Development
This topic speaks about the world development, what it is and how it relates to us
MDGs – a step forward in development effectiveness
We should have a clear idea about what is “success”, if we want to have a prospect to reach it.
„Success“ of development cooperation has been measured with the Official development Assistance (ODA) statistics of the donor countries for decades. The increase of the ODA statistics was the main objective, the impact of Development Cooperation was no issue at all. Rich countries already had a kind of aid fatigue during the period between 1990 and 2000 which had been overcome with a new approach of development cooperation – with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The millennium development goals made a big step forward from the development effectiveness point of view - the focus was not anymore on inputs (how much money rich countries will give) but on impact (decrease of poverty, more children at schools…)
But there is also weaknesses in measuring impact. MDGs were established as numerical targets - for example, to reduce the number of women who die in childbirth by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015 or halt the spread of malaria by 2015. The lack of reliable data in the majority world means progress is difficult to measure.
There is also a lot of criticism of the MDGs.