Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

The MDG movement has intensified since the UN Millennium Summit of 2001 when 147 heads of state endorsed this international effort and committed to foster progress in all eight MDGs. Multilateral organizations have supported this movement in various ways, especially in the development of indicators and the refining of commitments from key international stakeholders. However, seven years from the deadline of 2015, there is consensus that progress has been limited, notably in the case of the poorer countries with the worst initial conditions. Thus, much of the recent discussion focuses on the search for a proper assessment of the challenges ahead and the identification of clear action paths to overcome political, institutional and economic constraints that have limited progress so far, especially in poorer countries.

The papers selected for this volume were presented at the international conference “Reaching the MDGs: An International Perspective”, organized during the annual meeting of the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) Research Network that took place in Lima, Peru on June 12, 2007. The conference was organized by the Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE) in collaboration with PEP, the Universidad del Pacifico, and the Network on Inequality and Poverty (NIP). Sponsors included the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), and the Peruvian Ministry of Economics and Finance (MEF). Situated at the midpoint of the MDG process, the meeting was a good opportunity to assess the progress in the MDGs and the challenges ahead. Nearly 200 researchers, policy makers, representatives of multilateral institutions, and other stakeholders from Peru, Latin America, and other parts of the developing world gathered to listen to and debate a total of eight presentations by prestigious international experts from around the world.

Five papers that cover a wide variety of challenges to reaching the MDGs were selected for inclusion in these conference proceedings. The first two papers - by Jere R. Behrman and Nora Lustig - offer insightful comments about the way to realign efforts toward reaching the MDGs. Behrman and Lustig both have vast experience in advising policy actions against poverty around the developing world. The following two papers by Yamada and Castro and Bussolo and Medvedev adopt economy-wide models and other methods in an attempt to capture the interactions among the various MDGs and obtain as precise an estimate as possible of the actual cost of attaining the MDGs in a variety of countries. In line with the MDG perspective of going beyond a strictly income-based definition of poverty, the final paper by Ki, Faye and Faye explores techniques to measure poverty in a multidimensional framework.

Behrman’s article offers an insightful perspective on how we can and should use research to shape the design and implementation of social and economic policies to spur progress towards the MDGs. Without pretending to be exhaustive, he discusses several important principles that need to be considered when choosing the appropriate indicators to monitor the MDGs, identifying effective policies, and estimating their costs. Although some of them may appear straightforward and well-known for both researchers and policy makers, Behrman offers examples that clearly show the need to reemphasize them now and in the context of the movement to reach the MDGs.

With respect to the programs or policies that should be prioritized, he reminds us of the convenience of identifying win-win policy options that can help raise productivity and reduce inequality at the same time. For example, he emphasizes the importance of alleviating market imperfections that are particularly deleterious to the poor. At the same time, though, Behrman warns that externalities and other market imperfections complicate the estimation of the social costs of policy alternatives, a crucial requirement in setting the correct priorities. He points out recent efforts made within the Copenhagen consensus as particularly relevant for the prioritization efforts within the MDG movement. Behrman also stresses the importance of accompanying the implementation of policy innovations with data collection that can make proper monitoring of policy effectiveness more feasible. Finally, he also argues in favor of investing in impact evaluation strategies, as prioritization may vary by country or region.

He points out that, whenever possible, randomized control trials are likely to provide valuable information about policy and program effectiveness that are well worth the moderate costs involved, especially from an international perspective as such learning can become an international public good of high value.