From principle to practice: Making the US MDG plan a reality
On Friday, the Obama Administration unveiled the United States’ plan for meeting the Millennium Development Goals, eight ambitious targets aimed at reducing global poverty and disease by 2015.
Entitled Celebrate, Innovate and Sustain: Towards 2015 and Beyond, the strategy is the first official document to articulate the US approach towards the MDGs. It does so from a unique angle. To underscore the interconnectedness of the MDGs and the need for a comprehensive approach to achieve them, instead of cataloguing inputs to each of the eight individual goals, it lays out four overarching imperatives to guide US development policy broadly – leveraging innovation, investing in sustainability, tracking development outcomes (not just dollars) and enhancing the principle and practice of mutual accountability.
The strategy also outlines the elements critical to achieving these principles, many of which have been tested across a variety of US development programs over the past decade and are included in ONE’s recommendations to all member states ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting to review the MDGs. For example, the plan identifies good governance and broad-based economic growth as critical to achieving sustainable poverty reduction and preserving development gains already achieved. Investing in local capacity to strengthen service delivery is also included as a key component of sustainability, as is the empowerment of women and girls and the mainstreaming of gender into core development efforts. The strategy also has a welcome focus on results and accountability. It calls for a “relentless commitment to impact” through enhanced monitoring and evaluation and strengthened data collection capacity, and acknowledges the gaps between rhetoric and action on donors and partner country efforts to improve aid effectiveness.
With less than two months left before the UN meeting, the US has now taken the first step towards providing leadership in New York. However, a successful outcome in September – with a global, results-oriented action plan for 2010 to 2015 – will require some more details on how this plan will become a reality. The US has now articulated a solid set of principles to guide its efforts to fight poverty – something that has been missing in US development policy to date. To fully deliver on President Obama’s pledge to come to this year’s UN summit with a global plan to make the MDGs a reality, the next step will be to work with partners to turn these principles into a globally agreed strategy.
To do this, the US should first clarify how its four principles – innovation, sustainability, tracking development outcomes and mutual accountability – will complement other countries’ efforts to meet the MDGs and feed into the global plan that is adopted in September. All countries will be coming to the UN in September with their own strategies and commitments to achieve the MDGs. It is critical that these are bound together into a comprehensive package so that all actors can be held accountable to their commitments after September.
Second, the strategy says that across its development agencies the US will “retain, improve, and, when appropriate, also expand development-related activities that further these four imperatives.” Further details on this – including a clear timeline, process, and metrics for success – are critical to ensuring that the strategy is implemented.
Finally, as the Administration begins to develop a plan for implementation, it also needs to provide clarity on how this new strategy will fit into ongoing efforts to reform US development policy – including the Administration’s Presidential Study Directive and Congress’s rewrite of the Foreign Assistance Act. Coordination across the US government will ensure that all US development tools are maximized and that any new strategy is elevated as a cornerstone of US foreign policy for the long-term.
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August 3, 2010 at 11:28 am
Is it appropriate for One members to send an e-mail to the White House to thank Pres. Obama for his support or to other gov. officials in the future? If so would you include those e-mail addresses in future e-mails which you send to us?
Thank you
August 3, 2010 at 12:34 pm
I too, would like to know how to thank the President, and the other members of his administration, for following through on their commitments. So often, we e-mail and petition to ask to have things done on our behalf, and rarely remember to thank our elected officials when they follow through.
Thanks
August 3, 2010 at 12:59 pm
I just have to say good job keep up the good work it’s a step in the right direction just keep it up.
August 3, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Here is a link to contact the White House that I just used.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
I thought this was too important not to at least try to thank Obama personally.
August 3, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Corinne and Edward,
If you’d like to send a note to the President and thank him for delivering on his pledge, you can visit
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact and send him a note.
Thanks for asking!
August 3, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Rice even voted against the “right to water” and, cut AIDs funding…I am out of here..
August 3, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Friends: July has been a truly great month to mission-priority the extereme poverty issues (epi) facing a movement that will change the world. With Nelson Mandela’s birthday July has touched policy makers the “boots on the ground” advocacy on policy.
The all to often asked question is how do we as a wold leader in the USA “balance the issues of (epi) in our own back yard with the global quests?
My veteran and military philanthropic councilmembers know all to well the global concerns, we have served in these far and distant lands, we have been up and personal yet the issues right here at home need our attention as well. I do hope the UN understands we have two battle fronts-and must balance the solutions. How do we reduce the addiction issues in Afghan farming communities where more than 11% of the farmers are addicted to their farms productes? How can we sit at a diplomic table and talk peace when the Afghan eleders are “noding off”? Extreme poverty issues, energy legislation, Aids and starvation in Africa, and homeless families in DC & NY LA? Thank you,
http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/general/detail/3270
August 3, 2010 at 4:45 pm
What is happening with President Obama’s campaign pledge to institute a Global Fund for Education as the cheif strategy for implementing Millennium Development Goal #2 (Basic education for all children by 2015)? The President said he would establish the Global Fund for Education, based on the model of the highly successful Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. He also said he would establish an initial fund for it of $2 Billion. Has anybody heard anything about Administration work on this?.
August 3, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Please forward my Thank You to President Obama. It is so great how much he cares about people and about actually doing things he has pledged to do in spite of possible political fall out. We need to let people know that we notice their responses to ONE petitions.
August 4, 2010 at 5:19 pm
I am thankful that President Obama is taking comnsiderations and is making a reasonable difference when possible. However, these days, I am worried that we is not following through on more domestiv issues such as present days problems with the homeless in the US and the violence and other hardships that they face as well as global epidemics that effect the economy and funding to those individuals that need it.
Over $50 billion go to refute major and more diplomatic changes while encouraging mecahnisms such as computer warfare and internet instability in this government whereas those monies could be properly channeled to do more good in areas like facilitating a more meaningful standard of living in this country and other.
Other areas where minimal focus is given, is attention to green endeavors that can improve our environment and provide more food for those that grow in small areas. Quality of living can be improved for many that are impoverished with better agriculture but no one including ONE is paying attention to this.
I joined ONE to be more involved, to have a more hands one impact with those in need. I want to make a reasonable change for people as individual not just funnel money everywhere.
Having a say where money is concerned is important sometimes but a more meaningful endeavor is to facilitate that money to furnish good will to those that need it.
I’m interested in seeing changes like that from this President and recently I don’t see that. This country is a sad an unstable economy because Congress cannot work by themselves. They need help, our help and his help to facilitate an end to these crisis that combat our community.
August 12, 2010 at 10:14 am
Excellent work!!
April 11, 2011 at 5:12 am
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