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MDGs
At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration and reaffirmed their commitment to addressing the global challenges of creating a just, shared, peaceful and prosperous world. This Declaration originated from a series of international summits and conferences in the 1990s through which the United Nations sought to renew its global agenda in the post-cold war era. The Declaration contained numerous commitments to enhance the future of humanity in the new century. The United Nations Secretariat subsequently drafted the list of eight objectives, each with a set of targets and specific indicators.
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NEW - October 2007 - People's Voices on MDGs - UNITED NATIONS MC ASIA
The United Nations Millennium Campaign, in partnership with a range of non-state actors including the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), has worked to increase public awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which outline key development priorities to be achieved by 2015.
The campaign and policy advocacy work strives to strengthen people’s influence on elected officials and political leaders to enhance their policy objectives in order to accelerate MDG progress in Asia. Simultaneously, this process has also created more space for civil society to play a greater role in the government policy process.
As a result of our collaboration with various civil society partners throughout the Asia region, this report is a reference work that synthesises various citizens’ reports launched during the midpoint review of the MDGs in July 2007. It simply demonstrates the standpoint of civil society of four countries, where independent reports were produced: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. This report does not necessarily refl ect the views of the United Nations.
From South Asia, the civil society report on MDG progress in Bangladesh was prepared by the People’s Forum on MDGs, with consultation from the Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies. In India, the reports were launched from 12 states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu. In India, the thematic report on scheduled castes was released by the National Conference of Dalit
Organisations (NACDOR), and the report on denotified and nomadic tribes was drafted by Lokdhara. The MDG report on the Muslim community in India was authored by Tehreek-e-Pasmanda Muslim Samaj (TPMS). These India reports were collected by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) and are available at wadanatodo.net. From Southeast Asia, two reports focusing on financing the MDGs were prepared by Social Watch Philippines and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. In Indonesia, the report on MDG progress was developed by the civil society network GCAP Indonesia.
People’s Voices on MDGs 2007 was synthesised under the guidance of Minar Pimple, Deputy Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign. Ryce Chanchai was involved in the design and development of the report. Special mention should be given to Phu Huynh for providing extensive technical advice and general editorial support and to Katerina Limenopoulou for her helpful comments on the report structure. Close collaboration with civil society organisations in the region was essential. To this end, Urailuk Jetsongkul played an invaluable role in facilitating the dialogue between the United Nations Millennium Campaign and our civil society partners in the Asia region.
Following the recent release of The Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific 2007, this report aims to complement the offi cial statistics with stories and direct experiences from the marginalised and disadvantaged population. I hope this report will be helpful for citizens’ campaigns to achieve the MDGs in the Asia region.
Salil Shetty, Director, United Nations Millennium Campaign
See also: Millennium Development Goals Mid-term Review
These extracts from 40 OneWorld Country Guides offer a unique snapshot of progress midway to the target date of 2015. With some exceptions, the picture is not encouraging, confirming the conclusions of the UN Report published in July 2007. Recurring problems include the failure of conventional economic growth to relieve poverty, extreme regional disparities, indequate spending on health and education, and insufficient aid. A seismic shift in political will, both domestically and internationally, is necessary to realise the ideals of the Millennium Declaration.
