapport présente en outre une série d’indicateurs afin de donner une vue d’ensemble de la nature multidimensionnelle de l’insécurité alimentaire, de ses causes et de ses conséquences. La taxonomie donne une vue plus nuancée de l’état de de la sécurité alimentaire des nations, tout en donnant aux décideurs politiques des données afin d’implémenter des politiques éradiquant la faim, l’insécurité alimentaire et la malnutrition. Si la FAO a sensiblement amélioré cette année sa méthode d’estimation de la sous-alimentation, il lui reste cependant à apporter d’autres améliorations et à parfaire les données dont elle a besoin pour appréhender les effets des brusques variations des prix des denrées alimentaires et des autres chocs économiques. Par conséquent, les estimations de la sous-alimentation ne prennent pas en compte l’ensemble des effets sur la faim des brusques hausses des prix de 2007–2008, ni le ralentissement de l’économie que connaissent certains pays depuis 2009, à plus forte raison les récentes hausses des prix. On a également besoin d’autres indicateurs pour pouvoir évaluer de façon plus complète la sous-alimentation et la sécurité alimentaire.

L’insécurité alimentaire au niveau des nations

À partir des indicateurs des dimensions de la faim (disponibilité, accès, utilisation et la stabilité), le rapport analyse les expériences variées de 6 pays en développement que sont : le Bangladesh, le Ghana, le Népal, le Nicaragua, le Tadjikistan et l’Ouganda. Progrès et revers s’entrecroisent. Le Bangladesh, le Ghana et le Nicaragua ont diminué de moitié la prévalence de la sous-alimentation depuis les années 1990. Bien que plusieurs facteurs expliquent ces avancées, le rapport met l’accent sur l’engagement des différents gouvernements successifs dans ces pays à promouvoir le développement rural à long terme et la réduction de la pauvreté dans leurs politiques publiques.

Le Népal, bien qu’ayant longtemps eu à faire face à des conflits internes est maintenant sur la voie d’atteindre le premier OMD. Par contre, il est peu probable que le Tadjikistan et l’Ouganda atteignent ces objectifs. Des réformes agraires non poursuivies et une faible productivité agricole étant, respectivement, les raisons principales.

Les transferts de fonds des populations immigrées (qui sont trois fois plus importantes que l’aide au développement) ont eu un impact positif sur la pauvreté et la sécurité alimentaire. En effet, le rapport conclut à partir des données recueillies que ces transferts de fonds peuvent aider dans l’éradication de la pauvreté, dans la diminution de la faim, dans la promotion de meilleurs régimes d’alimentation et si encadrées par des mesures politiques appropriées, sur les investissements dans les exploitations agricoles.

Les trajectoires différentes de ces pays permettent de voir l’impact des interventions favorisant la nutrition et la protection sociale dans la diminution de l’insécurité alimentaire. La croissance économique est nécessaire mais elle n’est pas suffisante pour accélérer la réduction de la faim et de la malnutrition. Les politiques visant à augmenter la productivité agricole et le développement rural. Des sources alternatives de  financement comme les transferts de fonds et un engagement intégral dans la sécurité alimentaire, la nutrition sont autant de voies pour enrayer ce fléau.

Liens vers le rapport

État de l'insécurité alimentaire dans le monde 2013: les multiples dimensions de la sécurité alimentaire

Résumé du rapport

Ousmane Aly DIALLO

"Afrique au-delà de 2015" :Un débat à l'ONU sous la houlette du Maroc

A la veille de la réunion de haut niveau sur les Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (OMD) qui aura lieu en marge de l'Assemblée générale de l'ONU à New York, un débat sur l'Afrique au-delà de 2015 s'est tenu au sein de cette instance, à l'initiative du Maroc.

Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, Haut Commissaire au Plan, Maroc

Le Maroc a organisé, mardi au siège des Nations Unies à New York, un débat sur “L'Afrique au-delà de 2015: quels objectifs pour quel modèle de développement?”, avec la participation de ministres africains, de hauts responsables onusiens, des diplomates, ainsi que des personnalités représentant les institutions financières internationales et régionales.

Tenu en marge de la 68e Assemblée générale des Nations Unies et à la veille de la réunion de haut niveau sur les Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (OMD), ce débat s'inscrit dans le cadre de la réflexion prospective menée par le Haut commissariat au plan sur “Le Maroc 2030 dans son environnement géostratégique”.

Cette réunion a abordé l'état d'avancement de la mise en œuvre des OMD en Afrique, ainsi que l'agenda de développement au-delà de 2015, à la lumière des expériences de pays africains.

Croissance vs revenu

Le haut commissaire au plan, Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, qui a présidé les travaux de cette rencontre, a souligné que “le Maroc partage avec ses pairs africains la volonté et l'obligation de réaliser une croissance économique forte au service d'un développement humain et d'une cohésion sociale durable”.

“Plusieurs pays de notre continent peuvent se prévaloir aujourd'hui d'avoir réussi au cours de la dernière décennie à accroître le potentiel de leur croissance et à engager des processus prometteurs d'amélioration des conditions de vie de leur population et de démocratisation de leurs institutions”, a poursuivi M. Lahlimi.

“L'Afrique qui réalise l'un des taux de croissance les plus forts du monde, a le taux de revenu par tête d'habitant parmi les plus faibles de toutes les régions à travers le monde.”

AHMED LAHLIMI ALAMI, HAUT COMMISSAIRE AU PLAN.

Pour sa part, le Maroc a anticipé l'après-2015. En dix ans, le Royaume a pu réaliser une croissance forte qui a presque doublé et a investi une moyenne de 30% de sa richesse nationale pour résorber les déficits, développer les infrastructures dans l'ensemble des régions, a expliqué M. Lahlimi.

Retard dans les OMD

Quant au ministre des Affaires étrangères et de la coopération, Saad Eddine El Otmani, il a indiqué que “s'il faut se réjouir que l'Afrique ait fait des avancées importantes au niveau du développement socio-économique, le continent africain accuse toujours du retard par rapport à certains objectifs”.

M. Otmani a fait observer que le chômage des jeunes demeure un défi mondial à surmonter, en particulier au sein du continent africain où les jeunes représentent la majorité de la population.

La promotion des investissements productifs et l'amélioration de l'accès aux marchés sont des éléments essentiels à prendre en considération dans tout programme de développement pour l'après-2015, a-t-il tenu à préciser.

Et de souligner que l'agenda de développement pour l'après-2015 dépendra d'un partenariat mondial renforcé et renouvelé, en plus des moyens solides de sa mise en oeuvre, à travers notamment la définition d'objectifs mesurables et assortis de délais d'application.

Les participants à cette rencontre ont eu l'occasion d'échanger les expériences et les visions sur les rapports en Afrique entre croissance économique, progrès social et modèle de développement, dans une démarche résolument tournée vers l'avenir.

Source : aufait avec MAP

Définir la place de l'éducation dans le programme de développement de l'après-2015

Ce blog, écrit par Ousmane Aly DIALLO, fait partie de la série de Wikiprogress sur l'Éducation. Il résume le nouveau rapport de l'UNICEF, Définir la place de l'éducation dans le programme de développement de l'après-2015.

Les consultations thématiques globales dans le monde ont permis de faire l’état des lieux de la place de l’éducation dans les Objectifs duMillénaire pour le développement tout en permettant la place  que les  citoyens veulent lui  donner dans l’agenda de développement de l’après-2015.

 Dans l’enquête mondiale en ligne de l’ONU, « My World », l’éducation était placée comme première priorité pour 393,000 des 600,000 participants provenant de 194 pays. 64% de ces sondés  avaient moins de 30 ans et plus de ¾ étaient issus de pays en développement[i].

Dirigée par l’UNESCO et l’UNICEF avec l’appui de gouvernements nationaux et de la Fondation William et Flora Hewlett,  ces consultations avaient pour objet général d’ « d’évaluer les avancées et les défis à relever dans le cadre de la réalisation des Objectifs du Millénaire pour ledéveloppement (OMD) relatifs à l’éducation adoptés en 2000 et des objectifs plus généraux de l’éducation pour tous (EPT), en vue de développer une vision holistique de la meilleure manière de refléter l’éducation, la formation et l’apprentissage dans le programme de l’après-2015 ».

L’équité, l’accès et la qualité de l’éducation ont été au centre des demandes des participants et cela se reflète dans la vision de l’éducation pour l’après-2015 qui se décline ainsi : « Éducation équitable de qualité et un apprentissage tout au long de la vie pour tous ». Cet objectif doit permettre à toutes les sociétés de développer les compétences, connaissances et innovations nécessaires pour relever les défis politiques, économiques, technologiques, sanitaires et environnementaux actuels et futurs et pour rester sur la voie du développement durable.

World Health Report, an African View of the Post 2015 and Ground Level Panels

Hello everyone and welcome to this week in review. Among this week’s highlights:

• Reflecting the Realities, Needs and Priorities in Monitoring Human and Social Development in Africa Beyond 2015 by UNECA’s African Centre of Statistics contributes to the debate around the post-2015 development framework by addressing the limits of the current Millennium Development Goals Framework and by its formulation of an African perspective of what should be the focus after their due date.

•  The 2013 Global Food Security Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the 2013 Global Food Security Index shows that Sub-Saharan African nations made progress this past year, with the top three most improved Sub-Saharan countries - Ethiopia, Botswana and Niger - rising an average of eight places in the index. Improvements were attributed to greater food availability and income growth. Of the 10 countries whose scores improved the most, five were in Sub-Saharan Africa, including two of the top three.

• The Service Delivery Indicators Initiative: Monitoring Health and Education performances in Africa. This blog addresses the main contribution of the recently launched Service Delivery Indicators in the monitoring of health and education policies in Africa and its potential impact of governance and transparency through the collection, management and availability of data in these two sectors. The video below shows how healthcare provision is improved in three Nigerian states 

•   Ground Level Panels offer reality check to UN High Level Panel’s (HLP) proposals for development by Catherine Setchell of the Institute of Development Studies gives voices to the different minorities of the world such as disabled people, urban slum dwellers, people living in conflict or disaster-hit areas through four Ground Level Panels  that took place in Egypt, Brazil, Uganda and India. Different goals, such as rule of law, equity, or a “global life plan” were promoted in these participatory panels, which gives an interesting view of the world’s people’s expectations for the post 2015 development framework.

• The 2013 World Health Report was published this August 15th by the World Health Organization. The World Health Report: Research for Universal Health Coverage focuses on the importance of research in advancing progress towards universal health coverage. In addition, it identifies the benefits of increased investment in health research by low- and middle-income countries using case studies from around the world, and proposes ways to further strengthen this type of research.

We hope you enjoyed this review. Stay tuned the same time next week for another riveting read on the week that was.

Yours in progress,

Ousmane Aly Diallo

Reflecting the Realities, Needs and Priorities in Monitoring Human and Social Development in Africa Beyond 2015

This blog, by Wikiprogress Africa Co-ordinator Ousmane Aly DIALLO, is part of the Wikiprogress Series on the Wikiprogress Africa Network and on the Post-2015. This post provides a summary of UNECA’s working paper on the Post-2015  “Working Document on the New Development Indicators Reflecting the Realities, Needs and Priorities in Monitoring Human and Social Development in Africa Beyond 2015” .

With the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals coming fast ahead, most of the stakeholders are already thinking on what needs to be done after 2015 and how the MDG framework can be improved.  As one of the continent most concerned about the challenges of poverty and the well-being of its citizens, Africa is still working on a framework that will encompass all aspects of human and social development. This Working Document on the New Development Indicators Reflecting the Realities, Needs and Priorities in Monitoring Human and Social Development in Africa Beyond 2015, is part of this process.

The limited and modest progress made by African countries towards the achievement of  the MDGs is problematic. Were all the countries on the same footing at the start? Were the goals ever meant to be monitored at the national level? Besides, it somewhat conceals disparities between the different social groups and subnational regions. Considering only the national scope hides from us local and regional inequalities that must be progressively eradicated. It is to be noted in particular that the results obtained from the overall indicators are distorted as they only relate to certain categories of the population.

Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in Africa

Inequalities and disparities within countries didn’t appear on the MDG framework which gave a distorted view of the reality. Social (ethnicities, castes) and regional (urban/rural) factors all had an impact of the social and human development of people but they weren’t necessarily captured with the national MDG progress ranking. Any new framework has to take into consideration these factors, and since the high-level panel of Eminent Persons has pledged that no one should be left behind, the African concerns are in concordance with the overall direction of the post-2015 framework.

Among the limits put forward, there’s the insufficient place given to the economy in the current MDG framework. The paper stresses the need to start from a strong and competitive economy to improve the well-being and quality of life of citizens through job creation and other targets. This vision is evident in the pyramid of “balanced development” below:

Besides this limit, there is the problem of the poor performance of Africa in regard to the Millennium Development Goals. Most of Sub-Saharan Africa is still lagging behind while the North of the continent is doing much better. This overall modest progress is attributed to several factors in this document, among other the very ambitious goals and the shortcomings in the budgetary policy choices and inefficiency in public expenditures. Despite these limits, the MDGs constitute a big step towards the well-being of people by setting different and complementary targets and pushing all states to achieve them by the end of  a specific date. With less than 1000 days remaining now, some are pushing for an extension of the MDGs while the majority suggest a slight adjustment or more radically a whole rethinking of the MDG framework.

UNECA’s African Centre for Statistics fall in the middle of this debate through their proposals for a new post-2015 framework. Indicators must be based on the development needs of countries according to the report which stresses that all African countries are working on their national development strategies and / or fight against poverty. Yet, there is insufficient convergence between African countries in the choice of indicators and that’s one of the main reasons of the indicators put forward in this document.

Development targets relevant to the African countries were thus identified and to monitor the progress into their achievements, they need to be classified depending on dimensions and the levels of government.

• International stakeholders should deal only with a “very restrictive list of basic indicators that each country should monitor to ensure a decent living for the whole population”. Giving every citizen of the world a basic quality of life should be the aim and that was at the root of the MDGs before their expansion with uneven indicators. The current MDGs still remain relevant although some targets and indicators needs to be improved.

• Secondary indicators that will speed up the transition to a pre-emergent stage (MDGs+) are to be monitored at the sub-regional and regional level. The current eight MDGs remain relevant as a whole but their associated targets and indicators should be better selected. Among the indicators, relevant to this level, are secondary, technical and higher education, infrastructure, macroeconomic framework, regional financial markets, regional integration policies, good governance, transfer of technology and development of internally generated knowledge.

• Policies targeting growth and employment should be at the national level. Emergence indicators (MDGs ++) must be monitored by the states with efficient regional organizations such as ECOWAS providing backup and integrating these policies into their monitoring systems.

The different development goals were broken down into several dimensions:

• Human dimension with indicators such as (a) access to knowledge by all; (b) gender development
• Infrastructure dimension:  with universal access to potable water, sewerage facilities, electric­ity, ICT, housing and good transport system.
•  Environmental dimension where the fight against pollution and the preservation of the biodi­versity can be included.

At the subregional and regional integration, an

• Institutional dimension should be put forward with the strengthening of public institutions as  the indicator,
• Economic dimension with  (a) a stable macroeconomic framework; (b) strong and regular growth; (c) capacity for diversification and transformation and a
•  Social dimension with indicators such as  a) a well-fed population; (b) good health for all; (c) good social se­curity for all the vulnerable groups; (d) employment and income for all; (e) child protec­tion; (f) preservation and development of the cultural heritage.

                       

To have a broader view of all the development indicators, please go to the annex of the document (click here).

The development indicators put forward constitute a significant contribution towards the post-2015 development framework. The scope of the indicators and the different levels of government involved in their monitoring are proof enough of the ambitions of its authors. Furthermore, they echo the HLP’s call to leave no one behind in the post-2015 framework. Economic growth occupies an integral place in this proposal although other quality of life dimensions are not neglected. 

There's a clear distinction on what should be of what should be monitored at the national level and how  the international level could stimulate the progress towards development.

Ousmane Aly DIALLO

Post-2015: It's Time to Harness Diaspora Power

Growth alone is not enough. The MDGs alone are not enough. Africa needs sustainable, inclusive development and in this, the diaspora could be key.

In 2000, the UN established eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. These targets helped create a co-ordinated effort to reduce poverty across the globe, and impressive progress has been made in a number of areas.

But even if all of the eight goals and targets are met, many countries would still remain poor and underdeveloped. This is because the MDGs – as valuable as they may be – do not deal with the underlying reasons why people remain poor. Furthermore, they fail to take into account the ways in which the diaspora, who remit nearly half a trillion dollars to developing countries annually, can be harnessed to help facilitate the structural and economic transformation so crucial to sustainable development.

Nowhere are these trends more evident than in Africa. The World Bank reports that the continent is growing at an average of 5-6% annually, yet poverty levels and unemployment remain high. Meanwhile, diaspora remittances are thought to significantly outweigh Western aid.

Following China's example

As Yaw Ansu, Chief Economist at the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), has pointed out, growth alone is not enough. That is why over 50 UK-based African diaspora organisations, under the Africa-UK umbrella, are pushing for a different focus for the post-2015MDG architecture. These groups take the view that international development must not focus solely on poverty reduction in line with the MDGs, but also foster wealth, drive structural reform and create employment opportunities.

Africa only has to look to the example set by countries such as China which has made one of the most impressive contributions in reducing poverty over the past 30 years but not through the MDGs. China used foreign investment and diaspora remittances to help accelerate a competitive industrial and agricultural policy, focussing on the development of infrastructure, education and skills. With the benefits of low labour costs and healthcare improvements, China was able to enjoy a dramatic economic take-off.

Whilst growth induced by commodity price rises, discoveries of natural resources or increases in foreign assistance can be significant, it is simply not sustainable without the infrastructure to support it. For Africa, this means relying less on aid and primary commodities, and more on industry, manufacturing, and knowledge-based services. It also means modernising agriculture along with upgrading skills and technological capabilities to compete in the global marketplace.

African diaspora is key

In this drive towards inclusive economic and structural transformation, the African diaspora can have an important role to play.

Take, for example, the diaspora-led social enterprise Sacoma UK which works in Kenya and Uganda to provide structural support to small-scale rural farmers. Through a combination of training, financial and technical services, this organisation works closely with communities to help prepare produce for export to a UK market. This not only helps certain rural populations earn sustainable incomes but contributes to the development of African small-holder agriculture and helps increase investment in African agribusiness.

As well as being uniquely placed to foster these kinds of partnerships, members of the diaspora can also be critical in providing additional foreign direct investment along with educated and skilled manpower.

Africa’s mobile technology boom, for example, began in part thanks to the contributions of better-known members of the diaspora such as Mo Ibrahim, who founded the telecommunications company Celtel. The growth of this sector has helped connect businesses to each other as well as rural dwellers to those in the city, providing unprecedented access to information and financial systems. It has been singled out as one of the most important tools for facilitating economic and development activity in Africa since the turn of the century. Studies on the use of mobile money services such as M-PESA, for example, suggest that rural Kenyan households using the technology have seen a rise in their incomes of 5-30%.

It is only through these kinds of transformations that Africa will be able to create enough productive jobs and impart the right skills for a modern economy, improving people’s living standards in economically balanced societies. And that calls for looking beyond short-term growth and taking a long-term perspective in setting an agenda for a sustainable economic future, something in which the diaspora can be central.

A Diaspora Ministerial Conference held in Geneva on 18 June urged the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda to include global diaspora alongside national governments in ‘Forging a New Global Partnership’. If Africa is to see genuine and inclusive growth, a post-2015 framework will need to incorporate these critical enablers of structural transformation as well as harness the resources of the diaspora, who must now be recognised as a global partner for development.

This blog by Onyekachi Wambu, Director of Policy and Engagement at the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) originally appeared on the Think Africa Press website. The original post is accessible here

The unknown people battling the world’s neglected diseases

To accompany this blog, the author has prepared a slide show on Flickr of images from her field research in Sierra Leone.

For the world’s poorest, difficult living conditions are often compounded by the prevalence of a threat to their health that for many years barely appeared on the global health agenda – a group of ailments known as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Ninety per cent of the NTD burden can be explained by five diseases: Onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness(causing terrible itching and lesions on the eye), Schistosomiasis or bilharzia (causing extensive organ damage), Lymphatic Filariasis, also known as elephantiasis (causing damage to the lymphatic system and painful enlargement of body parts), Soil Transmitted Helminths (causing diarrhoea, abdominal pain, chronic intestinal blood loss and anaemia) and Trachoma (the world's leading cause of preventable blindness).

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I first came across NTDs while conducting research for the health dimension of the Development Progressproject. I’ve been working on development - and particularly on health - for some time now, so it was quite a surprise to me that I had never heard of them before (I remember thinking: ‘well, indeed they are neglected!’). As part of the project, I had the opportunity to travel to Sierra Leone to conduct field research and see first-hand how NTDs are being addressed.

Sierra Leone was chosen because of the progress it has made in recent years in tackling NTDs. For instance, in 2005, elephantiasis was found endemic in all 14 health districts in Sierra Leone; by 2011, only one district remained endemic. In the case of river blindness, therapeutic coverage has consistently been over 70% since 2006, with the programme’s geographical coverage consistently reaching 100% since 2007, translating into an overall reduction in prevalence of 60.3% between 2007 and 2009.

By far the most striking aspect of the field research was meeting those on the frontline of the fight against NTDs. Known as Community Drug Distributors (CDDs), they are the most humble people you could meet, with scarce resources and no monetary incentives to do their job. Selected by their own communities, once a year they have the responsibility of distributing drugs to fight NTDs, with each CDD covering their catchment area over a period of three months.

Why has this experience of meeting the CDDs had such an impact on me? After all, community involvement is a well-known strategy to implement programmes in a resource-constrained setting. Well, in the case of NTDs, we are talking about a vastly different scale to normal – the strategy implemented through the CDDs is known as ‘mass drug administration’ (MDA). For an MDA campaign to be successful it must reach every corner of the country where NTDs are endemic (in Sierra Leone, this is the entire country) and at least 70%-80% of the people living in those areas. This is because most of these diseases, whilst transmitted by vectors, only develop in a human host. It is therefore necessary to reduce their prevalence in the community to a sufficient level that allows for the gradual interruption of disease transmission. Without meeting this target, all efforts will be in vain.

While on the ground in Sierra Leone, travelling through the countryside by 4x4 under a burning hot sun, I couldn’t help but feel admiration for the CDDs, who undertake similar and often even more remote journeys but on foot. During focus group discussions, they told us how they sometimes walk for four hours to reach the farthest and most remote settlements; once there, they still need to convince community members to take these vital drugs. Sometimes they must cross rivers, or walk in the rain (and I mean serious rain!) to cover their assigned catchment area, and all without what we in wealthier countries might consider the necessary outdoor wear.

Perhaps not surprisingly, when you talk with the CDDs, you hear a lot of complaints - that the job is very hard, that they need incentives and support beyond just their free CDD t-shirts and that they are sometimes not received kindly by those they are there to treat, particularly in the early days of a campaign. As I listened to all their troubles, I kept coming back to the question: ‘Why are you still doing this?’

The reason is a sense of community - the manner in which the NTD control programme is implemented empowers CDDs with an important role to play within their communities, despite the lack of financial reward. The CDDs are clear and straight forward when answering this point: they are doing this to help their communities, because they themselves have seen how the distribution of medicines has reduced the harm caused by NTDs amongst their peers. One told us: ‘I was sick with worms in the past and then I took the drugs and they relieved me, so I want to pass on the message and contribute’.

Their commitment is paying off. A key development actor told us how in the past he would go to certain towns and the majority of the people had lost their sight due to river blindness. Returning to those places after years had passed and after the work of the CDDs had begun, he could see the change in plain sight: far fewer people were blind.

Throughout our fieldwork, people gave testimony to the work of the CDDs, such as one woman who said: 'I was reluctant to take the medicine. We were suspicious but the CDDs explained to us why it was important. After taking the medicine, my itching stopped and I could see much better'. Thanks to their early efforts in reaching out to their peers, initial reluctance to take the drugs has faded and nowadays people start asking for the drugs even before the distribution campaigns start. 

CDDs are one, but a seemingly essential, part of this story of progress. The fight against NTDs is a collective effort, comprising many actors, from the World Health Organisation setting international guidelines and the support of a range of international partners, to Ministries of Health developing these guidelines into strategies for local implementation, non-state actors such as NGOs providing technical assistance and pharmaceutical companies donating the drugs themselves to fight the diseases on the ground. However, all these efforts would be doomed to fail without those at the sharp end of the fight, walking throughout their communities to distribute the drugs and convince their peers of the positive impact they can have in their lives.

View a slide show on Flickr of images from Romina’s field research in Sierra Leone

This blog by Romina Rodriguez Pose of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) contributes to the Wikiprogress Series on Health. It originally appeared on the ODI's Development Progress blog.