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<DIV><FONT size=2><B>From:</B> </FONT><A title=kent@hawaii.edu
href="mailto:kent@hawaii.edu"><FONT size=2>George Kent</FONT></A><FONT size=2>
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><BR> </DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=2>In a paper I am currently writing,
I ask:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial></FONT><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=2>"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
<I>there never has been any real global program of action</I><SPAN>. 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."</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial></FONT><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=2>And a few paragraphs
later:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial></FONT><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=2>"<SPAN>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."<O:P></O:P></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial></FONT><FONT face=Arial></FONT><FONT
face=Arial></FONT><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>On Jul 14, 2006, at 8:02 AM, Peter Burgess wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>For anyone with an interest in seeing
success in Africa, the overview is a disaster. This is, of course, not
news.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>This MDG Goals Report for 2006
highlights the terrible lack of</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>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".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>Southeastern Asia is almost as good: 2
items in the "target already met" group,<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space>
</SPAN>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT size=2>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!</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BODY></HTML>