The Reality of Aid Network (RoA) published the Reality of Aid 2014 Report (RoA 2014) in December 2014 with the general theme of Partnerships and the Post-MDGs. The network, comprising 172 member organizations, includes more than 40 civil society regional and global networks in the field of international cooperation in 21 donor countries of the OECD, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia/Pacific. The network is recognized as a civil society organization (CSO) network for global aid reform and constructive dialogue for effective aid from the international development community.

The series of biennial global reports from the Reality of Aid Network has been known to  “analyse and advocate key messages relating to the performance of aid donors from a unique perspective of civil society in both donor and recipient countries.”

The RoA 2014 report provides the global civil society a perspective on working and balanced partnerships towards the post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a resonating message from the network on “maximizing contributions to poverty eradication, within a framework that is defined by human rights standards.”This report urges CSOs to consider post 2015 with a particular focus on the following issues regarding partnerships for sustainable development:

• What have we learned from previous partnerships?
• In what ways can diverse partnerships with a broader array of development actors contribute to achieving the post 2015 goals?
• How do we ensure that these partnerships are consistent with human rights standards and the goals of eradicating poverty, inequality and social injustice?
• What are the preconditions and the principles to ensure that future partnerships are equitable?

The RoA 2014 report includes 27 dialogues and reflections based on best practices from diverse contributors about:

• Principles and practices for inclusive partnerships at global and national levels
• New (and existing) models of partnering for positive development outcomes for the poor
• Preconditions for equitable partnerships that contribute to sustainable development outcomes for the poor

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs):

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

For the United Nations General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG)’s sessions on Sustainable development goals (SDGs) and drafts of the past nine sessions, click here.

World Health Organization (WHO) Global Targets 2025

1. 40% reduction in the number of children under-5 who are stunted

2. 50% reduction of anaemia in women reproductive age

3. 30% reduction in low birth weight

4. no increase childhood overweight

5. increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months up to at least 50%

6. reduce and maintain childhood wasting to less than 5%

To read more about the WHO Global health targets 2025, click here.

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p dir=”ltr”>Following several consultation processes with African Union (AU) member states, regional economic communities, development and research groups and civil society organizations including youth and women’s organizations, academic institutions, and the private sector, African leaders adopted the African Common Position on Post-2015 Development Agenda, whose High-Level Committee was chaired by Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. (ECA, 2014).

(Click here for the full text in English, and here for the full text in French).

The AU Assembly that met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last month for the 22nd Annual African Summit endorsed the articulation of the African development goals consistent with the existing continental frameworks and to serve as milestones for tracking and monitoring progress towards Agenda 2063. (AU, 2014)

H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a co-chair of the High-Level Panel (HLP) on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

To read more on HLP on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, click here.

The key finding of the four consultations held from 2011 – 2013 is that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should be reformulated after 2015; because as currently constituted, the MDGs:

• Have limited focus on economic growth and transformation;
• Do not sufficiently emphasize the role of domestic resource mobilization in Africa’s development agenda;
• Tend to neglect issues relating to the quality of service delivery;
• Are silent on inequality including spatial and horizontal inequality

• Disproportionately focus on outcomes with limited consideration of the enablers of development, thereby excluding the role of factors such as infrastructure and peace and security in facilitating socio – economic advancement.

The following are key recommendations from Africa on post-2015 development agenda included the following:

– a need for structural economic transformation and inclusive growth,

– focus on innovation, technological transfer and research and development,

– focus on human development and

– strong financing and partnerships

To download and read detailed summaries of African Common Position on Post-2015 Development Agenda, click here.

The African High-Level Committee on post-2015 development agenda has also outlined the following preconditions to achieving and sustaining the outcomes:

• Peace and security

• Good governance, transparency and fighting corruption

• Strengthened institutional capacity

• Promoting equality and access to justice and information

• Human rights for all

• Gender equality

• Domestic resource mobilization

• Regional integration

• A credible participatory process with cultural sensitivity

• Enhanced statistical capacity to measure progress and ensure accountability

• Prudent macro-economic policy that emphasizes fair growth

• Democratic and developmental state

• An enabling global governance architecture

(Summaries are Adopted from United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA))

The World Water Day (WWD) 2014 will be celebrated on 22 March 2014 around the world. The main celebration of World Water Day will be organized by United Nations University (UNU) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on behalf of UN-Water. The celebration will  take place at the UNU Heaquarters in Tokyo, Japan from 20-21 March 2014.

The main theme of the 2014 WWD will be water and energy, and the key messages of this year’s WWD are the  following:

1. Water requires energy and energy requires water

2. Supplies are limited and demand is increasing

3. Saving energy is saving water. Saving water is saving energy

4. The “bottom billion” urgently needs access to both water and sanitation services, and electricity

5. Improving water and energy efficiency is imperative as co-ordinated, coherent and concerted policies

The UN-Water, UNIDO and UNU have released  a World Water Day 2014 Advocacy Guide. The main aim of the Advocacy Guide are the following:

– To help communicate the purpose of WWD 2014 and to introduce key information relevant to the theme of WWD2014: water and energy.

– To encourage advocacy and stakeholder action towards improving combined and co-ordinated water and energy management and governance.

– To promote information sharing about WWD 2014 activities, efforts and events, and also to encourage longer-term sharing of success stories and other valuable water and energy knowledge.

To download and read a PDF version of the World Water Day 2014 Advocacy Guide, click here.

The World Food Summit took place on November 1996 in Rome, Italy at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters. Representatives from 185 countries and the European Community vowed to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, and to achieve sustainable food security for all people_biggest challenges of the new millennium. The summit culminated with the adoption of Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action by 112 Heads or Deputy Heads of State and Government, and by over 70 high-level representatives from other countries. Among others, the representatives pledged their political will and commitment to achieving food security, eradicate hunger in all countries and reduce the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.

For more on Rome Declaration, click here: http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.HTM

Eighteen years later, again world leaders met in Davos, Switzerland on January 23, 2014 for annual World Economic Forum, and one of the major developments from the forum were the signing of Zero Hunger Declaration. Signatories  of the declaration  included the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, Unilever CEO Paul Polman, DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma and many others. Zero Hunger Declaration is the outcome of Zero Hunger Challenge, a comprehensive initiative for “commitment to ensure that every man, woman and child enjoy their Right to Adequate Food; women are empowered; priority is given to family farming; and food systems everywhere are sustainable and resilient.” (UN.org, 2014).

The challenge of Zero Hunger means:

• Zero stunted children less than 2 years

• 100% access to adequate food all year round

• All food systems are sustainable

• 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income

• Zero loss or waste of food

For more on the Zero Hunger Challenge, click here: http://www.un.org/en/zerohunger/challenge.shtml

(Source: UN)

References:

FAO. (1996). World Food Summit: Rome Declaration on World Food Security. Retrieved on January 31, 2014  from  http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.HTM

Photo Credit: UN.ORG

In 2000, leaders from 189 nations setup the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate extreme  poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development. (UN Millennium Project, 2014).

Millennium Development Goal # 1 Targets and Progress (Adopted from the UN.ORG/MDGs)

GOAL 1: ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY & HUNGER

Target 1.A: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day

• The target of reducing extreme poverty rates by half was met five years ahead of the 2015 deadline.

• The global poverty rate at $1.25 a day fell in 2010 to less than half the 1990 rate. 700 million fewer people lived in conditions of extreme poverty in 2010 than in 1990. However, at the global level 1.2 billion people are still living in extreme poverty.

Target 1.B: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people

• Globally, 384 million workers lived below the $1.25 a day poverty line in 2011—a reduction of 294 million since 2001.

• The gender gap in employment persists, with a 24.8 percentage point difference between men and women in the employment-to-population ratio in 2012.

Target 1.C: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

• The hunger reduction target is within reach by 2015.

• Globally, about 870 million people are estimated to be undernourished.

• More than 100 million children under age five are still undernourished and underweight.

For more on 2013 MDGs Report Click here: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml

According to FAO (2013), 38 countries met anti-hunger targets for 2015. The 38 countries were honored on June 16, 2013 during the FAO Conference in Italy. According to FAO report, 20 countries have achieved MDG number 1. These were:  Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Malawi, Maldives, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Togo and Uruguay. An additional 18 countries reached both MDG 1 and the WFS goals. These countries were: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Djibouti, Georgia, Ghana, Guyana, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and Viet Nam. (FAO, 2013).

Countries who achieved MDG number # 1 in Green and Countries who achieved both MDG#1 and WFS goals in Yellow

For more on the 2013 FAO Report click here: http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3434e/i3434e00.htm

References:

FAO. (2013). The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013. Retrieved on Feb 3, 2014 from http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3434e/i3434e00.htm

World Bank. (2014). Global Monitoring Report 2013: Sub-Saharan Africa

Rural-Urban Dynamics and the Millennium Development Goals. Retrieved on January 31, 2014 from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1327948020811/8401693-1355753354515/8980448-1366122085455/SSA_RegionalBrief_GMR2013_Eng.pdf

World Bank. (2014). Report Card: The Millennium Development Goals, 2013. Retrieved on January 31, 2014 from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1327948020811/8401693-1355753354515/8980448-1366123749799/GMR_2013_Report_Card.pdf

UN. (2014). The Millennium Development Goals Report 2013. Retrieved on January 31, 2014 from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/report-2013/mdg-report-2013-english.pdf