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

Middle East / North Africa and the Millennium Development Goals
It has often been claimed by critics that the MDGs were developed without
any involvement of the developing countries, by an undiluted donor club,
the OECD. How, then, could they be expected to develop ownership for
the MDG agenda!? It is even claimed that the OECD enticed the developing
countries to accept the goals by adding MDG8 to the OECD-DAC’s
seven International Development Goals. It is further claimed that this eighth
goal, for which the donors are chiefly responsible, is far less concrete than
the others. It is also noted that the UN did not even vote on the MDG
agenda, but that it was only presented to the General Assembly in 2001. Furthermore,
it is said that the MDG agenda takes up only the goals formulated
in two of the four central chapters of the Millennium Declaration.
None of this does anything to change the fact that the MDGs are contained
in the Millennium Declaration itself and that the declaration was adopted
and expressly welcomed by all UN member countries. The fact that many
of the targets and objectives of the declaration are not contained in the
MDG agenda is no obstacle to implementing at least the MDGs.
All MENA countries were represented by high-ranking persons at the Millennium
Summit in New York. Not only did all MENA representatives
vote for the Millennium Declaration, they explicitly welcomed the declaration
in individual statements. Indeed. Algeria, Iran, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar,
the Palestinian Authority, Sudan, and Tunisia were represented by their
heads of state. Mauritania was represented by its prime minister, Saudi
Arabia by Crown Prince c Abdullah, Libya by the Secretary of the People’s
Congress, and the UAE by Emir Fujaira. Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, and
Syria, on the other hand, were represented by their foreign ministers,
Morocco by Prince Moulay Rachid, and Oman by the cultural affairs
minister. Finally, Iraq sent only its deputy foreign minister to the summit,
and Lebanon was represented by the chairman of its UN delegation.
Statements were furthermore made by the secretaries-general of the Arab
League and the Islamic World Conference (see Table A15, Annex).
During other opportunities as well, the leaders of the MENA countries have
referred time and again to the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs, explicitly
welcoming them. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the
region have also expressed highly positive opinions of the Millennium
Declaration. They see in the MDG agenda a list of the same demands they
have been addressing to their governments for many years (ANND 2004;
Farag 2004; Satterthwaite 2004).
German Development Institute 105