Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

• Today, least developed countries benefit from preferential tariffs, especially on agricultural products (1.6% as opposed to 8% for other developing countries);
• 40% of Fixed Domestic Investment from countries of the South goes to highly vulnerable least developed countries, many of which are just emerging from conflict;
• The proportion of developed country imports, excluding arms and oil, from developing countries has increased from 54% in 1998 to 80% in 2008;

• Least developed countries receiving about a third of donors’ total aid flows.
• For most donor countries, aid remains well below the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income;
• Net disbursements of Official Development Assistance (ODA) reaching almost $120 billion in 2009, increasing by 0.7% as compared to 2008;
• It is estimated that Africa will receive only about $11 billion out of the $25 billion increase promised in 2005 in Gleneagles;

• In terms of aid volume, the largest donors in 2009 were the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan; Only five donor countries have reached the UN target for official aid: Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden;
• UN Conference on South-South Cooperation (2009, Nairobi) demonstrated that cooperation among developing countries, through aid, trade, technical assistance and investment, is playing a prominent role in progress on the Millennium Development Goals;
• A new North-South consensus on development, overcoming previous rifts, took shape at the International Conference on Financing for Development in 2002, in Mexico;
• The GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), a public-private global health partnership that includes WHO, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank, is working to accelerate access to vaccines, strengthen immunization systems and introduce innovative new immunization technologies.

• 40 countries qualify for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative
• 35 of them have had future debt repayments reduced by $57 billion, and 28 have received additional assistance of $25 billion;
• Since existing major debt relief initiatives are coming to an end, a number of low-income and small middle-income countries are in or at risk of debt distress.

• Approximately 4.6 billion people had access to mobile phones by the end of 2009 (One mobile phone subscription for 67 out of every 100 people);
• In sub-Saharan Africa, where only 1 per cent of people have access to fixed telephone lines, more than 30% now have access to mobile phones;
• Mobile penetration, in the developing world, had passed the 50% mark by the end of 2009;
• Although access to the World Wide Web is still closed to the majority of the world’s people, by the end of 2008, 1.6 billion people, or 23% of the world population, were using the Internet;
• A large gap separates those with high-speed Internet connections, mostly in developed nations, and dial-up users;
• Only 1 in 6 people are online. In Southern Asia, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa, a mere 6 % of people had Internet access.
   

Other Information
See www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2011_Gap_Report/11-38394%20(E)%20MDG%20Gap%20Report%202011_WEB%20NEW.pdf. 

The present report was prepared by the MDG Gap Task Force, created by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to improve the monitoring of MDG 8. More than 20 United Nations agencies are represented on the Task Force, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Trade Organization.

The United Nations Development Programme and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat act as lead agencies in coordinating the work of the Task Force.  With only four years remaining in which to achieve the key targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), most of the world’s Heads of State and Government came to the United Nations in September 2010 to take stock of progress made thus far. Despite significant setbacks owing to the 2008-2009, global economic crisis and surges in food and energy prices, it seems that the developing world as a whole will reach many of the MDGs. However, some countries and regions are not on track to reach the goals and require intensified efforts to reduce poverty and child and maternal mortality rates and to improve access to drinking water and sanitation. The objective of MDG 8 is to assist all developing countries in achieving the goals through a strengthened global
partnership for international development cooperation. The present report describes how that partnership is producing significant results on many fronts but also notes that many important gaps between expectations and delivery remain.

At the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (the “MDG summit”), which was held from 20 to 22 September 2010, Governments committed themselves to strengthening the global partnership in order to “keep the promises” to the peoples of the world, particularly the poorest among them. However, many countries now need to devote substantial additional resources to MDG-related programmes to overcome the effects of the global recession; in some cases, as much as 1.5 per cent of their annual gross domestic product (GDP) is required.

 
To underscore the importance of the promised cooperation in realizing the MDGs by 2015, the United Nations is setting up an enhanced monitoring mechanism to provide greater accountability for delivery on the commitments to the global partnership for development among all stakeholders. To be called the Integrated Implementation Framework (IIF), the proposal is expected to be operational by the end of 2011.At the same time, it has become increasingly recognized that, in our highly decentralized international system, greater coherence is needed among policies on aid, trade, finance, employment and the environment. With commitments made at so many international forums and meetings, it is essential hat these policies and other efforts complement one another in a coherent manner and that they not work at cross purposes.