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

Middle East / North Africa and the Millennium Development Goals
process has been institutionalized. The UN system has e.g. developed a
highly diversified set of instruments designed to advance the Millennium
process at the global and national level: to heighten awareness of the
MDGs among political decision-makers and the public, to set in train a
discussion on the implementation of the MDGs, to measure how much
progress has been made, and to identify possible obstacles.
At the international level there are four principle instruments are being
used to promote and support the Millennium process:
– the annual report of the UN Secretary-General on the state of implementation
of the MDGs;
– the Millennium Campaign, an organizational unit headed by Eveline
Herfkens and dedicated to raising awareness for the MDGs; and
– the Millennium Project, a working group made up of scientists and
experts and headed by Jeffery Sachs; the project, which reports directly
to the Secretary-General, has the task of acquiring and processing
data on best practices suited to implementing the MDGs as well
as information on the experiences made by selected countries.
At the national level the country MDG reports are the central instruments
used to make the MDGs known, to raise awareness for them, to urge politicians
to work to implement them, to monitor the present state of implementation,
to identify deficits, and to come up with approaches to overcoming
such deficits: Like PRSPs, national MDG reports are expected to
be developed at regular intervals (ideally once a year) by the governments
of all UN member countries in participatory processes which involve civil
society and the private sector, assign tasks to all relevant actors, and critically
review the engagement shown thus far by these actors.
In the national context the MDG country reports are well suited to
– creating awareness for the MDGs;
– establishing consensus on (i) appropriate indicators to measure progress
in implementing the MDGs and (ii) action-guiding principles
for aligning national policies and projects to the MDG agenda;
– securing for the MDGs an ownership that is sustained by national
governments, but also civil society and the private sector;
– mobilizing, at home and abroad, additional resources;
German Development Institute 39