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

Markus Loewe
Nevertheless, what follows will attempt to check the priorities set by German
DC in the MENA region against the present state of the Millennium
process in the individual partner countries, the aim being to go on from
here to formulate propositions on a different future orientation of German
DC towards sectors as viewed from the perspective of the MDG agenda.
The following assumptions were made for this purpose:
– The MDG agenda is a consistent system of goals that are closely interrelated
(Satterthwaite 2004). This means that measures conceived
to help implement one MDG usually have positive impacts on several
of the other MDGs as well. It is therefore important to distinguish between
direct and indirect effects. What follows will start out by focusing
on the direct effects of DC. Indirect effects of DC are not unmistakably
indicated by its sectoral orientation. Only a detailed portfolio
analysis of individual priority areas could provide the necessary information
for that.
– As a rule, DC in the health sector entails direct effects on MDGs 4, 5,
and 6 – although these impacts may differ substantially in their significance.
Indirect effects are possible mainly for MDG1, MDG2, and
MDG3.
– Much the same can be said for DC in the education sector, which
contributes principally to implementing MDG2 and MDG3, although
it may also have indirect effects on all other MDGs.
– DC in the environmental sector is of course keyed to MDG7 / Target
9. Whether this also entails positive impacts on other goals is a
question that can be answered only for concrete cases. The most likely
assumption would be more or less long-term effects on MDG1.
– It is less clear which goals are furthered by DC in the water sector. It
has already been pointed out in Chapter 3 that in the water-poor
MENA countries a conflict may arise between the goal of providing
accesses to drinking water for as much of the population as possible
(Target 10) and the goal of making sustainable use of available water
resources (Target 9). As it has itself stated, German DC remains
committed to the goal of sustainability in the water sector (Arce
2004). It is therefore assumed below that German DC in this sector
too provides a direct contribution not only to Target 10 but also to
Target 9 (however great this contribution may in fact be). Furthermore,
there is good reason to expect significant indirect impacts on
MDG4 and MDG5, since improved access to drinking water as a rule
translates out into improved health and, above all, lower child mortal-
128 German Development Institute