Written evidence submitted by the Department
for International Development
INTRODUCTION
1. The memorandum focuses on:
(i) Key outcomes from the Summit, including:
— DFID's role in delivering agreed strategies;
— the role of the UN, World Bank, European
Commission and NGOs in securing and delivering Summit outcomes,
and how these organisations will be held accountable for achieving
them; and
— the role of developing countries in securing
and delivering Summit outcomes.
(ii) Looking ahead to after the MDG deadline
of 2015.
KEY OUTCOMES
FROM THE
SUMMIT
2. The UN Millennium Development Goals Summit
was held in New York 20-22 September, co-chaired by the former
and current Presidents of the General Assembly. The International
Development Secretary led the UK Delegation on 20-21 September,
gave more than a dozen speeches and co-chaired a major event on
malaria. The Deputy Prime Minister led the UK Delegation on 22
September and addressed the plenary.
3. Prominent participants included President
Obama (USA), Premier Wen (China), Prime Minister Zapatero (Spain),
President Sarkozy (France), Chancellor Merkel (Germany), Prime
Minister Meles (Ethiopia), President Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia),
Queen Rania (Jordan), President Kagame (Rwanda), the heads of
the World Bank, IMF and major UN agencies, and leading philanthropists
such as George Soros, and Bill and Melinda Gates. UK MDG Advocate
Bob Geldof played a prominent role throughout. The outcome document,
negotiated in advance, was adopted at the closing plenary:
(http://www.un.org/en/mdg/summit2010/pdf/Draft%20outcome%20document.pdf).
4. The Summit reinforced the UK's reputation
as a serious and committed leader on development. The Deputy Prime
Minister reiterated the UK's commitment to reaching 0.7% of GNI
in aid from 2013 and challenged others to live up to their promises.
Ban Ki Moon praised the UK's decision to spend 0.7% GNI on aid
from 2013 and urged others to meet their commitments, arguing
that "we must not balance the books on the backs of the poor".
5. The Summit resulted in real gains in
the reallocation of existing budgets to the most off-track MDGs,
especially maternal health—on which Ban Ki-moon had focused
most of his effort with the launch of his Global Strategy for
Women's and Children's Health, aimed at saving the lives of more
than 16 million women and children.
6. Various ministerial participants remarked
on the quality and seriousness of the policy debate between developed
and developing countries, especially on health, education and
nutrition. Also notable was the degree to which a growing number
of developing country ministers were well-informed by economic
analysis and independent evaluation of what works and what doesn't.
Developing country commitments were also striking. Afghanistan
and Yemen pledged to increase access to family planning and safe
births and Nigeria committed to spend a share of oil revenues
on healthcare. Significant new commitments also came from the
private sector, charities and NGOs and international organisations.
7. UK pressed and secured an annual review
mechanism through ECOSOC as part of the Summit's Outcome Document.
Work is underway to record all of the policy and financial commitments,
not just from governments, made at the Summit and there was a
clear commitment from the Ban Ki-moon to ensure that all sides
will be held accountable.
Role of the UK in delivering Summit outcomes
8. UK took up a leadership position throughout
preparations for and during the Summit itself. Specific top UK
objectives were:
(i) To galvanise international partners (civil
society, foundations, private sector and other governments) by
championing the cause of international development, urging donor
countries to deliver on their commitments and recipients to be
accountable to their citizens for both the aid they receive and
for the use of their own resources.
(ii) To play a direct leadership role on the
most off-track MDGs, announcing new outcome commitments on maternal
and child health, malaria, and nutrition.
(iii) To make the case for aid and development
to the UK taxpayer, highlighting both the moral case and the argument
that the UK's long term national interests will be best served
in a prosperous and stable world.
9. The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister
and Secretary of State for International Development engaged in
extensive lobbying with other governments, both donors and developing
countries, as well as the private sector and foundations, in the
months leading up to the Summit. The purpose of this was to galvanise
momentum amongst partners, encourage world leaders to attend the
Summit and secure specific commitments on UK priority areas.
10. UK emphasis on the need to demonstrate
the results of aid was well received, by both developed and developing
countries. There were a number of significant UK announcements,
expressed in terms of the results we will help to achieve. Key
messages included:
(i) Doubling of the number of maternal, newborn
and children's lives saved through UK aid. Over the next five
years, this will save the lives of at least 50,000 more women
in pregnancy and childbirth, and 250,000 more newborn babies,
and enable 10 million more couples to access to family planning.
(ii) UK will help halve the number of deaths
caused by malaria in at least 10 African countries, through an
increased focus on boosting prevention and treatment, backed by
an increase in funding to as much as £500 million per year
by 2014.
(iii) UK support for the Scaling Up Nutrition
(SUN) "1,000 days" campaign launched at a side event
co-hosted by Hilary Clinton.
11. The media coverage both in the UK and
internationally was extensive and positive. The UK Governments
key message on the MDGs and development more broadly were carried
extensively in the tabloid and broadsheet press, and all major
broadcast outlets. Social media such as facebook, twitter and
mumsnet were also used to convey HMG messages to build support
for development in the UK.
Role of the UN
12. UK encouraged the Secretary General,
President of the General Assembly and other parts of the UN system
to provide leadership and galvanise poltical momentum in the run-up
to the Summit. The UK also seconded a development expert to the
UN Secretary Generals office to support efforts on the Global
Strategy for Women and Children's health.
13. The UN Secretary General made two main
contributions to galvanising momentum: the first and most significant
was his leadership on the Global Strategy for Maternal and Child
Health, which secured over US$ 40 billion worth of commitments
from partner countries, including the UK. The second was his establishment
of the MDG Advocates Group, which the UK supported. The Advocates
engaged in mobilizing global action to make the MDG Summit a turning
point in our collective effort to achieve the Goals by the 2015
target date.
14. In the run up to the Summit and to help
build the evidence base, UNDP produced the International Assessment
of what is needed to meet the MDGs, an assessment carried out
on evidence from over 50 country studies drawing out 8 principles
for MDG achievement, which the UK and Canada supported and which
significantly influenced the shape of the Summit's Outcome Document.
15. The President of the General Assembly
and the co-facilitators Denmark and Senegal played a critical
role in building consensus amongst donor countries and the G77
in order to reach timely agreement on the Summit's Outcome Document.
The Outcome Document was formally adopted at the end of the Summit.
16. Our priority going forward will be to
ensure the UN follows up on the commitments made both in the outcome
document and at side events. Work is underway to record all of
the policy and financial commitments, not just from governments,
made at the Summit and there was a clear commitment from the Ban
Ki-moon to ensure that all sides will be held accountable through
ECOSOC.
17. The UK pressed and secured an annual
review mechanism as part of the Summit's Outcome Document and
will continue to make sure that the international community lives
up its promises—as the UK will do.
Role of the European Commission
18. The EU agreed a joint position for the
MDG Summit in June, advocating for an action agenda to be adopted
at the Summit. The EU Commission subsequently led the coordination
of the EU position in the negotiations on the Summit's outcome
document in New York, during the Belgium Presidency.
19. During the Summit, Jose Manuel Barroso
announced an MDG-Initiative—€1 billion of EDF unallocated
funds to make progress on those goals we are furthest from achieving.
Role of the World Bank
20. At the GCE education event the World
Bank announced an additional $750 million over the next five years,
which represents a 40% increase in basic education lending directed
at the 79 poorest countries which are off track. In sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia, this will support innovative interventions
such as girls' scholarships, conditional cash transfers, grants
to schools.
Role of NGOs and civil society
21. UK civil society played a critical role
in building political momentum behind and public support for the
NGOs in the run-up to and during the Summit itself.
22. "Stand Up Against Poverty",
an annual public rally organised by the Global Campaign Against
Poverty, took place the week before the Summit in various locations
around the world to raise public awareness of the MDGs and galvanise
action at the political level.
23. The Deputy Prime Minister and the International
Development Secretary attended an NGO event hosted by BOND and
a British Youth Council event the week before the Summit to set
out what they hoped to achieve and engage the views of key partners
on what "success" would look like to them.
24. Both the Deputy Prime Minister and the
International Development Secretary hosted meetings with NGOs
during the Summit so that they could report back on progress and
assess what else could be done to secure ambitious outcomes.
25. Save the Chlidren have funded a series
of art installations throughout the world to raise awareness of
MDGs 4&5. This project is ongoing and included an event at
Grand Central Station, in New York on 20 September which the Secretary
of State lent his support to.
26. At the Summit significant new commitments
came from the private sector (Johnson & Johnson committed
$200 million—one of many private sector contributions),
foundations (Gates and others), civil society and international
organisations.
27. Together with BRAC, Care, Save The Children
and many other national and international NGOs, World Vision has
made a combined commitment of more than five billion dollars between
now and 2015.
Role of developing countries
28. Unlike previous summits, there were
significant new commitments by developing countries, including,
for example: Tanzania's commitment to spend 15% of the national
budget on health, and Liberia's promise to implement universal
coverage of bed nets to combat malaria by the end of this year.
Afghanistan and Yemen pledged to increase access to family planning
and safe births and Nigeria committed to spend a share of oil
revenues on healthcare.
LOOKING AHEAD
TO AFTER
THE MDG DEADLINE
OF 2015
29. DFID has been clear that the focus should
remain on accelerating progress against the current framework
over the next five years. This was clearly our primary objective
in New York. However, we recognise that the current MDGs were
the product of a long and complex process of lesson learning,
consensus building and negotiation. It is therefore important
that we start to look now at what will come after the MDGs in
2015.
30. At the close of the Summit the UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon announced his intention to initiate a consultation
process on what would come after the MDGs post 2015. The UK will
play a full part in these discussions.
Department for International Development
October 2010
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