Do the MDGs still reflect what is important about how development happens and how policy influences that process? The MDGs were an approach born of a benign era of relative stability, stronger economic growth and fairly buoyant aid budgets.
We now face a very different world. Changes sparked by uncertainty, and a sense of multiple insecurities, could impact adversely on poverty levels. The economic crisis has led to significant changes in the context for international development and the crisis/post-crisis context is central to many MDG questions in terms of impacts on poverty and on development commitments over the next ten years.
Articles in this IDS Bulletin inform the debate in 2010, leading up to and beyond the UN MDG review summit, and reflect on the MDG experience so far. They ask what that experience means for the next five years and beyond. What have the MDGs actually achieved, and for whom? What can we learn from the MDGs about how the international community can best play a role in national processes of development and poverty reduction? Will the MDGs prove to reflect an international commitment to poverty reduction that goes beyond 2015, or are they the product of a specific moment, unlikely to be repeated?
The debate around what should succeed the MDGs after 2015 is still in its early stages and many fear talking about this will derail the momentum around them. As the articles here, and the conversations over this year and next will demonstrate, it is sure to go to the heart of what international development is all about.
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Contents
Preface Lord Mark Malloch-Brown
Introduction – The MDGs and Beyond: Pro-poor Policy in a Changing World Andy Sumner and Claire Melamed
The Impact and Design of the MDGs: Some Reflections Richard Manning
Lessons from the Making of the MDGs: Human Development Meets Results-based Management in an Unfair World David Hulme
Reducing Inequality – The Missing MDG: A Content Review of PRSPs and Bilateral Donor Policy Statements Sakiko Fukuda-Parr Towards Genuine Universalism within Contemporary Development Policy Andrew M. Fischer
A ‘2015′ Agenda for Africa: Development from a Human Perspective Yehualashet Mekonen
The MDGs in Historical Perspective Richard Jolly The MDGs Beyond 2015 Selim Jahan
Taking the MDGs Beyond 2015: Hasten Slowly Jan Vandemoortele and Enrique Delamonica The MDG Paradigm, Productive Capacities and the Future of Poverty Reduction Charles Gore The MDG-Human Rights Nexus to 2015 and Beyond Mary Robinson A Poverty of Rights: Six Ways to Fix the MDGs Malcolm Langford
The MDGs and Beyond: Can Low Carbon Development be Pro-poor? Frauke Urban Climate, Conflict and Capital: Critical Issues for the MDGs and Beyond 2015 Erik Solheim Beyond Business as Usual: What Might 3-D Wellbeing Contribute to MDG Momentum? Allister McGregor and Andy Sumner
Progressing Gender Equality Post-2015: Harnessing the Multiplier Effects of Existing Achievements Nicola Jones, Rebecca Holmes and Jessica Espey
Holding on to the MDGs (For Now) Myles A. Wickstead
An MDG-plus Agenda for Africa Alfred G. Nhema Proceedings of the DFID-DSA-EADIActionAid Policy Forum Michael Tribe and Aurélien Lafon
