Evaluation of development programmes. MDG Progress Chart 2011. What;s Wrong with the MDGs? MDGs: Planning for failure. Over the coming seven years, if Zambia or Uganda or Bangladesh improves education and ends poverty faster than the most successful and lucky nations in the history of human civilization, we we will label them a failure. Such is the implication of the UN’s much-lauded Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. Well, sort of. In a Brookings presentation this week (paper here), NYU economist Bill Easterly argued that the UN originally established the MDGs as a set of benchmarks to measure collective and global progress, not the gains by individual countries or regions.
It was generally expected that the less poor countries would make more progress by the goal date of 2015, and hence make up for the relatively poorer progress of the least developed nations. Well, that was the idea. To the chagrin of some,individual countries are being held to individual MDGs in the media, international organizations, and by their own government rhetoric. I would add one further criticism to the MDG paradigm.
Aid effectiveness. BetterAid. International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) DFID | Millennium Development Goals | Aid, Trade, Growth and Global Partnership | What is aid effectiveness? Definition In order to achieve the MDGs it is agreed that we need to secure "more and better aid". Aid Effectiveness refers to the second part of the equation. Emerging consensus on aid effectiveness (for example in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) points to the importance of aid that is country-owned, aligned and harmonised, focused on the poorest, predictable and untied, delivered through effective institutions, and that focuses on results not inputs.
Why is it important? There are pressures to demonstrate that aid is working as DFID and others seek higher volumes of aid. Facts and figures There are pressures to demonstrate that aid is working as DFID and others seek higher volumes of aid. DFID/UK position DFID is committed to working more effectively in fragile states, in its bilateral programmes, with multilateral partners, and across Whitehall.
International perspectives Developing country perspectives Criticisms.