Millennium Project Late Start

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This blog is in actuality a learning tool for myself, I am simply making it available to others who are also interested in learning about the same issues. I had gathered a good deal of resources before starting this blog. Those resources helped me find yet more resources on the web including Rav Casley Gera's African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant. Rav not only provides even more resources, he does a good job of putting those resources into context. I already blogged (re-blogged?) on Rav's latest post.

In one of his earlier posts, he wrote on Millennium Project: Getting Started. I am going to skip the depressing parts of his post and go to the crux.

The goals remain the most comprehensive and internationally supported development framework ever agreed. So even if 2015 is unachievable, aiming for 2017 seems better than giving up.

This is were my skeptical, fledgeling, libertarian sympathies get mixed with my usual progressive views. I don't believe that governments are going to succeed or even make a true effort to accomplish the millennium development goals. What will be accomplished is greater awareness of the need of the goals and the failure of existing governments to act. I have far greater faith in an increase in social-entrepreneurship in the world by private citizens and organizations. The term non-governmental organization (NGO) seems inane to me. That will not stop me though from supporting positive approaches to bringing the Millennium Development Goals about. Rav tries to look on the bright side and so shall I. Truth is that, despite being positive, Rav also puts forward a pragmatic, dare I say, business-like view of what needs to be accomplished.

So let's pretend that, a little behind schedule, the world is now eager and ready to fund and support the UNMP's recommendations. Where do we start?

1. Every developing country that wants to be eligible for support should prepare an MDG-focussed poverty reduction strategy, a plan to achieve the goals complete with precise costings and measurements of the aid required.
2. Fast-track countries, that are most suitable to receive support, should be identified (more on this below).
3. International agencies should immediately begin working with poor countries to train thousands of teachers, doctors, planning professionals, engineers, and "village specialists" in health, agriculture, forestry, road maintenance and other basic skills. This is to ensure that once infrastructure projects such as new schools and hospitals begin, they aren't messed up by lack of staff, as has often been the case in the past.
4. The "quick wins", cheap interventions proven to be effective, should be implemented in all as widely as possible. It would take just two years, the report argues, to distribute anti-malaria bed nets to all at-risk African children.
5. Middle-income countries like China and South Africa, while they have their own poverty issues, should also be invited to join the coalition working towards the goals for poor countries. While their ability to contribute financially may be limited, they can offer expertise, training and certain key cheap materials - for example, China produces artemisinin, a key ingredient of anti-malaria medicine. (p50-55)

Each of these can be explored more deeply, as can the five separate systems that Rav provides that have recently assessed poor countries' governance and economic policies according to fairly strict standards. I am only going to focus on one though for this post.

• The US' Millennium Challenge Account, an aid initiative launched by the Bush administration which has some of the highest standards , with just 19 of Africa's 54 countries having so far qualified, including Ghana, Mozambique and Niger.

Because it wouldn't be fair to depend on Rav for all the links, here is one to the Millennium Challenge Corporation. It is the government corporation responsible for using the business-like approach to implementing the millennium development goals for the United States. What is of note to my progressive leanings is that this was started by the current Bush Administration, but when I read about it in the press names like Madeleine Albright and Ben Affleck pop-up. This needs to be studies more. What is more notable is the lack of support from Congress. Another resource of this blog is the the Center for Global Development who provides a couple of reports on the subject, Senate Takes Earlier MCC Haircut to Full Out Decapitation and Responsible Appropriation? Another Look at the Senate's MCA Slashing all posted by Sheila Herrling.

The Price Tag for the MDGs

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This weblog is a johnny-come-lately to writing about the Millennium Development Goals. When first putting it together I searched for others blogging on the MDGs. There are a number of "institutional" blogs, but I also found two impressive blogs that were personal endeavors. One which is African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant by Rav Casley Gera. Rav's latest post from 2/17/08 is on the Millennium Project: Why we must act - and how much it will cost. I am impressed with the organization of Rav's blog. He provides a good summary of the overall financials of the Millennium Development Goals. The importance of budgets to efforts such as this has already been commented on. This post will be a synopsis of his summary highlighting some of the important resources to which he gave access.

I am going to start at the end and highlight the Millennium Project Overview Report, the full 300+ page version, ten key recommendations, and the reports of the individual task forces provided in Rav's post. These provide a great deal of information on the cost/benefits rationale of the Millennium Project.

Rav goes through the "math" on how the proposals of the UN Millennium Project are designed to meet the Millennium Development Goals. It's definitely worthwhile going through his post, but the answer is $135 billion in 2006, with annual spending rising to $195 billion in 2015. Which sounds like a lot until you understand that it is between 0.44 and 0.54% of rich countries' GNP or you compare it to the cost of the Iraq war which some put at $3 trillion. It is still short of the 0.7% of GNP we've been promising for aid for around thirty years, first in 1970, most recently in 2003. The US, which has the economy to account for nearly half of the total extra aid needed, is currently at less than 0.2%. Only five countries -Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden - have reached the target.

Rav then provides The benefits of meeting the goals

Is it worth it? The report certainly thinks so. Meeting the goals means a host of changes of great benefit to the world's poorest people:

• 300 million more people lifted out of poverty between now and 2015 than on current trends; In Africa, 150 million people lifted out of poverty, as opposed to an increase of 75 million in the number of extremely poor people under current trends
• 230 million fewer people undernourished than on current trends; in Africa, 75 million fewer; as opposed to 25 million more on current trends
• 3.4 million fewer children dying each year, the benefits seen almost entirely in Africa

There are other benefits cited but bottom line, it is making a better world. Rav has promised a quick one-post summary of the key points for reference. He is also going to look at some of the critics of Sachs' proposals, and what it is they dislike. I look forward to both and will link when available.

Half way there but still a long way to go.

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It is 49 days away from Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty and 51 days away from the start of the next Stand Up Take Action event Stand Up Against Poverty. It is also midpoint to the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals.

EUFORIC, the European Forum On International Cooperation has a paper on Millennium Development Goals at Midpoint: where do we stand? The paper is accessible here as a pdf. The paper was found through the BrianDRPM MDG tag subscription from del.icio.us at the right column of this blog.

Also found was a link from German user uliversum who provided the latest link to BBC World Service Trust.org | Trust 2015 index, which though it has some older material, still provides a good deal of basic information on the goals.

Afterthought - I should have mentioned the blog post Looking Back, looking Forward: the Successes and Challenges of the Millennium Campaign from the End Poverty 2015 - UN Millennium Campaign blog. It is 9 months old, but it also provides some perspective on the progress of the goals.