After 2015: promoting pro poor policy after the MDGs

On June 23, a High Level Policy Forum entitled 'After 2015: Promoting Pro-poor Policy after the MDGs' took place in Brussels. It was organised by DFID, ActionAid, DSA, EADI, and IDS, in partnership with The Broker.

The MDGs have played a major role in focusing development policy since their original incarnation in the 1990s. Some development agencies, notably DFID, have gone as far as to judge their activities on the contribution to achieving the MDGs. What happens when we no longer have the MDGs? How will we promote pro-poor policy after 2015?

The Forum debated these issues and addressed three questions:

• What has been the impact on poverty reduction of the MDG paradigm?
• What are the major global processes shaping development up to 2015 and beyond?
• How can we promote pro-poor policy after the MDGs and amid global changes?

The Broker has published a background article 'Beyond 2015: Rethinking development policy' by Andy Sumner (IDS).

To support the communication and outreach activities of the High Level Policy Forum, Euforic has published a dossier presenting a rich collection of background information plus reports and impressions of the event. We published blog stories, blips, presentations and pictures. You can follow the discussions by subscribing to the High Level Policy Forum newsfeed.

See also Euforic's newsfeeds about the MDGs and the activities of Euforic members

This project is co-financed by the European Union. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission

Towards an MDG plus agenda

At the After 2015 High Level Policy Forum, held in Brussels on June 23 2009, Andrew Steer (DFID) led through the third plenary session, which discussed the question ‘Towards an MDG plus agenda’?

Louis Kasekende, chief economist of the African Development Bank, called for a rethinking of pro-poor policies after the MDGs in Africa. Recent events have shown the fragility of Africa, reflected in the income inequality and the associated social tensions in Kenya or South Africa, the vulnerability to the food crisis, or the reversal of gains in just six months after the financial crisis on the entire continent. Consequently, Mr. Kasekende made three proposals on how to re-design the MDGs:

• Refocusing economic growth: MDG 1 could be split in two goals, namely economic wealth creation and reduced inequality;
• Focus on fragile states: Action may be needed beyond regional effort, because costs for the country and their neighbours are enormous once the country has fallen into fragility like Somalia, DRC or Zimbabwe;
• Broaden ecological sustainability: for example by recognizing the danger of external shocks.
  

Claire Melamed (ActionAid UK) put forward several points, which should be taken into account in the MDG plus agenda:

• Any new narrative has to increase the understanding of the realities of power and gender, which block poverty reduction;
• We need to move to a global welfare state, which is characterized by social justice and redistribution;
• We should stop looking at averages, but move forward to the individual level. Not the average national wealth counts, but we should commit to ensure every individual has access to basic minimum services and income;
• Funding mechanisms should shift from uncertain aid provision to more predictable, redistributive mechanisms, such as innovative taxing;
• The future MDGs should rather be based on rights instead of on charity.

Being the final speaker, Andreas Rechkemmer (UNU-IHDP) put the interrelations between environment and development to the fore. Ecosystems are the precondition for any human well-being, due to the provision of cultural, provisional and regulatory services. Therefore, development, climate change and ecosystem communities have to overcome fragmentation and instead join forces. Essentially, “it is all about resilience building at ecosystem and social system level”, Mr. Rechkemmer argued. We need innovation and social learning to design a transitionary regime which can address the MDG plus, global governance and climate agenda.

See also:

• Euforic dossier on the event
• 'Blips' recorded during the event
• Debate on The Broker
  
• Euforic's newsfeeds on the After 2015 High Level Policy Forum and the MDGs

This project is co-financed by the European Union. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission