Post 2015: Global Action for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future

of tailored objectives that are inspired by the
mDGs, which can be interpreted as a sign that the
mDGs could have a significant impact over time
(manning, 2010).
the impact of the mDGs goes beyond national
policy documents to influence decision-making
processes and the evaluation of policy effectiveness.
In some instances, such as in Indonesia, the mDGs
have increased government accountability and
have been used by civil society organisations as an
instrument to hold public officials to account. For
example, cSos played a key role in demonstrating
that national-level development progress has
often ignored the most vulnerable social groups.
Shadow mDG reports in Ghana, India, malawi
and mozambique identified such gaps in their
country’s mDG achievements, pointing to the need
for policy-makers to focus the development agenda
on disadvantaged regions and communities. In some
cases, this led to positive government responses
(unDp, 2010).
Some countries, however, have taken a different
view of the mDGs, as one of the ErD case-study
countries demonstrated. In peru, progress towards
achieving the targets set out in the mDGs was
already underway and the country should meet
most of them by 2015. However, there is no clear
link between peru’s achievements and the mDG
initiative – in fact, the latter seems to have played
at most a minor role in shaping domestic policies.
although national priorities are along the lines of the
mDGs, these are barely mentioned in official policy
statements in peru and governments do not seem
to have been steered by them. In fact, peru seems
to have found its own goals reflected in the mDGs
rather than being influenced by them (barrantes
and berdegué, 2012 - ErD peru case Study report).
nonetheless, the experiences of côte d’Ivoire, nepal
and rwanda – the other case studies conducted
for this report – suggest that the mDGs can play a
significant role in shaping policy. For instance, they
have been an important reference point for attempts
to resume development planning in côte d’Ivoire. In
nepal, the mDGs have contributed to guiding both
domestic and international polices, while in rwanda
they were used to shape the government’s mediumterm
development strategies (see chapter 2).
1.3 Critiques of the MDGs
While the mDGs have been associated with
improvements in human welfare, they have
also attracted criticism. Some of these critiques
are relevant to the development of a post-2015
framework:
• Lack of participation in process. the process
of agreeing the mDG goals and targets was
dominated by a small group of donors, with
minimal input from the governments of
developing countries. this lack of participation
is still a widespread source of resentment. It is
uncertain what impact this had on the agreed
mDG goals and targets, but it is clearly a far
from ideal way to design a global agreement on
development.
• Distorting priorities. the purpose of the mDGs
was to distort priorities and to focus attention
on a few key goals and targets as a means to
improve development outcomes. Some argue
that by focusing on the social sectors, the
mDGs effectively reduced the importance that
donors previously attached to infrastructure,
agriculture and industrial development, with
a possibly detrimental effect on growth and
job creation, and on poverty reduction in the
long term (chang, 2010; Gore, 2010). It may be
countered that the mDGs did not encompass a
transformational agenda, in the sense that they
did not seek to promote structural transformation
in the poorest countries (see chapter 8). but even
within sectors, the distortions have not always
been optimal. For example, there is a concern
that the focus on school attendance (mDG2)
poSt-2015: Global actIon For an IncluSIvE anD SuStaInablE FuturE
Peru seems to
have found
its own goals
reflected in the
MDGs rather
than being
influenced
by them.
Nonetheless,
the experiences
of Côte d’Ivoire,
Nepal and
Rwanda suggest
that the MDGs
can play a
significant
role in shaping
policy.
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