Middle East / North Africa and the Millennium Development Goals ...

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Markus Loewe
– Are the goals reflected in national development plans and have they
had any influence on the actual orientation of policy?
There is some evidence indicating that most rulers in the MENA region
are not especially committed to implementing the MDGs.
It is, however, not possible to answer these questions with any degree of
certainty for lack of sound evidence. Official documents and communiqués
are not particularly reliable in that they do not necessarily reflect
the actual opinions and intentions of those responsible for them. They may
be bound up with strategic goals. They are often addressed to specific circles
– e.g. populations or constituencies, certain interest groups within a
given country – or to the international community. In these cases they
serve to boost the internal or external legitimacy of individual governments,
i.e. their intention is to cast government policy in a favorable light
among the populace or to curry favor among external donors (or both at
the same time).
Even proven facts are not necessarily hard evidence. One indication that
the MDGs have met with acceptance might e.g. be that a demonstrable
change of political course has taken place in favor of social and ecologically
compatible development or that trends for certain MDG indicators
have accelerated significantly since the Millennium Declaration. In itself,
however, this is not solid evidence for any acceptance of the MDGs or
commitment on the part of political decision-makers to implementing
them. Neither changes of political course nor social or environmental progress
need necessarily be due to the Millennium Declaration. Such progress
might have come about even in the absence of the declaration – and
been triggered by quite different factors. A country may e.g. have reached
a certain phase of development at which its social and economic indicators
improve for reasons that have little to do with politics, or it may be reaping
a harvest sown in earlier decades.
4.1 Level of awareness and acceptance of the MDG
agenda
Formally, all countries of the MENA region have accepted the MDGs. Indeed,
they themselves have set the goals, together with all other UN member
states, at the Millennium Summit in New York.
German Development Institute