Negotiating international development: The making of the Millennium Development Goals

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-43
Author(s):  
Iris Borowy

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) evolved in the competition between two perspectives on development: one that sees the reasons for poverty and misery in the specificities of the countries concerned (the localist view) and another that looks at the global context, including and especially the policies of “developed” high-income countries (the globalist view). The core of the MDGs emerged in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and shifted the public focus from the globalist approaches of recent United Nations (UN) conferences to a localist approach. Subsequent UN discussions broadened the perspective again, leading to a more hybrid final form. In the process, goals on equitable trade and financial relations, on market access for products from the Least Developed Countries and on HIV/AIDS and malaria were added, while a goal on access to reproductive health was dropped. Meanwhile, inherent economic–environmental contradictions have remained unresolved. Spanish Los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio (ODM) evolucionaron a través de la competencia entre dos puntos de vista sobre el desarrollo: uno que ve las razones de la pobreza y la miseria en las especificidades de los países en cuestión (la visión localista) y otro que las ve en el contexto global, incluyendo especialmente las políticas de los países “desarrollados” de altos ingresos (la visión globalista). El núcleo de los ODM surgió en la Organización para la Cooperación y Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE) y cambió la perspectiva pública de enfoques globalistas de las conferencias recientes de Naciones Unidas por un enfoque localista. Discusiones posteriores de las Naciones Unidas ampliaron la perspectiva de nuevo, dando lugar a una forma final más híbrida. A lo largo de este proceso, se añadieron metas sobre el comercio justo y las relaciones financieras, el acceso a los mercados para los productos de los países menos adelantados, el VIH/SIDA y la malaria, mientras que se redujo el objetivo del acceso a la salud reproductiva. Mientras tanto, las contradicciones inherentes a temas económicos y ambientales han quedado sin resolver. French Les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le développement (OMD) ont évolué entre deux points de vue concurrents sur le développement : celui qui voit les causes de la pauvreté et de la misère dans les spécificités des pays concernés — la vision localiste — et un autre qui prend en considération le contexte mondial, y compris surtout les politiques des pays «développés» -la vision mondialiste-. Le noyau des OMD a émergé au sein de l'OCDE et il a détourné l'attention publique des approches globalistes des conférences récentes des Nations Unies vers une approche localiste. Les discussions ultérieures des Nations Unies ont de nouveau élargi la perspective, conduisant finalement à une forme plus hybride. Au cours de ce processus, les objectifs en matière de commerce équitable et de relations financières, l'accès aux marchés pour les produits des pays les moins avancés et ceux qui concernent le VIH / sida et le paludisme ont été ajoutés, tandis que l'objectif de l'accès à la santé reproductive a été abandonné alors que les contradictions inhérentes à l'économie et à l'environnement sont restées en suspens

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-128
Author(s):  
Constantine Michalopoulos

The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the next millennium was characterized by an extraordinary burst of international cooperation on development. At the core of this cooperation was the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 and the related agreement to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The U4 played a role both in the run-up to the MDG agreement and in linking the achievement of the MDG objective of ending poverty to collaborative efforts between donor and recipient, with partners in the driver’s seat setting their own priorities. This chapter starts with a discussion of the agreement to establish the MDGs at the UN and its implications for development. Then it turns to the perennial question of how much aid developed countries should commit to provide to developing countries, and what donors and recipients must do to make aid more effective, two central issues of the Monterrey Conference on Finance for Development in 2002. The last part discusses the special U4 and international community efforts to achieve universal primary education and to battle HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.


2010 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1028-1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Roma ◽  
Paul Jeffrey

Acceptance and adequate use of water and sanitation technologies in least developed countries is still a chimera, with one billion people using unimproved water supply sources and 2.5 billion not benefitting from adequate sanitation. Public participation in water and sanitation planning and pre-implementation phases has become increasingly important for technology providers seeking solutions to implementation challenges towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Based on the principle that successful implementation of WATSAN technologies ultimately depends on recipients' ability to absorb a technology and adapt it to their own needs, this study analyses the impacts of participatory methods adopted by community-based sanitation (CBS) providers on communities' receptivity of the transferred systems. A fieldwork activity was undertaken in Indonesia and a multiple case study approach adopted to analyse indicators of receptivity of the transferred technologies. Conclusions show that community involvement through participatory methods in the implementation of CBS systems can enhance the process of acceptance and management of the technologies, thereby increasing the progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.


2015 ◽  
Vol 129 (2) ◽  
pp. 489-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Antonio Rodríguez Martín ◽  
Juan de Dios Jiménez Aguilera ◽  
José Antonio Salinas Fernández ◽  
José María Martín Martín

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devin Joshi

AbstractInternational development agencies argue that “good governance” is crucial to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but there are many ways to define and measure good governance. The paper begins by examining the World Bank’s minimal state conception of governance and then proposes an alternative approach based on strengthening state capacity. The paper tests this framework by developing a provisional Millennium Governance Index (MGI) for 126 countries. In comparative empirical analysis, the MGI has noticeably higher statistical correlations than the World Bank’s governance indicators on six out of seven MDGs even after controlling for per capita income levels.


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