Blog series: Accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals
With just over two years to go until the we reach the MDG deadline, major efforts are being made to intensify progress and learn from progress already achieved. In this Development Progress blog series we ask key experts 'What do you see as the single most important thing needed to accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goals?'.
The Millennium Development Goals: one last push
As the 2013 United Nations General Assembly kicked off in New York, ODI’s Susan Nicolai invites development experts to share their views on one of the headline issues on the agenda: What do you see as the single most important thing needed to accelerate progress toward the MDGs?
Achieving the MDGs in Africa: should we accelerate?
'Why lose valuable time on the status quo when we can use the time to transit into a more ambitious and appropriate development agenda?’ Charles Abugre, Africa Regional Director for the United Nations Millennium Campaign, questions whether acceleration is indeed the right focus for the remaining period of the MDGs.
Why long-term finance is so important for Latin America
Andrea Ordóñez, Research Coordinator for the Southern Voice initiative, argues that the single most important element to achieving, and sustaining, the MDGS in Latin America is a more integral, longer term perspective and strategy on development finance.
The art of the possible: listening to the real experts
‘The best thing you can do is stop listening to the experts and outsiders.’ Gonzalo Pizarro, a Policy Adviser at the UNDP's Regional Service Center for Latin America and the Caribbean, reminds us that ‘when it comes to MDG acceleration, the views of those most directly affected are important in dispelling some myths’: to drive forward progress, we need to be guided by the real experts on the ground – the citizens themselves.
Context is all: why ignoring politics is a risky game
The single most important thing that is needed to accelerate progress is to stop the processes that produce deprivation, devastation and underdevelopment in the first place.’ Hania Sholkamy, Associate Professor at the American University in Cairo, argues that we cannot ignore the political context or separate development indicators from their historical underpinnings.
Influencing progress towards the MDGs
With much debate on how to influence the pase of progress towards the MDGs, Dr. Renosi Mokate - former Executive Director of the World Bank Group - argues 'we need to strike a balance between fast-tracking efforts to meet the MDGs that are off-track and building a foundation for sustainable progress post-2015.'