Latest progress

When the 189 countries signed the Millennium Declaration [1], they agreed to move to create a genuine partnership between richer nations and those nations where many people live in extreme poverty. The richer nations have historically been far more powerful, and, whether deliberately or inadvertently, have engaged in a number of oppressive practices. Goal 8 signals a new start – promoting debt forgiveness, good governance and market access for developing countries. For the goal to be met, a spirit of generosity is required – large increases in overseas aid have been promised.

Read about the six quantifiable targets that form MDG 8 [2]

Explore country-level data collected as part of monitoring Goal 8 [3].

The recent troubles across North Africa and the Middle East have shown clearly that the world is tightly connected. Food and Oil prices rocketed globally[4], dictators’ assets were frozen in European bank accounts [5], refugees fled to many different countries [6] and it was all ‘tweeted’ in cyberspace and reported on 24 hour rolling news.

MDG 8 has quickened progress in the formation of Information Technology systems that enable partnerships to grow through rapid communication – one in two people use a mobile phone worldwide. The ‘global village’, however, existed before Facebook. In 2005, at the Group of Eight (G-8) Summit at Gleneagles [7] and the UN World Summit [8] world leaders promised to increase total official development assistance (ODA) by around $50 billion a year by 2010 to reach at least 0.5 per cent of donor countries’ gross national product (GNP).

MDG 8 helps to give a political and strategic focus to development as a whole. The tiny new country of Sint Maarten, lying in the Caribbean, has developed its first comprehensive international development policy using the MDGs as its core basis [9]. They also enable countries to see where strong progress has been made and form strategies to help progress in other areas (e.g. Vietnam [10]). When identified, the steps can include changes in immigration policy, lifting trade restrictions and creating jobs – in line with targets in Goals 1 and 8 (see Belize as an example [11])

The interconnectedness of the world may have never been felt more sharply than during the global financial crisis, which started in 2008. Current reports from the UN suggest that the crisis is mostly to blame for the failure to keep to the Gleneagles promises. Some countries, notably the UK [http://www.bond.org.uk/pages/budget-announcement-2010.html], have managed to ringfence their aid budgets from sweeping cuts, and are still on track to meet their MDG 8 commitments. Five countries have met the 0.7% GDP to aid target – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. Other countries, including the USA [12], have strong influences recommending that aid should be cut along with most other government sectors.

The aid debate is of great current significance, with strong arguments for giving aid [13] and against [14] [15] It has been reignited as a direct result of great steps of development in countries such as China and India. The UK had its largest shake-up of aid spending in March 2011 [16], continuing to give aid to India, but withdrawing aid to 16 countries including Russia, Serbia, Cameroon and China as they are considered to have now developed sufficiently to do without overseas help. The new aid strategy looks to focus on tackling maternal mortality and fighting malaria [17]– directly due to trying to meeting MDGs 5 and 6. Read Joel’s Blog for more comment [18].

A question remains – how committed are countries to the creation of a global partnership? The coming year will help answer the question as countries tighten their belts and decide what their priorities are.

[1] Millennium Declaration

[2] Goal 8 Targets and Indicators

[3] Goal 8 monitor

[4] Guardian Article on food prices

[5] Reuters article on asset freezing

[6] Sydney Morning Herald video of refugees in Egypt

[7] Information about the G8 Gleneagles summit

[8] Information on UN world summit

[9] Sint Maarten Report

[10] Vietnam article

[11] UN Report on Belize

[12] Arguments against US foreign aid

[13] Guardian article pro-aid

[14] Evening Standard article against foreign aid

[15] Telegraph article about aid to India

[16] BBC article about UK aid review

[17] DFID document about UK aid review

[18] Joel’s Blog on giving aid