PHA-Exchange> The Millennium Development Goals Report 2006 (2)

[Claudio]

From: George Kent 


In a paper I am currently writing, I ask:


"what is the meaning of a global progress report when there really is no systematic global program of action toward the goal? The Millennium Development Program has been misleading because there never has been any real global program of action. This is not the story of a failed strategy; it is about the absence of strategy. Despite the lofty rhetoric of the Millennium Development Program and all the summits and agreements on hunger that preceded it, there never has been a truly global program of action to address the problem. It has always been treated as a collection of national problems."


And a few paragraphs later:


"Serious strategies for addressing malnutrition would offer more than a few scattered recommendations. They would describe stepwise plans of action designed to reach the goal. There should be clear incentives for the actors to do what needs to be done, and there should be institutional mechanisms in place to assure that all actors are held accountable for doing their jobs. Just as the construction of a building or a bridge is only possible with detailed planning and periodic course corrections during the process of working toward the goal, the human right to adequate food can only be fully realized through carefully designed and implemented programs of action."


On Jul 14, 2006, at 8:02 AM, Peter Burgess wrote:
  For anyone with an interest in seeing success in Africa, the overview is a disaster. This is, of course, not news.


  I have considered the MDG approach to relief and development something of a fiasco from the start. As someone who has done management information design for most of my career, a process that looks out 15 years is likely to accomplish little unless it is complemented by serious short term action plans that really do reflect the longer term goals, and there is strong focus on these short term actions and their results. But that was never the case with the MDG process. Bill Easterly from NYU describes the situation very well in his book "The White Man's Burden" ... a good book with a rotten title.


  This MDG Goals Report for 2006 highlights the terrible lack of
  progress in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA). 11 items in the "no progress, or a deterioration or reversal" and 7 items in the "target is not expected to be met by 2015 if prevailing trends persist. None better than that.


  In contrast East Asia has 3 items in the "target already met", 6 items in the "target is expected to be met ..." and just 3 in the "no progress or a deterioration or reversal".


  Southeastern Asia is almost as good: 2 items in the "target already met" group, 7 items in the "target is expected to be met ..." group and just 2 items in the "no progress or a deterioration or reversal" group.


  Leadership in the international relief and development sector (RDS) should be drawing some lessons from this ... it is well known that relief and development progress reflects almost total failure of the process ... but at the end of the day the RDS experts recommend doing the same things over and over again with more money and expecting different performance. The big questions of HOW and WHY there is relief and development failure is not asked out loud ... in big part because there are far too many people who are quite happy with the status quo.


  Where has the money gone? What has it been used for? What results of any tangible value have been achieved? These are legitimate questions, and though not very challenging academically, none of the RDS organizations or the RDS leadership (people) seem willing or able to give solid answers. It really is a sad and unacceptable state of affairs.


  But one thing we know ... going out 15 years with our goals in not our idea of how to manage a difficult process effectively, though it does employ a lot of report writers and analysts!
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