What should come after the Millennium Development Goals post-2015? Our international policy officer Rosie Stainton, with some help from a group of students at LSE, kicks off a discussion. Please join in by posting your comments below.
2015 will be a pivotal year for international development. It is of course the end year for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - the eight goals and 21 targets which have shaped the international development agenda for the last decade. With this deadline fast approaching, there is increasing discussion amongst academics, organisations and networks about what (if anything) should come next. There has been talk of ‘MDGs+’, ‘MDGs 2.0’ and ‘post-MDGs’ and of what, how and who will be involved.
A girls smiles at Huraa School on Huraa Island in the Maldives. © UNICEF/NYHQ2005-0270/Giacomo Pirozzi
The MDGs have inspired unprecedented efforts and resources at national and international levels and resulted in significant gains for millions of children around the world. However, the goals certainly aren’t perfect and have attracted diverse and extensive criticism. Evidence shows that despite impressive progress towards the MDGs, this progress is argely based on national averages which disguise huge local disparities. For example, the total number of under-fives dying in a developing country might be declining. Good news! But then you might look at the number of child deaths occurring in different groups - maybe the poorest or those living in the most remote areas - and the pattern starts to look increasingly different. In fact gaps between the richest and poorest children are widening, and millions of children and families are being left behind.
So how could a new framework be better? Work better? Do better? How can the new framework be more accountable? How can we ensure that children are involved in the process of developing, implementing and monitoring this framework? How can the new framework better address the gaps in the existing MDGs - such as climate change? And crucially, how can the framework promote a more resilient and equitable future for all children?
To kick start UNICEF UK’s thinking, we asked a group of students from LSE to look into how a new ‘post-MDGs’ framework could better fulfill child rights. Their research concluded that the best way for a new framework to do this would be to reinforce the principles of the Millennium Declaration - which emphasised human rights and equity - and adopt a child rights-based approach based on the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): non-discrimination; the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child (in other words, children’s participation). By explicitly linking to the CRC, this would encourage more sustainable and effective development, and increase accountability and participation.
They also concluded that a new framework must better reflect and recognise the links between different areas of development - such as maternal health and child survival, which cannot be addressed in any meaningful way exclusively of one another - and adopt a broad approach to poverty which recognises and addresses the multiple dimensions and underlying causes of poverty, as opposed to only measuring poverty in relation to income.
In terms of the process of deciding this new framework, they emphasised the importance of this being truly participatory - so special attention should be given to involving children and young people, with a particular emphasis on reaching the poorest and most marginalised.
This debate will only get louder over the next few years and it is important that it is inclusive of a wide range of voices and views. So tell us…what do you think? Please post your comments below.
Rosie Stainton is an International Policy & Research Officer at UNICEF UK.