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Millennium Development Goal Country Reports:
Vehicles for Action
The Millennium Development Goal country reports will
supply frequent updates on a country-by-country basis towards attainment
of the Goals. They will serve as unique benchmarks to analyze trends
and to identify achievements, challenges and obstacles.
Producing the MDG country reports is a way to foster
and focus public debate at the national and sub-national level on
specific development priorities, which in turn will trigger action
— in terms of policy reforms, institutional change and resource
allocation.
The main premise of the reports is to:
- Move the Millennium commitments from the global to the local
level.
- Create the necessary links between global target setting and
national priority setting.
- Re-energize a broad political constituency to accelerate progress
towards the Goals.
- Generate public awareness, scholarship and debate for action
around the development challenges of our times.
- Build alliances across and within countries, working with national
governments, civil society, the private sector, international
financial institutions and other development partners.
The reports are meant to be read not only by policy
makers and development partners, but also by the media and the general
public as short and easy-to-read reviews that convey messages quickly
in a non-technical way. They should also provoke deeper analysis
at the country level and will build upon existing reports — such
as National Human Development Reports, Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers, or Common Country Assessments — in order to minimize each
country’s reporting burden.
Country Reporting Is Already Under Way
So far, twelve country reports have been issued – for Albania, Bolivia,
Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nepal, Poland,
Senegal, Tanzania and Vietnam. They are available on www.undg.org.
Another twenty are expected by the end of this year. The plan is
for every developing and transition country to produce at least
one MDG report by the end of 2004.
The UN is organizing regional workshops on the MDGs
around the world. In October, a UN workshop will be held in Laos
for 12 UN country teams in Asia and the Pacific. It will include
participants from government, civil society, academia, the World
Bank and other development partners. The Central and East Africa
regions and the Arab states have already hosted similar forums.
There are also encouraging signs from the private sector, expressing
interest in supporting MDG efforts.
Published by the United Nations Department of Public
Information – October 2002
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