DFID Annual Report 2008 - International Development Committee Contents


Supplementary memorandum submitted by the Department for International Development ahead of the International Development Committee Hearing on the UN High Level Event

15 October 2008

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  1.  The UN Secretary General and President of the General Assembly hosted the UN High Level Event (HLE) on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on 25 September 2008. The main objectives of this event as stated by the UN Secretary General were to: review progress and take stock of existing gaps at midpoint in the global effort to achieve the MDGs by 2015; identify concrete actions needed to scale up efforts to this end; and help ensure the MDGs and international targets remain on track and the momentum is maintained beyond the 2008.[1]

  2.  The HLE involved the broadest ever alliance assembled to fight for poverty reduction. In addition to the formal proceedings over 40 partnership events took place which brought together new broad partnerships moving forward.

  3.  Participants in the Event, and the partnership events during the week, represented over 140 countries and leaders of NGOs, business, faith groups, philanthropic organisations and cities. The UN estimates that countries, charities, foundations and business pledged some $16 billion in commitments for accelerating progress to achieve the MDGs, including $11.5 billion of commitments in the UK priority areas for the HLE of malaria, food, education and health. The coming together of this broad and diverse coalition inspired new partnerships to form around areas such as malaria and education, and galvanised the international community to take further action such as the pledges made by countries including China.

INTRODUCTION

  4.  The Eighth Millennium Development Goal was that we would "develop a global partnership for development". The MDG Call to Action (CtA) was launched in July 2007 by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown in New York, speaking alongside the UN Secretary General, to encourage the international community to accelerate progress to reach the Millennium Development Goals. By January, the UN Secretary General and Prime Minister were joined by a group of governments, faith groups, NGOs and the private sector at Davos to declare 2008 as the critical year to make progress on the MDGs.

  5.  From July 2007, DFID led a cross-Whitehall campaign, the "MDG Call to Action", to take forward the Prime Minister's objectives. The aim was to galvanise international support for the UN's efforts to accelerate progress on the MDGs and secure not just expressions of general support but concrete pledges of action towards this effort by a range of key, international stakeholders both in the run up to and at the time of the UN High Level Event. The CtA, and in particular UK involvement in the UN High Level, was a collective effort by cross Whitehall departments that included active engagement by FCO posts and DFID country offices working closely with counterparts in other governments and organisations.

  6.  The MDG CTA team worked to ensure ambitious outcomes from international meetings in order to accelerate progress on the MDGs. The EU Heads of State welcomed the Agenda for Action on the MDGs at the June Council which sets out how they intend to keep their commitments to deliver their 2005 aid pledges. It includes key milestones on health, education and water and the EU's contribution to these up until 2010. The EU Agenda for Action states for health there would be an additional

8 billion by 2010, of which

6 billion for Africa. For education an additional

4.3 billion by 2010, of which

3.2 billion would be allocated to Africa. Securing the EU Agenda for Action required intensive UK lobbying in Brussels and with other Member States. The MDGs were not one of the original priorities for the Slovenian EU Presidency. With UK strong encouragement, the Presidency and Commission both became vocal advocates for the EU taking an ambitious stand on the MDGs and setting the momentum for the subsequent G8, Accra and UN meetings. The result was the Agenda for Action which, despite the economic uncertainties, committed the EU to its ambitious targets. At the UN High Level Meeting, President Barroso and various EU development ministers highlighted the Agenda for Action as demonstrating the EU's commitment and leadership role on getting the MDGs back on track. The UK and other Member States are currently working with the Commission to ensure the commitments are tracked and monitored and to provide guidance to developing country offices on implementing the Agenda for Action.

  7.  At the G8 summit, the G8 reaffirmed its promises on ODA and made commitments on climate change, food security, malaria and health workforce coverage in African countries. In Accra, the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness at the beginning of September agreed an ambitious "Accra Agenda for Action" which included concrete commitments to improve the quality of aid. DFID's international leadership and influencing, working closely with the European Union (EU) helped reach a landmark international agreement which all major donors, including Japan and the US, have signed to help deliver commitments in crucial areas: a step change in donor's use of partner government systems to deliver aid, with a target to channel 50% of government-to-government aid through country systems; strengthening of national, and for the first time international, mutual accountability mechanisms, allowing donors and partner countries to better hold each other accountable for meeting their commitments, with a milestone agreed for 2009; donors agreed to respect and support partner country-led efforts to agree a better division of labour between donors at country level—and for the first time at international level too; we agreed to start dialogue on international division of labour by June 2009; new policy commitments for donors working in fragile situations, including through use of pooled funding mechanisms where needed to support stabilisation and peace building; or the first time and beginning now, donors will provide partner governments with forward expenditure or implementation plans for the following three to five years.

  8.  The MDG CTA team also worked to build relationships with a huge range of stakeholders to encourage action to accelerate progress on the MDGs by the broadest coalition possible. In May 2008, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and HMG hosted the Business Call to Action where the PM along with President Kagame of Rwanda and President Kufuor of Ghana welcomed over 60 global CEOs who announced several new initiatives as part of their core business that would also accelerate progress on the MDGs. A further five companies announced initiatives at the UN High Level Event in September. Meanwhile on 24 July, spearheaded by the Archbishop of Canterbury, more than 1,400 robed bishops and other faith leaders from all over the world conducted a "walk of witness" through the streets of London to call on global leaders to deliver the MDGs. The group was then addressed by the Prime Minister and representatives including the Archbishop of York, went on to attend the UN HLE in September.

  9.  On 17 July 2008 the UN Secretary General and the President of the General Assembly formally announced that they would convene the High Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on 25 September 2008.

  10.  The main objectives of this event as stated by the UN Secretary General were to: review progress and take stock of existing gaps at midpoint in the global effort to achieve the MDGs by 2015; identify concrete actions needed to scale up efforts to this end; and help ensure the MDGs and international targets remain on track and the momentum is maintained beyond the 2008 UN HLE.[2]

HIGH LEVEL EVENT

  11.  At the conclusion of the UN HLE on 25 September, the UN Secretary declared, it had been an "inspiring day at the United Nations". According to an initial statement by the UN Secretary General the governments, NGOs, foundations and business at the UN High Level Event made commitments totalling approximately $16 billion. The definitive numbers that were committed are now in the process of being finalised by the UN. The following is a breakdown of some of these commitments as well as the UK contributions. It should be noted that these are estimates at this point while DFID reviews the full list of commitments issued by the UN Secretary General and individual countries and stakeholders:

  12.  On malaria, a multi-stakeholder Malaria Action Plan was launched involving governments, a number of leading NGOs, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Together this group committed to raising $3 billion to encourage further steps towards universal coverage of bed nets and sprays by 2010, and at least an 80% reduction in malaria deaths by 2015. The UK committed to providing 20 million bed nets by 2010; increasing funding for vaccine research of up to £5 million by 2010; and committing £40 million to support the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria, which the UK encourages the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) to host. This is in support of the Global Malaria Action plan that was developed by Roll Back Malaria, with contributions from 250 partner organisations, and launched with Malaria No More, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UN on 25 September.

  13.  On food, according the UN's latest figures, the international community pledged at least $1.75 billion for emergency food aid to stop the immediate tragedy of starvation in the Horn of Africa, and for the rapid distribution of support, including seeds and fertilisers for 30 priority countries in time for the next planting season. The UK Government announced £40 million of emergency assistance, which is part of UK measures to tackle the recent food crisis totalling around £800m so far. In addition, the UK has already announced ongoing commitments of over £1 billion through which the UK will continue to support agriculture, food security and livelihoods in priority countries.

  14.  On health, figures currently suggest the international community pledged $2 billion and launched a major new innovative financing task force to be co-chaired by the Prime Minister and the President of the World Bank. The task force will report to the G8 next year, with the aim of recruiting a million health workers and saving 10 million lives by 2015. The Global Campaign for Health members announced in New York that they intend to mobilise an extra $30 billion by 2015 to ensure that by 2010, 4 million more children's lives are saved and 33 million more births are attended by skilled health workers. The UK also announced £450 million over the next three years to support national health plans for eight International Health Partnership (IHP) countries. Both the £40 million for the GFATM and the £450 million for the IHP would form part of the £6 billion announced for health systems by the UK in June this year.

  15.  On education, the launch of a "Class of 2015" Partnership by a mixture of government leaders, faith groups, the private sector and NGOs, to help get the education MDGs back on track, increasing the prospects of getting 24 million children into school by 2010. There were $4.5 billion worth of pledges and commitments. The UK announced £50 million for the Education for All Fast Track Initiative (FTI) as part of the UK delivering on the commitment, announced in April 2006, to provide £8.5 billion in support of education over 10 years. There was also an announcement of a £5 million commitment for a partnership with Comic Relief totalling £10 million (£5 million each) through which school children in the UK will raise money for schools in Africa. As with the FTI funding it's part of our delivering on our £8.5 billion commitment.

  16.  Additional commitments were made on water and sanitation, including by the UK and Dutch governments; and on other key areas including climate change and UN reform, bringing the total, according to the UN, to $16 billion.

  17.  In terms of stakeholder representation, some of the highlights included events on Malaria (with Bill Gates, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative on Malaria, the President of Rwanda and Bono); Education (with the President of the European Commission, the President of the World Bank, the Archbishop of York, and Comic Relief); and Health (with the Prime Minister of Norway, Bill Gates, the President of the World Bank and the Executive Director General of the World Health Organisation).

  18.  At the conclusion of the HLE, the UN Secretary General declared, "Today, we have strengthened the global partnership for development. Your resolve to act is evident. Yes, you have stepped up to confront growing challenges. Now, I urge you to move with more speed and focus". The draft outcome document with the list of commitments has been sent from the UN to the Permanent Missions in NY and is now being finalised. The agreed version should then be sent out by the UN shortly after.

  19.  The UK has three main objectives for follow-up to the UN High Level Event:

    —  A. Tracking implementation of the actions announced during the week (as summarised by the Secretary-General on 25 September);

    —  B. Encouraging the UN to produce better analysis of where the MDGs remain off track and what needs to be done to get them back on track; and

    —  C. Maintaining a high-level, political focus on accelerating progress on the MDGs.

  20.  These objectives will be pursued by HMG, led by DFID, first through our work with the UN to track the commitments made and their implementation at international and country level. We will be working with the UN to support a session at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to look at rigorous monitoring of the commitments. In this respect, the next major international meeting will be in Doha where the international community will come together to review progress on financing for development. This meeting must reinforce promises and explore the impact of emerging development issues such as food security. There are also a number of sector-specific meetings at which the different commitments will be further highlighted such as the proposed food security meetings, health Partnership meetings and Fast Track Initiative meetings.

  21.  Second, DFID will work with the UN to improve its analysis and encourage continued leadership. This includes not only DFID's ongoing programme to help reform the UN and improve its delivery, but also by supporting the UN Secretary General and President of the General Assembly's proposal for a GA resolution mandating an MDGs Review Summit in 2010.

  22.  Third, DFID will continue to work with colleagues across Whitehall to maintain a high-level, political focus between now and 2010 on accelerating progress on the MDGs. This will be achieved through inter-governmental processes such as the G8 and EU along with maintaining relations with the range of key stakeholders who have contributed so much to accelerating progress on the MDGs this year.





1   Note verbel 17 July 2008 (UN Ref: 17 July 2008 Rev) Back

2   Note verbal 17 July 2008 (UN Ref: 17 July 2008 Rev) Back


 
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