With just two years to go until the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire, negotiations are under way at many levels to agree what should be their successor in 2015. Should there be new goals on gender? Disability? How can environmental sustainability be incorporated? Should consumption be included? The list of potential global goals is breath-taking; each of them has their merits and ought to be considered in the development of a new set of global goals. Imagining up a new framework to replace the MDGs is fast becoming the ultimate quest for development professionals, employing vast amounts of energy and expertise.
The failure to meet many of the MDGs by 2015 is, however, likely to have few, if any, consequences for the governments who agreed on them, or indeed for many of those busy designing the next round of goals. For those living in poverty, on the other hand, the failure to deliver on many of the goals has a significant impact on their daily lives, and indeed survival. Despite the efforts and commitment around the MDGs, nearly half of the world’s population remains in abject poverty – many of them now in middle income countries. One in eight people in the world today remain chronically undernourished. This truly is a scandal in a world where there is more than enough food to feed everyone. Progress has been modest at best.
Many organisations, including Trócaire, have long argued that whilst the idea of establishing global priorities is a good one, the MDG project has been flawed from the beginning. The failure to embed the MDGs within existing human rights commitments, standards and principles represented a major weakness and opportunity missed, resulting in their limited benefit to the poorest and most marginalised people. In trying to establish quantifiable progress, the MDGs miss the point that every woman, man and child on the planet (not 50%) ntly endowed with moral entitlements to a dignified life – an adequate standard of living, secure access to sufficient food, to an education and to a healthy environment. These moral entitlements are enshrined in international human rights law. We strongly believe that the achievement of human rights for all needs to be at the heart of the debate about a post-2015 framework.
In order to inform our thinking, and to ensure that it is grounded in the experiences of the people Trócaire works with across the world, we have undertaken a participatory research project to understand their experiences in accessing their rights. I would like to sincerely thank the people across the communities in the six countries who participated in this study for sharing their views and experiences with us. Their stories, and the insights they provided, will be central to our engagement with the post-2015 agenda.
This report is published as Trócaire celebrates its 40th anniversary. This is a time for Trócaire to reflect on international development efforts past and present, and to look to what the future holds. In March this year Trócaire invited partners from across the world, colleagues, allies and experts together to debate the systemic challenges of the poverty, equality and environmental crises evident at global, national and local levels, and the role of a post-2015 framework for development in addresing these. There was agreement that the post-2015 framework for global development and cooperation will be no panacea. It can and must, however, lay the groundwork for the shifts in approach needed, and incentivise enhanced action at national(and international levels. In this context, Trócaire believes that reaffirming human rights as an anchor and a compass for national and global governance is critical if we are to create change for the poorest and most vulnerable people.
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Deirdre Mullan rsm
Northern Province
