Millennium Development Goals

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, the MDGs were overambitious, but the post-2015 agenda is reaching beyond the bounds of the possible. Through the high-level panel we are promising not to reduce extreme poverty but to end it altogether, in all its forms; to transform economies; and to build peace and good governance, involving civil society. The UN and its various panels have a huge task in reconciling the updated MDGs with the sustainable development goals. There are now almost too many concepts coming out of these panels, and I doubt that we will end up with the clarity of the original MDGs. Sustainability can, however, be a test of effective, lasting development, in which the beneficiaries become the principal actors, such as farmers putting new techniques into action or health workers drawn from the local population.

To achieve the scale of activity required is going to mean even greater commitment to development assistance. Some of the documents referred to increased and more effective methods of finance. The EU is suggesting a range of options and says that investments towards the goals “should work seamlessly together”. Here we hit a snag. Economic recession has meant that aid from the EU has fallen, despite the calls for 0.7 per cent. The Minister might like to comment on that.

Water and sanitation are likely to be rated much higher in future development goals. Climate change is another priority. I welcome also the likely new emphasis on gender, given that women make up about two-thirds of the world’s poorest. Enabling local people to improve their own environment and health is one of the most cost-effective forms of development, saving three or four times its investment in economic productivity.

Institutions such as the EU, the World Bank and even our own DfID cannot easily adapt their perceptions of development to the needs on the ground; they have to learn to build upwards from the knowledge and ability of the communities involved.