Dear Friends
Please find appended my Concept Note titled “MDGs Plus Frame: Addressing Global Poverty through Localised Initiatives” prepared for the Meeting of the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons (HLPEP) appointed by UN on Post 2015 Development Agenda for the Millennium Development Goals scheduled from 24-27 March 2013 in Bali, Indonesia.
In this Note I propose that along with the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN, an additional Framework is required to factor in the issues of human rights, democracy, social exclusion and security to eliminate poverty and deprivation in an effective and sustainable manner.
Hoping my proposition is accepted.
In solidarity
Mazher Hussain
MDGs Plus Frame: Addressing Global Poverty through Localised Initiatives
Mazher Hussain
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were officially declared by the United Nations in 2000, as part of the United Nations Millennium Declaration after a millennium summit. All 193 United Nations Member States and at least 23 international organizations agreed to strive to these goals by the year 2015. The eight goals are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality rates, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are indeed a positive step in making the acknowledgment and elimination of poverty a formal global responsibility. The very intent of the MDGs program is laudable even if it could not achieve its targets completely within the stipulated time frame and United Nations has embarked on Post 2015 Development Agenda to strive for their attainment. The serious intent of the United Nations in its effort to address the issue of global poverty can be gauged from the fact that the Secretary General of UN has appointed a High Level Panel of Eminent Persons (HLPEP) on Post 2015 Development Agenda comprising of 26 eminent persons from civil society, private sector and the government from across the globe with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia; President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia; and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom as three Co- chairs. The Fourth Meeting of this High Level Panel of Eminent Persons (HLPEP) on Post 2015 Development Agenda is scheduled to be held on 24-27 March 2013 in Bali , Indonesia
While there are no reservations about the intentions of the UN or the 8 Millennium
Development Goals adopted, additional goals are being proposed by some people for the Post 2015 Development Agenda as essential for effective elimination of poverty and deprivation as envisaged. These additional goals being proposed include addressing social exclusion, issues of peace and security and promotion of democracy etc. Further, reservations are being expressed about the efficacy of the present framework of the MDGs (which is primarily economic) in eliminating global poverty and there is a growing demand for a rights framework that could ensure a minimum quality of life as an entitlement, rather than as a service that the state is expected to accept for delivery.
Core Contradictions
UN is a collective of nations with varied political systems ranging from democracies to monarchies to dictatorships etc. Hence a prescription by the UN for promotion and strengthening of democracy in the member countries for the realisation of MDGs may not be possible and permissible given its mandate. Further, a large number of non democratic countries (like in the middle- east) have low incidences of poverty and so it will be difficult to establish the strengthening of democracy as a precondition for elimination of poverty.
Discourse on social exclusion can also be problematic. First the reluctance by most states to accept the phenomenon of social exclusion within their own countries (as it could have far reaching political ramifications) and secondly consensus on the groups to be accepted as socially excluded.
Similarly, there can be no disagreement about the impact of conflicts on producing, promoting and perpetuating poverty. But most conflicts have states themselves as parties (due to a variety of political reasons) and to expect member countries to take directions from the UN to monitor and report reduction in conflicts in order to eliminate poverty may neither be viable or possible.
Need for Multiple Frameworks and Diverse Strategies
While it is true that democratisation of polity, inclusion of all sections of society and reduction in conflicts could greatly facilitate and accelerate the elimination of poverty but given the limitations in the mandate of the UN, member countries may not be willing to accept any prescriptions from the UN on any of these crucial issues. Similarly, the rights framework being proposed may also not be acceptable to a number of member countries given the nature and characteristics of their political systems. But it also appears that unless the crucial issues of democratisation, social inclusion and reduction in conflicts etc, are addressed and a rights framework is adopted, time bound and effective elimination of poverty does not seem possible or sustainable.
In such a scenario, a possible way out could be the adoption of two frameworks: one within the traditional ambit and mandate of the UN that could continue to focus on enhancing development initiatives for the elimination of poverty and a second framework to be evolved through a combination of UN Agencies, civil society groups and government ministries etc to address the issues of democratisation, social inclusion, conflict reduction and advocacy for accepting human rights as a paradigm for development discourse. This second, MDGs Plus Frame could facilitate intra country, regional or international collaborations between different stakeholders including, UN Agencies, Governments and Civil Society to address specific or multiple issues for the elimination of global poverty as envisaged.
As the MDGs Plus Frame can also have country specific interventions, it can effectively facilitate creation of conditions conducive for elimination of poverty in different countries by factoring in the prevailing political systems of the concerned countries for optimal results. Even the issues of democracy, security and social exclusion and rights etc. could be raised and addressed through the MDGs PLUS Frame, without the danger of these being taken as external interventions or impositions. Further, as the MDGs proposed are minimalistic and some countries have already surpassed some of these goals, the MDG Plus Frame could be used to encourage different countries to formulate their goals over and above the thresholds recommended by the MDGs.
Hence what seems to be required is a combination of MDGs mandated by the UN as a globally accepted imperative and the MDGs Plus Frame that could facilitate appropriate country specific discourses and initiatives. Finally, as the MDGs Plus Frame would be country specific, the ownership, targets and strategies could be localised leading to effective and accelerated elimination of poverty across the globe.
(Dr. Mazher Hussain is Executive Director of COVA, a National Network working
for communal harmony in India and Peace in South Asia and can be reached at:
mazherhussain11@gmail.com).
