International commitments on poverty:

Documentary evidence

Or,

Accountability and global goals:  Why does it matter if the poorest people on earth are not told the truth about government commitments?

With commentary



Matt Berkley

Version of 23 December 2015

Note:  Mention of particular material does not imply acceptance of its accuracy.  
Readers are recommended to consult the original documents. 
Mention of statistics does not imply acceptance of the philosophy, methods or results.

 

 

 


"In two cases..."current rates" is used, directly specifying a 2000 baseline. ...
This would imply a 2000 baseline year of the Millennium Declaration. "

Guidance Note sent by heads of UN development agencies to country offices
October 2001
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://undg.org/archive_docs/2356-English.doc
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://undg.org/archive_docs/1607-MDGs_-_letter_-_MDGs_-_letter.pdf

 


"Almost 15 years ago, the
[1990-baseline] Millennium Development Goals were agreed."

UN Summit 2015

""Millennium Development Goals"...which member states never formally adopted."

US Ambassador to the UN, August 2005




Heads of State and Government and High Representatives at the United Nations,
25 September 2015:

"We …reaffirm the outcomes of all major United Nations conferences and summits…

[This reaffirmation, like other reaffirmations from 2001 to 2015, includes the 1996 World Food Summit pledge to halve the number, not just the easier "proportion", of hungry people by 2015 and, clearly, the Millennium Summit pledges]

Almost 15 years ago, the Millennium Development Goals
[!] were agreed."

[Although the public would be likely to think this means world leaders' pledges of 2000, in fact no-one mentioned "Millennium Development Goals" at the Millennium Summit. 
What were agreed "almost 15 years ago" were the more ambitious 2000-baseline Millennium Declaration pledges. 
The US repeatedly stated in 2005 that member states had not agreed the Millennium Development Goal framework proposed by the Secretary-General in 2001.] 

http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/L.1
 

 

 

" "Millennium Development Goals"...which member states never formally adopted."

US Ambassador to the UN
August 2005
https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/0826bolton.pdf

 

2009:

“We, the Heads of State and Government, or our Representatives and the Representative of the European Community... decide to: ...

Ensure...action to fully realize the target of Millennium Development Goal and the 1996 World Food Summit goal, namely to reduce respectively the proportion and the number of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition by half by 2015.”

World Summit on Food Security, Rome 16-18 November 2009: Declaration
http://www.commit4africa.org/declarations/1631/millennium/0/0

 

That pledge is to around 500 million people by the current methodology for hunger (meaning lack of calories:  malnutrition estimates would be higher) while the current estimates are around 800 million.



2000:

"...at the dawn of a new millennium…
We resolve…by…2015...to have reduced…child mortality by two thirds,
of their current rates"

[to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day
– not the 4.3 million of the MDG target]

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm



2010:

"...at the dawn of a new millennium,
we set concrete goals...
These are the standards that we set."

President Obama
22 September 2010
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/22/remarks-president-millennium-development-goals-summit-new-york-new-york

 

 

2015:

"The EU and its Member States remain strongly committed to the

[2000-baseline]

Millennium Declaration
"

Statement on behalf of the European Union
Delegation of the European Union to the UN
United Nations General Assembly Plenary Meeting
8 January 2015
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_15930_en.htm

 

 

"U.N. Document Clarifies Development Goals, State's Silverberg Says

16 September 2005

New York – The negotiated final summit document expected to be adopted September 16 by the U.N. General Assembly clarifies that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are those agreed to by the United States and other U.N. members in the 2000 Millennium Declaration, says Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg.

 “Sometimes people use [the term] MDGs to mean other things, in particular of a list of targets and indicators that were in a document the [U.N.] secretariat produced” following the Millennium Declaration, Silverberg said. The United States did not negotiate that [1990-baseline "MDG"] document or agree to it and neither did many other states. It is solely a document of the secretariat, she said.

...“The outcome [final summit] document clarifies the term MDGs, which means goals in the [2000-baseline] Millennium Declaration,” she said."

U.N. Document Clarifies Development Goals, State's Silverberg Says | IIP Digital
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2005/09/20050916110129akllennoccm0.3649256.html#ixzz3pPkGi19h

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The landmark Millennium Declaration, adopted in 2000, and the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, reflect the commitment of Member States to reach specific goals..."

Press Kit
United Nations General Assembly opens on 15 September 2015
http://www.un.org/en/ga/70/presskit/background.shtml

 

 

 

 



 

 

Millennium Declaration:

"We resolve therefore:...

• To ensure the freedom of the media to perform their essential role and the right of the public to have access to information. …

We will spare no effort to make the United Nations a more effective instrument for pursuing all of these priorities: the fight for development for all the peoples of the world, the fight against poverty, ignorance

We request the General Assembly to review on a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions of this Declaration, and ask the Secretary-General to issue periodic reports for consideration by the General Assembly and as a basis for further action.

We solemnly reaffirm, on this historic occasion, that the United Nations is the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development. We therefore pledge our unstinting support for these common objectives"


8 September 2000

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm

 




 

On the later 1990-baseline "Millennium Development Goal" targets:



" "Millennium Development Goals"...which member states never formally adopted."

US Ambassador to the UN
August 2005
https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/0826bolton.pdf

 

 


Heads of State and Government:
25 September 2015:

"...Follow-up to the outcome of the
[2000-baseline]
Millennium Summit...

We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives...
The new Agenda is…grounded in…the
[2000-baseline]
Millennium Declaration…

Almost 15 years ago, the
[1990-baseline]
Millennium Development Goals [!] were agreed."

 
[! - clearly not true.]

http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/L.1
 

 

 

 

"THE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN THE MILLENNIUM DECLARATION ADOPTED BY UN

MEMBER STATES ARE...:

-- TO HALVE, BY THE YEAR 2015, THE PROPORTION OF THE WORLD'S PEOPLE WHOSE INCOME IS LESS THAN ONE DOLLAR A DAY AND THE PROPORTION OF PEOPLE WHO SUFFER FROM HUNGER AND, BY THE SAME DATE, TO HALVE THE PROPORTION OF PEOPLE WHO ARE UNABLE TO REACH OR TO AFFORD SAFE DRINKING WATER. ...

-- BY THE SAME DATE, TO HAVE REDUCED MATERNAL MORTALITY BY THREE QUARTERS, AND UNDER-FIVE CHILD MORTALITY BY TWO THIRDS, OF THEIR CURRENT RATES.

 

THE SECRETARIAT'S "MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS"...

...48 INDICATORS...

...THESE INDICATORS WERE NEVER SUBJECT TO INTER-GOVERNMENTAL NEGOTIATIONS...WE, THEREFORE, DO NOT WANT THEM PRESENTED AS BEING AGREED AMONG GOVERNMENTS.

..
RICE"

FM SECSTATE WASHDC

TO ALL DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR POSTS COLLECTIVE
ALSO FOR AID MISSIONS
US State Department
2005
pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pcaab560.pdf

 

 

 

 

Why are people interested in easier global targets than governments are committed to?

In 2013, 2014 or 2015 your country probably recommitted to the 2000-baseline Millennium Declaration and other ambitious targets.

It is probably also committed to the more ambitious target of halving the 1996 number of hungry people by 2015.

In March 2000, the UN Secretary-General urged UN members to adopt targets to halve the proportions of people:

- "now existing" on under a dollar a day, and
- "between now and 2015" without safe and affordable water.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Switzerland among other states welcomed his report containing those proposals.

In the Millennium Declaration countries resolved to reduce mortality from "current rates".

Many think that in 2000, UN member states adopted the easier 1990-baseline MDGs. 

Others think member states adopted the easier MDGs in 2001.

 

 

Over the decades, the UN has made various commitments on poverty.

The Millennium Declaration, for example, contains more goals, and more ambitious goals, than the generally easier "Millennium Development Goals" proposed later.

The UN has not replaced the older promises, but reaffirmed them.

So why are people interested in the heavily-advertised, but easier, targets?

And why is it not obvious that anyone interested in helping the poor would not want them to be in the dark about what their governments pledged, and recommitted to in 2013 and in many cases in 2015?

 

....................................................................



In 2013 Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation at the UN reaffirmed a commitment of 2000, in which they "resolved" to bring the number of children dying in 2015 to under 3.6 million. 

That is 2,000 fewer deaths every day than the 4.3 million deaths in 2015 of the MDG target, which the US stated the UN General Assembly did not even endorse in 2005.

The difference between 2000 and 2015 is around 5 million children's lives.

In the Summit resolution of 2005, leaders recommitted to more ambitious pledges in the Declaration and other agreements. 


It is not clear why anyone would compare progress to the easier targets, instead of the actual pledges.

 

 

Member states did not agree the generally easier Millennium Development Goal targets "almost 15 years ago".

The General Assembly reaffirmed the 2000-baseline Millennium Declaration in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2013.



Why did Heads of State and Government make that misleading statement in 2015? 

Is it because the MDGs have easier targets than leaders actually agreed fifteen years ago?

 

 

"the [2015 Summit] declaration needs to show the international community's resolve to fulfil the promise of the Millennium Declaration...."
 

Statement on behalf of the European Union
February 2015
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_16119_en.htm

 



"...
essential contribution to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration."

Group of 77 and China
9 March 2015
http://www.g77.org/statement/getstatement.php?id=150309c

 

 

"Rome, 27 August 2002 -- The World Food Summit: five years later, which ended 13 June, called for an international alliance to accelerate action to reduce world hunger. It also unanimously adopted a declaration calling on the international community to fulfil an earlier pledge to cut the number of hungry people to about 400 million by 2015. That pledge was made at the original World Food Summit in 1996 - the largest-ever global gathering of leaders to address hunger and food security -"

WFS:fyl - World Food Summit: five years later reaffirms pledge to reduce hunger
2002
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsummit/english/newsroom/news/8580-en.html

 

A UN search facility for member states' commitments:

http://iif.un.org/content/search-commitments

 

 

 

Summary


Original documents contradict common and other statements on international pledges.

The incorrect statements come from UN agencies, the media, some academics and others. 

Some of the incorrect statements are at ungoals.org.

 

 

 

 

 

Some key points

 

1. It is not clear on what basis people refer to 1990-baseline Millennium Development Goal targets as "promises".

It is not clear why many academics, journalists and others are interested in the MDG targets and progress against them, rather than the promises actually made in 2000 - or in other years. 

Leaders did refer to the MDGs as commitments in 2010, while also recalling the Declaration. 

However, some of the Declaration's promises, along with other promises reaffirmed in 2013, are more ambitious.

That makes the easier but heavily-publicised MDG targets essentially, in terms of commitments, redundant.  

As stated by Thomas Pogge and subsequently by Peter Singer, George Kent, Frances Moore Lappe and in a reversal of his previous position by John McArthur, the Millennium Declaration has no 1990 baseline, but does have a baseline of "current rates" for child and maternal mortality.


For example:

Thomas Pogge
Millions Killed by Clever Dilution of Our Promise
2010

http://www.crop.org/viewfile.aspx?id=218



The claim of 5 October 2015 by the Guardian newspaper that "current rates" "would likely" mean 1990 is not sustainable.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/05/arguments-over-interpretations-of-the-uns-goals-for-development

(see my comments below the article for factual clarifications) 

Apart from defying common sense, the Guardian's idea flies in the face of the document the Summit was working from: the Secretary-General's Millennium Report gives "poverty" statistics for 1996.   It gives "poverty" estimates for 1998, and urges 2000 baselines for money and water. 

Further, the 1990 data would have been even less reliable than more recent data, so it would have been even more irresponsible to formulate goals on their basis. 

On 6 November 2001 the committee of heads of UN development agencies confirmed that the Declaration text "would imply" a 2000 baseline.  Other evidence points the same way. 

I am unaware of anyone having made the same claim about this as the Guardian, which is at best ill-informed speculation.

It is not clear why the Trustees of the British Broadcasting Corporation claimed in the Editorial Standards Committee report of June/July 2015 that the "less demanding" MDG target on child mortality was a "commitment" in the context of 2001.  There was no such commitment by the General Assembly.



2. Unless Ted Turner and Bill and Melinda Gates have been lying, for which there is no firm evidence, some of the poorest and richest people have been misinformed on what leaders pledged in 2000. 

Several well-known, but easier, MDG targets have been widely, but falsely represented as those commitments. 

 

3. Something often overlooked in accounts of international goals is this: 

The United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed the Millennium Declaration in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2013.

It also expressed determination to achieve other goals from summits and conferences.



4. In July 2015 leaders at Addis Ababa, and subsequently the General Assembly, recommitted to

a) economic conditions necessary to fulfil the (2000-baseline) Millennium Declaration goals, and

b) a global information campaign publicising those and other internationally agreed goals.

 

5. Targets for "developing regions" would make proportional targets easier due to higher

growth rates in total population, as explained by Thomas Pogge for over a decade.

Those easier targets for "developing regions" are not in the Millennium Declaration of 2000, and not in the MDG official lists of 2003 or 2008.

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx?Content=indicators/officiallist.htm

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mi/wiki/1-9-Proportion-of-population-below-minimum-level-of-dietary-energy-consumption.ashx

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Metadata.aspx

 


6. The MDGs clearly are not "the world's biggest promise".   That detracts from the World Food Summit pledge, the Millennium pledges and other commitments. 

The Millennium Declaration has

a) more ambitious "development" targets and

b) wider scope including on governance and human rights.


7. The General Assembly did not, as some academics and experts have claimed, that the United Nations mention the easier MDG targets, or the report annex containing them, in 2001.  

It mentioned the Secretary-General's Road Map, which contained them but also concerned meeting the Declaration goals.



8. The MDG target for water does not, as has been widely assumed, mention the easier 1990 baseline.  



9. To my knowledge, all accounts of the MDGs from "MDG architects" or based on interviews with them, or from UN agencies, academics, think-tanks or others omit the following:

A document dated 14 and 17 September 2001 – after the Secretary-General produced the proposed MDG framework - appears to be a claim from the "MDG architect" representing the rich countries via the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and from the OECD Secretariat as a whole, that the MDG negotiators agreed a 2000 baseline for the MDG water target.

 

10. Leaders' commitment at the World Food Summit to work to halve the number of hungry people by 2015 does not, as the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has claimed in recent years, have a "1990-2" baseline. 

That idea, like the Guardian newspaper's idea on the Millennium pledges - that leaders' commitment of 1996 relating to the "present level" meant some earlier year - is against common sense. 

Further, in reality the FAO itself, and the Committee on World Food Security responsible for monitoring progress, stated in the early years of follow-up that the baseline was 1996. 

The official monitoring form for countries to report progress had a 1996 baseline, and was filled in by at least some countries. 

 

11. A wide variety of false and misleading statements has been made by UN staff, politicians, journalists and others on

a) government commitments and
b) progress against those commitments. 

The misinformation seems to take some of what little political power the poorest have and undermine democracy.





A large amount of further documentary evidence on the misinformation, on global pledges and progress, is at:

millenniumdeclaration.org/millenniumscandal.htm
millenniumdeclaration.org
poornews.org
poorscience.org

@mdgscandal
@poorscience
@poornewsorg

 

 

Note: As can be seen from other writings from this author, such as millenniumdeclaration.org/hunger.pdf , information in the present document on goals should not be taken as endorsing those goals.

For example, the author put to experts beginning in 2000, including Jonathan Morduch, who later became chair of the UN poverty statistics committee in August 2000, and two MDG architects and Jeffrey Sachs in April 2001, this problem:

UN targets show "better" progress if the poor die.

 


  

………………………………………………………

 

 

Introduction



This document presents facts.  

It is not difficult to see from these documents that many official statements and media reports, and some academic publications, on international goals over the last 15 years have misled the public.

But here is my opinion:

There may be  no great problem in an honest mistake, or even in believing that official sources are telling the truth.

But false reporting in this area may cause problems for the poorest or most vulnerable.

Too much in academics' and experts' accounts of "what leaders pledged in 2000" and Millennium Development Goals is based on assertion rather than fact – too much on what other people say, and not enough on primary sources – documents from the actual events about which assertions are being made. 

These things are important because politicians and others in 2015 are making false claims.

It seems to me that people who are informed of the discrepancies between what citizens are told about government pledges, or progress reports, and the reality, but still think there is no great problem, are crazy, irresponsible, or both.  

The idea that it is acceptable to give aid to poor people while tolerating official and corporate distortion of the truth about pledges to them is to me idiotic. 

It seems to me that people who come to know of the discrepancies between the propaganda and the reality who do not see this, or are unwilling to adjust their behaviour, should only have roles in recommending policies for the poorest people on earth, or in reporting news about them, which protect the poorest or most vulnerable from the effects of the stupidity or selfishness of those people. 

 

 

 

 

2009:

“We, the Heads of State and Government, or our Representatives and the Representative of the European Community... decide to: ...

...commit to take action towards sustainably eradicating hunger at the earliest possible date.

Ensure...action to fully realize the target of Millennium Development Goal and the 1996 World Food Summit goal, namely to reduce respectively the proportion and the number of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition by half by 2015.”

World Summit on Food Security, Rome 16-18 November 2009: Declaration
http://www.commit4africa.org/declarations/1631/millennium/0/0

 

 

"The Millennium Development Goals showed an unprecedented level of ambition." 

[!]

Prime Minister Rutte
Netherlands
At the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit
2015
https://www.government.nl/documents/speeches/2015/09/26/speech-by-prime-minister-rutte-at-the-united-nations-sustainable-development-summit

 



Resolution adopted at the UN General Assembly
25 September 2015:

"...implementation of...the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits ...

Follow-up to the outcome of the
[2000-baseline] Millennium Summit...

We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives...

Our shared principles and commitments

10. The new Agenda is…grounded in…the [2000-baseline] Millennium Declaration…"

"We envisage...A world where we reaffirm our commitments regarding the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation"

We
reaffirm the outcomes of all major United Nations conferences and summits

Almost 15 years ago, the
[1990-baseline]Millennium Development Goals were agreed.   [!]   ....

"We will...while remaining consistent with relevant international rules and commitments."

"We commit to providing inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels"

http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/L.1

 

Note: The leaders broke their commitment to "inclusive...quality education" within days, and arguably in their own resolution.  

The World' Largest Lesson material facilitated by UN agencies contains the misleading idea - also expressed by David Cameron in his speech at the UN summit - that the MDGs were adopted in 2000.

The leaders' words "almost 15 years ago" are likely to confirm a wrong impression that at the Millennium Summit, which was the meeting which in reality took place  fifteen years ago, leaders of the time only committed to meeting the easier MDG targets.

Leaders at the UN did not mention the phrase MDGs until 2005, when they at the same time reaffirmed the Declaration, and the US still claimed that leaders were referring not to the 1990-baseline MDG targets but to those in the Declaration.

Leaders are still committed to the more ambitious Millennium Summit goals – making the MDGs look like, partly, 
a public relations exercise to distract. 

Why did the world's leaders make that misleading statement in 2015? 

Because MDGs have easier targets than leaders actually agreed, which Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation reaffirmed in 2013?

 

 

 


"We...reaffirm the outcomes of all major United Nations conferences and summits…"


Comment:  Those commit nations, for example, to:

- reducing child mortality by 2015 to a third of its 2000 rate

- saving about 5 million more children over 2000-15 than for the MDG target;

 and working to

- halve the number of hungry by 2015 from the 1996 rate. 


Some outcomes reaffirmed in 2015 are more ambitious than these.




......................................................................................

 

 

 

The Millennium Declaration states:

"We resolve:...

• To strive for the full protection and promotion in all our countries of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all.

…• To work collectively for more inclusive political processes, allowing genuine participation by all citizens in all our countries.

• To ensure the freedom of the media to perform their essential role and the right of the public to have access to information. …

...Success in meeting these objectives depends, inter alia, on good governance within each country. It also depends on good governance at the international level

We will spare no effort to make the United Nations a more effective instrument for pursuing all of these priorities: the fight for development for all the peoples of the world, the fight against poverty, ignorance

We request the General Assembly to review on a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions of this Declaration, and ask the Secretary-General to issue periodic reports for consideration by the General Assembly and as a basis for further action. ...

We solemnly reaffirm, on this historic occasion, that the United Nations is the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development. We therefore pledge our unstinting support for these common objectives and our determination to achieve them."

8 September 2000

 

..................................................................................

 

 

 

"The EU and its Member States reaffirm their commitment to the Millennium Declaration"

EU@UN -
EU Council Conclusions on the Overarching Post 2015 Agenda
25 June 2013
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_13692_en.htm

 

 

 

"The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established by the international community in the year 2000..." [!]

The MDGs are a group of eight broad development goals agreed to by 189 U.N. member states—including the United States—as part of the 2000 Millennium Declaration."
[!]

Congressional Research Service
In Focus [!]
United States
8 July 2015

 

 

"The event was extremely well attended, demonstrating the commitment of parliamentarians to realising the Millennium Declaration..."

2011
http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/bicameral/cpa-home/programmes/conferences/international-parliamentary-conference-on-the-millennium-development-goals/footballers-and-parliamentarians-join-to-score-a-millennium-development-goal/

 

 

 

"Consistent with the call in the Monterrey Consensus for a “global information campaign”, the Millennium Campaign aims to increase...support needed to achieve the MDGs" [!]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Millennium_Campaign 

[The call in the Monterrey Consensus for a global information campaign is not on the MDGs but the Declaration]

 

 

 

"The core aims for education and health
are stated in the

[2000-baseline]

UN Millennium Declaration."

Gleneagles Agreement
Signed by:
Presidents Bush, Putin, Chirac, Berlusconi;
Prime Ministers Koizumi, Blair, Martin;
Chancellor Schroeder; President of the European Commission Barroso
July 2005
http://web.archive.org/web/20051027075956/http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/PostG8_Gleneagles_Communique,0.pdf

 

 


With a clear set of indicators attached to them, the

[1990-baseline]

MDGs provided a basis for monitoring progress against concrete targets. This, in turn, helped to hold governments accountable

[!]

 for the commitments they had made when they signed the

[2000-baseline]

Millennium Declaration
"

[!]

Development Co-operation Report 2015
OECD
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/dcr-2015-en/05/01/index.html
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development-co-operation-report-2015_5js4lt7s3bq5.pdf

 

 

 

"Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead: ....Your Lordships show not only a real grasp of the issues but a passion for working for change. There is the global commitment to halving poverty by 2015. The millennium declaration is a unique compact between the north and the south"

Lords Hansard text for 28 Apr 201128 Apr 2011 (pt 0001)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/110428-0001.htm

 

 

 

"the Declaration we are about to adopt at this Summit...
broad range of commitments, and the specificity of the language and the time scales mean that we can and will be held accountable"


Prime Minister of Ireland, 6 September 2000

 

"let us be honest at this Millennium Summit, too many times we have set new deadlines to reach old goals."

Prime Minister of Denmark, 8 September 2000

 

"We resolve…by…2015...to have reduced…child mortality by two thirds,
of their current rates"

Millennium Declaration, 8 September 2000

 

 

"The General Assembly…
Invites the organizations and agencies…
and encourages other interested parties…
to continue to pursue vigorously...the...
[2000-baseline]
goals contained in the Millennium Declaration…"

16 December 2002

 

 

"Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations. In this respect, policies promoting ... oppression ...stand condemned and must be eliminated."

Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
Stockholm
1972
http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID=1503

 

 

 

 

"Most people assume that the MDG targets and indicators were agreed in the Millennium Declaration."

US Ambassador to the UN
26 August 2005
https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/0826bolton.pdf

 

 

 

"We, the Commonwealth Heads of Government....recognise the importance of meaningful social protection for all..."


MB note: But telling citizens what governments are committed to is social protection, and telling them falsehoods about this is to act against social protection.

"...in achieving inclusive development, and also as an important tool in addressing poverty, inequality, vulnerability and social exclusion. Given the varying degrees of vulnerability to crises, particularly among the developing states, we underline the need for having proactive national initiatives on social protection, based on relevant international agreements....

We recall the Millennium Declaration and the outcome of the United Nations General Assembly special event on the MDGs. We reaffirm their commitment to the Millennium Declaration..."

Colombo Declaration on Sustainable, Inclusive and Equitable Development
Commonwealth Heads of Governments' Meeting
2013
http://thecommonwealth.org/media/news/colombo-declaration-sustainable-inclusive-and-equitable-development



"Rethinking gender equality post 2015

 

"Countries, organizations and individuals have to complete the work of the last 15 years, and ensure the commitment to the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, particularly on gender equality and women’s empowerment (goal 3), are taken forward in the post-2015 development agenda."

Rethinking gender equality post 2015
UN Women – Field Office ESEAsia
9 June 2015
http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2015/07/rethinking-gender-equality-post-2015

 

 




"We, the Heads of State and Government and high-level representatives...
recommit to fully implement the internationally agreed commitments related to Africa's development needs, particularly those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration... "

Future We Want
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
Rio de Janeiro
22 June 2012
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/futurewewant.html

 

 

 

"Let there be no doubt: the United States supports the development goals of the Millennium Declaration. ...

The next year...the Secretariat formulated....“Millennium Development Goals.” They are solely a Secretariat product, which member states never formally adopted.

...UN member states have consistently agreed to use the formulation “internationally agreed development goals, including those in the Millennium Declaration” in negotiated texts. This spells out exactly what we are committed to....

...must not backtrack on previous agreements or create ambiguity....

...President Bush said..."America supports the international development goals in the UN Millennium Declaration."
We remain committed to work with member states in support of those goals."

John R. Bolton
US Ambassador to the UN
Letter to colleagues
26 August 2005
https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/0826bolton.pdf
http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/assets/attachments/documents/bolton_letter_mdgs.pdf

 

 



"The U.S. never signed onto it. Other member-states didn't sign onto it. So we try to be very precise when we're talking about the Millennium Declaration to say we support the goals in the Millennium Declaration that were subject to U.S. agreement."

Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
August 2005
2001-2009.state.gov/p/io/rls/rm/52382.htm




"The United States did not negotiate that
document or agree to it and neither did many other states."

Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
September 2005
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2005/09/20050916110129akllennoccm0.3649256.html#ixzz3pPkGi19h

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2005/050916/epf509.htm

 

 

 

"Our views on the sub-headings of the Development Chapter [of leaders' 2005 World Summit outcome document] are summarized below:

Paragraph 16 -17 (Introduction)...

"In this section as in others, the U.S. proposes using the phrase internationally agreed development goals rather than the term Millennium Development Goals in order to be clear that we are referring to goals agreed among governments --not the subsequent more elaborate framework of goals, targets and indicators prepared by the UN secretariat."

UN Ambassador to the UN
30 August 2005
http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/assets/attachments/documents/bolton_development.pdf

 

 

 


We, the representatives of the peoples of the world…
commit ourselves to...
expedite... the… targets...
reduce, by 2015, mortality rates...
under 5 by two thirds, and
maternal mortality rates by three quarters,
of the prevailing rate in 2000... "

World Summit on Sustainable Development
4 September 2002
http://www.un-documents.net/jburgdec.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/WSSD_PlanImpl.pdf

 

 

 

"The...summit document expected to be adopted September 16 by the U.N. General Assembly clarifies that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are those agreed to by the United States and other U.N. members in the 2000 Millennium Declaration, says Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg. ...

Silverberg said the United States continues to “strongly support” the goals it agreed to in the Millennium Declaration, such as reducing world poverty by half by 2015...

“Sometimes people use [the term] MDGs to mean...a list...in a document the [U.N.] secretariat produced” following the Millennium Declaration, Silverberg said. The United States did not negotiate that document or agree to it and neither did many other states. It is solely a document of the secretariat, she said.

She said confusion about the U.S. stance on the MDGs was a result of erroneous reports presented by some media about the meaning of the term “Millennium Development Goals.”

“The [world leaders'] outcome document clarifies the term MDGs, which means goals in the Millennium Declaration,” she said."

September 2005
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2005/09/20050916110129akllennoccm0.3649256.html#ixzz3pPkGi19h

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2005/050916/epf509.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The landmark Millennium Declaration....
and the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document...
reflect the commitment of Member States to reach specific goals..."

UN Press Kit for the General Assembly
September 2013
http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/68/pdf/presskit/backgrounder.pdf

 

 

 

"...shared responsibility, as already enshrined in the Millennium Declaration.

We need to recommit and build more clearly on the Millennium Declaration..."

European Union and its Member States
22 June 2015
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_16598_en.htm



 

"15 years ago, as we were ushering in the new millennium, the international community made solemn commitment to the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals. As we now embark on the intergovernmental process of defining a new Post-2015 Development Agenda, we should all be mindful that investment in the unfinished work of the Millennium Development Goals must continue. We must build on the successes of the MDGs, keeping in mind the Millennium Declaration"

Statement by H. E. Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane,
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation
South Africa
At the High-Level Segment of the 28th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council
3 March 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/2015/mash0303.htm

 

 

 

""Reaffirming [the UK's] commitment to the Millennium Declaration (2000) and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) by empowering women through universal access to education, family planning and reproductive health services will ensure:...
Reduced Maternal and Infant Mortality & Morbidity rates...
It is time for us to stand up and fight for women's rights..."

UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health
Written evidence to the
House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee
3 August 2011
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmenvaud/1026/1026vw28.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

"World Food Summit Rome 2002 - Declaration of the World Food Summit: Five Years Later ...


You are viewing a filtered list of commitments, click here to view all commitments in this text ...

Food security

“Political will

1. We renew our global commitments made in the Rome Declaration at the World Food Summit in 1996 in particular to halve the number of hungry in the world no later than 2015, as reaffirmed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration."

[Incorrect.  The Millennium Declaration is to halve the easier "proportion" rather than "number", and uses by implication a 2000 baseline rather than 1996.]

"We resolve to accelerate the implementation of the WFS Plan of Action."

Commit4Africa - "Transparency for Accountability"
Africa Partnership Forum/United Nations Economic Commission for Africa/Development Initiatives
http://www.commit4africa.org/declarations/485/millennium/0/0

 




"World Food Summit: five years later commitment

Countries:
UN member states

...World Food Summit: five years later...

Date of commitment:
June 2002

...

Commitment

Heads of States and Governments have reaffirmed the commitments made at the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996....

The original commitment from the World Food Summit of 1996 to ‘reduce the number of undernourished people to half their

[text omits the word "present" from "present level" in the actual commitment in paragraph 2, http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.htm ]

level no later than 2015’ was reaffirmed.

All commitments assumed with the Rome Declaration and Plan of Action in 1996 were reaffirmed...

...The most recent estimates for the 2006-2008 period set the number of people in the developing regions who are undernourished at 850 million, which corresponds to 15.5 per cent of the world population. This compares to 791 million and 16.8 per cent of world population in 1195-1997. ...

Data source: MDG Report 2012"

World Food Summit: five years later commitment
Tracking Support for the MDGs
http://iif.un.org/content/world-food-summit-five-years-later-commitment

 

 

"United Nations Environment Program

 

August 12, 2002

 

UNEP Calls for More Action on Water Issues At Johannesburg Summit

 

"STOCKHOLM, 12 August 2002 - It is vital that world leaders tackle the growing global water crisis before it's too late and start implementing the Millennium Declaration goals, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said today.

...The UN Millennium Declaration goal is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people who do not have access to safe drinking water (currently 20 per cent)."

Toepfer Calls on World Leaders to Address Global Water Crisis | IIP Digital
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2002/08/20020813153902jfuller@pd.state.gov0.2198755.html#axzz3uM2MKtrc

 

 

“We, the Heads of State and Government, or our Representatives and the Representative of the European Community... decide to: ...

...commit to take action towards sustainably eradicating hunger at the earliest possible date.

Ensure urgent national, regional and global action to fully realize the target of Millennium Development Goal and the 1996 World Food Summit goal, namely to reduce respectively the proportion and the number of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition by half by 2015.”

World Summit on Food Security, Rome 16-18 November 2009: Declaration
http://www.commit4africa.org/declarations/1631/millennium/0/0

 

 

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General
The norms and values embedded in the Millennium Declaration and international human rights instruments must continue to provide the foundation for engagement, in particular the key human rights principles of non-discrimination, meaningful participation and accountability”.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/Quotes.aspx

 

 

"Commit4Africa is an online searchable database enabling users to track declarations and commitments made by Heads of State at high level international summits. Commit4Africa is sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the OECD in support of the Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness (MRDE) coordinated by these organisations, most recently in 2009. The Commit4Africa site was  officially launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on October 17 2008.

The Initiative

The logic behind Commit4Africa is to have one space where users can immediately access relevant declarations and decisions, rather than trace an ever burgeoning body of literature disbursed across numerous institutions. It is hoped that this will encourage a wide range of users to monitor and assess commitments, holding governments more accountable to the promises they have made. Importantly, Commit4Africa explicitly conforms to the principles of objectivity, presenting an undiluted resource for its users.

The Process

All key, high level declarations made by Heads of State have been collated from numerous institutional online records, including the UN, AU, G8, G20, WTO, FAO, OECD, EU and ILO. Commitments have then been extracted and coded according to a range of parameters, such as sectoral and sub-sectoral relevance, the level of commitment (heads of state, ministerial etc.) and scope of commitment (global development commitments of significance for Africa, Africa- and sub-regional specific commitments)."

http://www.commit4africa.org/about-us

 

 

 

 

"We, parliamentarians from across the globe... call for our governments to recommit to the Millennium Declaration....as a priority on the political agenda ...

We, Parliamentarians, have the mandate to monitor government action and hold our government to account for promises made – including at international conferences. We believe a promise is a promise, and a promise to the world’s poor should not be taken lightly"

Interparliamentary seminar
Final Declaration
MDGs Parliamentary Sub-Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Foreign Affairs Committee
UN Millennium Campaign
The Role of National Parliaments in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals
July 2nd 2009
http://leg16.camera.it/543?shadow_mostra_allegato=22953

 

 

 

"Let there be no doubt: the United States supports the development goals of the Millennium Declaration.

...

The next year, the Secretariat issued a report on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. Based on the goals in the Declaration, the Secretariat formulated a package of goals and subsidiary targets and indicators, referring to them as “Millennium Development Goals.” They are solely a Secretariat product, which member states never formally adopted.

Since then, the term “MDGs” has become ambiguous. Most people assume that the MDG targets and indicators were agreed in the Millennium Declaration. In fact, some of them are drawn from positions agreed by governments and others are simply Secretariat proposals.

....

To avoid the ambiguity of the term “MDGs,” UN member states have consistently agreed to use the formulation “internationally agreed development goals, including those in the Millennium Declaration” in negotiated texts. This spells out exactly what we are committed to, and distinguishes the goals adopted by governments from the Secretariat product.

If the Outcome Document is to move us all forward and garner acceptability by heads of state, it must not backtrack on previous agreements or create ambiguity that will be subject to further misinterpretation. On the eve of the UN Monterrey Conference in 2002, President Bush said in a speech at the Inter-American Development Bank, "America supports the international development goals in the UN Millennium Declaration.” We remain committed to work with member states in support of those goals.

Yours sincerely,

John R. Bolton

Ambassador

26 August 2005

https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/0826bolton.pdf
http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/assets/attachments/documents/bolton_letter_mdgs.pdf

 

 

 

 

"WHO’s commitment to the Millennium Declaration has been reaffirmed by its governing bodies"

2005
www.who.int/hdp/publications/mdg_en.pdf





WHO’s contribution to achievement of the development goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
In: 109th Session of the Executive Board, Geneva, 14-21 January 2002. Resolutions and

decisions.
World Health Organization, 2002

Resolution EB109.R3
http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB109/eeb109r3.pdf



WHO’s contribution to achievement of the development goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
Note by the Director-General. In: Fifty-fifth

World Health Assembly,
Geneva, 13-18 May 2002.
World Health Organization, 2002

A55/6
http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA55/ea556.pdf









 

"OECD Ministers meeting in Paris have reasserted their countries’ commitments to the Millennium Declaration...."

OECD Ministers reaffirm Millennium and Monterrey development commitments
4 May 2005
http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf

 

 

 

"The landmark Millennium Declaration, adopted in 2000, and the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, reflect the commitment of Member States to reach specific goals..."

Press Kit
United Nations General Assembly opens on 15 September 2015
http://www.un.org/en/ga/70/presskit/background.shtml

 

 

 

"The EU and its Member States remain strongly committed to the

[2000-baseline]

Millennium Declaration
"

European Union
8 January 2015
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_15930_en.htm

 

 

"Follow-up to the Millennium Summit...

Almost 15 years ago, the

[1990-baseline]


Millennium Development Goals were agreed.

[!]

Heads of State and Government
25 September 2015
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/L.1

 

 

 

False information from the EU:

"Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000." [!]

European Commission
Press release
European Commission welcomes new 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5708_en.htm

 

 

False statement, in video:

"Back in 2000 world leaders agreed the [easier, 1990-baseline]
Millennium Development Goals"

https://europa.eu/eyd2015/en/european-union/posts/2030-agenda-sustainable-development


 

"European Commission - Fact Sheet [!]

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – What has the EU achieved?
Brussels, 25 September 2015

In 2000 the Millennium Development Goals were agreed [!] ...

15 years ago, [!] the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, were put in place by the international community "

"The EU has been committed to the Millennium Development Goals since their adoption in 2000 [!] and has progressively adapted its development policy to help achieve them."

September 2015
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-15-5712_en.htm

 


"The EU has been committed to the Millennium Development Goals since their adoption in 2000"
[!]

European Commission, European Union
24 September 2015
https://europa.eu/eyd2015/en/european-union/posts/2030-agenda-sustainable-development



 

 

False information from the IMF:

"In 2000, at the United Nations Millennium Summit, world leaders agreed to eight specific and measurable development goals—now called the Millennium Development Goals" [!]

Factsheet [!]
The IMF and the Millennium Development Goals
October 5, 2015
https://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/mdg.htm

 

 

 

"Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom made explicit references to the MDGs from 2000.

 [? - MDGs were not to my knowledge mentioned by anyone until 2001]

In 2004, Switzerland made the MDGs the ultimate reference guiding its development co-operation.... While referring to the MDGs since 2005... Japan continued to consider economic growth the primary vehicle for poverty reduction. It was not until 2008 that Australia referred to the MDGs explicitly as guiding its programme...Only in 2009 did France define MDG-related sectors for aid concentration, while the United States did not set its strategy for meeting the MDGs until 2010.  ...

With a clear set of indicators attached to them, the

[1990-baseline]

MDGs provided a basis for monitoring progress against concrete targets. This, in turn, helped to hold governments accountable

[!]

 for the commitments they had made when they signed the

[2000-baseline]

Millennium Declaration
"

[!]

Development Co-operation Report 2015
OECD
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/dcr-2015-en/05/01/index.html
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development-co-operation-report-2015_5js4lt7s3bq5.pdf

 

 


"We, the Heads of State and Government and high-level representatives...
recommit to fully implement the internationally agreed commitments related to Africa's development needs, particularly those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration... "

Future We Want
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
Rio de Janeiro
22 June 2012
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/futurewewant.html

 

 

 

"Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, stated that over the past 15 years, her country had mobilized its people and resources to realize the Millennium Declaration’s commitments "

World Leaders Call for ‘New Chapter’ in Global Growth as General Assembly Concludes Sustainable Development Goals Summit
Meetings Coverage and Press Releases
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/ga11691.doc.htm

 

 

False statement by Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group:

“The international community showed wisdom and courage fifteen years ago in adopting the Millennium Declaration, which set out eight ambitious goals " [!] "

25 September 2015
http://www.eib.europa.eu/infocentre/press/releases/all/2015/2015-206-international-financial-institutions-back-new-global-development-agenda-with-stepped-up-support.htm

 

 

 

"The mandate of UN Women is guided by...the United Nations Millennium Declaration..."
 
Job advertisement
UN Women - United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women  [!]
Thematic Evaluation on Women’s Leadership and Political Participation   [!]
30 September 2015
https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=60126

 

Does understating UN pledges not mean "Disempowerment of Women"?

Does it not hinder their "Leadership and Political Participation"?

 

 

 

"Fifteen years have gone past since the last Millennium Summit during which United Nations` member states drafted an ambitious plan...
The bar was placed very high. Not all Millennium Development Goals
[!] have been achieved."

"Poland’s president speech at the UN summit for the adoption of the Post 2015 Development Agenda"
http://www.nowyjorkonz.msz.gov.pl/en/news/poland_s_president_speech_at_the_un_summit_for_the_adoption_of_the_post_2015_development_agenda

 

 

 

"concrete steps made by Uzbekistan along the path of achieving the goals stipulated in Millennium Declaration."

Address by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov at the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development Goals
https://www.un.int/uzbekistan/news/address-minister-foreign-affairs-republic-uzbekistan-abdulaziz-kamilov-united-nations-summit

 

 

 

"the post-2015 development agenda... reaffirms the Millennium Declaration" [?]

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Executive Board
7 September 2015
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002343/234360e.pdf.

 

 



"On the whole, emphasis should be on the entire Millennium Declaration and not just on the MDGs"

http://www.unisa.ac.za/contents/institutes/tmali/docs/Africaunity4RenaisanceCallfor%2520Papers.pdf

 

 

 

"shared responsibility, as already enshrined in the Millennium Declaration....

European Union
22 June 2015
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_16598_en.htm





"Africa is still not on track to meet the health Millennium Declaration targets"

African Scientific Technical Research Commission
Undated
http://austrc.org/Programmes.aspx

 



"We, the Heads of State and Government of...the Group of 77 and China....
...decide to accelerate the implementation of our respective commitments
[on full and equal opportunities for women's participation and leadership in all areas of sustainable development]
...in...the United Nations Millennium Declaration..."

Declaration of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Group of 77
For a new world order for living well
Annexed to letter to the Secretary-General of the UN
June 2014

http://www.g77.org/doc/A-68-948(E).pdf

 

 



"We, the Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation...

reaffirm
our commitment to the Millennium Declaration...

and
the outcomes of all the major UN conferences and summits in the economic, social, and environmental fields."

25 September 2013
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Outcome%20documentMDG.pdf

 

 

 

"The ASEAN-UNICEF [Agreement] sets the course....for the next five years and beyond. It aims to pursue their common goals of ensuring sustainable survival.... of children in line with....the Millennium Declaration..."

4 December 2014
Association of South-East Asian Nations
http://www.asean.org/news/asean-secretariat-news/item/asean-unicef-sign-framework-agreement-for-cooperation

 

 

 

"WE, the Heads of State/Government of Brunei...Cambodia...Indonesia....Lao...Malaysia...Myanmar...Philippines...Singapore...Thailand... Viet Nam...Association of Southeast Asian Nations ...
...underscoring the importance of the Millennium Declaration..."
HEREBY DECLARE TO:
1. Reaffirm our commitment to realise the MDGs"   [?]

Cebu Declaration Towards One Caring and Sharing Community
2007
http://www.asean.org/news/item/cebu-declaration-towards-one-caring-and-sharing-community

 

 

 

"The open review of the MDGs is part of the commitment of the Millennium Declaration."

ASEAN ROADMAP FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
2011
http://www.asean.org/archive/documents/19th%2520summit/MDG-Roadmap.pdf

 

 

 

"It is imperative that all stakeholders meet, in their entirety, the commitments already made in the Millennium Declaration...."

Ban Ki-Moon
UN Millennium Development Goals Report
 2007
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007.pdf

 

 

"All stakeholders need to fulfil, in their entirety, the commitments they made in the Millennium Declaration and subsequent pronouncements."

UN Millennium Development Goals Report
2007
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007.pdf

 

 

 

"the Heads of State and Government of the Hemisphere adopted the Declaration of Nuevo Leon. ...

We, the democratically elected Heads of State and Government of the Americas...
reiterate our firm intention to continue implementing... the commitments made at the Millennium Summit"

Special Summit of the Americas
Monterrey, Mexico
2004
http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/mesicic_summit_special.htm

 

 

 

"Dhaka Declaration
Thirteenth SAARC Summit
13 November 2005

The Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Her Excellency Begum Khaleda Zia; the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, His Excellency Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup; the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh; the President of the Republic of Maldives, His Excellency Mr. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom; the King of Nepal, His Majesty Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev; the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, His Excellency Mr. Shaukat Aziz; and, the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Her Excellency Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga met at the Thirteenth Summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 12 - 13 November 2005.   ...

They called upon the international community to redouble efforts to meet the commitments of the Millennium Summit and the Monterrey consensus. They noted the outcome of the UN World Summit 2005 and underlined the need for meaningful reforms of the United Nations system in consonance with its role as the central organ for the cooperative management of the global problems and for the promotion of peace, security, development, justice and human rights. They also reiterated their full support for a comprehensive approach, which would facilitate implementation of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in a time bound manner."

http://www.saarc-sec.org/userfiles/Summit%2520Declarations/13%2520-%2520Dhaka%2520-%252013th%2520Summit%252012-13%2520Nov%25202005.pdf

 

 

 

"“Millennium Development Goals.”....which member states never formally adopted.."

"[leaders in 2005] must not backtrack on previous agreements or create ambiguity...".

"...President Bush said..."America supports the international development goals in the UN Millennium Declaration."
We remain committed to work with member states in support of those goals."

John R. Bolton
US Ambassador to the UN
26 August 2005
https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/0826bolton.pdf
http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/assets/attachments/documents/bolton_letter_mdgs.pdf

 




"U.S. Representative to the U.N. Bolton stunned the development community when he announced that the United States rejects the MDGs — the goals developed by Annan's staff. ...

“The [goals] are solely a [U.N.] Secretariat product, which member states never formally adopted,” Bolton wrote in an Aug. 26 letter to his fellow envoys. Although the United States still supports the 2000 Millennium Declaration on which the goals were based, Bolton says, Annan's MDGs go too far.

We're trying to go back to what governments agreed to,” a member of Bolton's staff says."

September 9, 2005
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2005090905

 

 

 

"Follow-up to the Millennium Summit...

Almost 15 years ago, the
[1990-baseline]
Millennium Development Goals were agreed.  [!]

Heads of State and Government, 25 September 2015
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/L.1

 


"at the dawn of a new millennium…
We resolve…by…2015...to have reduced…child mortality by two thirds,
of their current rates"

[to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day
– not the 4.3 million of the MDG target]

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm



 

"at the dawn of a new millennium,
we set concrete goals...
These are the standards that we set."

Remarks by the President at the Millennium Development Goals Summit
22 September 2010
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/22/remarks-president-millennium-development-goals-summit-new-york-new-york

 



"17 goals...replacing the 

[1990-baseline]

Millennium Development Goals
set in 2000" 
[!]

[when leaders resolved using a 2000 baseline]

Press release
25 September 2015
"Unanimously Adopting Historic Sustainable Development Goals, General Assembly Shapes Global Outlook for Prosperity, Peace"
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/ga11688.doc.htm

 

 

 

"David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, described some of the “huge strides forward” that had been made since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals [!] in 2000." [!]

World Leaders Call for ‘New Chapter’ in Global Growth as General Assembly Concludes Sustainable Development Goals Summit
Meetings Coverage and Press Releases
27 September 2015
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/ga11691.doc.htm

 

 

 

President Truong Tan Sang (spoke in Vietnamese; English interpretation provided by delegation):

On behalf of the State and the people of Viet Nam...
At the dawn of the millennium, 15 years ago, we adopted a political declaration, the United Nations Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2), and endorsed the actionable

[1990-baseline]

Millennium Development Goals
[!]

25 September 2015

 

 

 

 

President Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia:

"Fifteen years ago, the
[1990-baseline]
MDGs were launched
[!]
with a vision to build a better world. At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, we set [2000-baseline] time-bound targets to address critical challenges. The world has made significant progress in achieving many of those targets.
[?]

 

 

 

"Let this be remembered as the time when the leadership of the world rose to the occasion and, using all its God-given wisdom, laid down the foundations of a healthy, safe and progressive global village to be our collective destiny in the new millennium. To that end, I pledge most solemnly the full cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference."

Statement at the 2000-baseline Millennium Summit

 

 

"Adel Ahmed al-Jubeir, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, said his country had made every effort to realize the [1990-baseline] Millennium Development Goals since 2000" [!]

27 September 2015
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/ga11691.doc.htm

 

 

 

"[Kofi Annan's] Millennium Report...
offers concrete, accomplishable and far-sighted recommendations.
Austria ...will follow its

[2000-baseline]
guidelines."

Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs
2000
http://www.un.org/ga/webcast/statements/austriaE.htm

 

"Heinz Fischer, President of Austria, said that since the adoption of the
[1990-baseline]
Millennium Development Goals 15 years ago..."
[!]

2015
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/ga11691.doc.htm

 

 

"Moussa Faki Mahamat, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Economic Integration of Chad, said 15 years ago the Millennium Declaration was adopted unanimously as the most appropriate response to poverty."

Speakers Praise Diplomatic Successes over Iran, Cuba-US, Address Long-Standing Africa Conflicts, as General Assembly Continues Annual Debate | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases
1 October 2015
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/ga11697.doc.htm

 

 

 

"All nations were united by a common purpose when the Millennium Declaration was issued 14 years ago. And we agreed then, and I quote, that “... Democratic and participatory governance based on the will of the people best assures these rights.” "

UK Ambassador to the UN
25 April 2014
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/we-have-a-opportunity-to-reflect-these-principles-within-the-new-international-development-framework

 

 

"the post-2015 development agenda... reaffirms the Millennium Declaration"

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Executive Board
7 September 2015
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002343/234360e.pdf.

 

 

 

"essential contribution to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration."

Statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China
9 March 2015
http://www.g77.org/statement/getstatement.php?id=150309c

 

 

 

"shared responsibility, as already enshrined in the Millennium Declaration.

We need to recommit and build more clearly on the Millennium Declaration, reaffirming its values and principles, such as solidarity and shared responsibility, and its substantive human rights content."

22 June 2015
Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States
Karl Falkenberg, Director General - DG Environment,
European Commission
United Nations General Assembly Post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations session
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_16598_en.htm




"The EU and its Member States remain strongly committed to the Millennium Declaration, to accelerating efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to ensuring that the post-2015 agenda provides a comprehensive follow-up to Rio+20 and addresses the structural causes of poverty, inequality...

8 January 2015
Statement delivered on behalf of the European Union
H.E. Ioannis Vrailas, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the UN
United Nations General Assembly Plenary Meeting on the UN Secretary-General's Priorities for 2015
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_15930_en.htm

 

 

 

"The 2015 United Nations Public Service Forum, Day and Awards Ceremony will take place in Medellin, Colombia at the Plaza Mayor Medellin Convention and Exhibition Center  from 23 to 26 June 2015. ...

The General Assembly itself has reiterated, in resolution 57/277, that particular emphasis should be given to the exchange of experience related to the role of public administration in the implementation of internationally agreed goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration"

UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management
http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/UNPSDayAwards/UNPublicServiceAwards/tabid/1522/language/en-US/Default.aspx

 

 

"The Council [of the European Union] adopted the following conclusions...

The EU and its Member States remain strongly committed to the Millennium Declaration"

 

Council of the European Union
16 December 2014
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/foraff/146311.pdf

 

 



"We, the Heads of State and Government of...the Group of 77 and China....
...reaffirm the vital role of women and the need for full and equal opportunities for their participation and leadership in all areas of sustainable development, and
.
..
...decide to accelerate the implementation of our respective commitments in this regard as contained in...
...the United Nations Millennium Declaration..."

June 2014
http://www.g77.org/doc/A-68-948(E).pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The  High Level Event on Millennium Review in September of this year provides an opportunity to assess the implementation of the commitments of the Millennium Declaration and the results of the major UN Summits and Conferences. ...

The United States and the European Union...share...the perspective that the interlinked dimensions of peace and security, human rights, rule of law, democracy, and development need to be addressed coherently, within more efficient and transparent institutions and procedures.  [!]  ...

Achieving the development goals of the Millennium Declaration will require significant additional resources, which should come from many sources, as set out at Monterrey...

We stand ready to increase our financial assistance to countries with good governance and sound policies and transparent, [!] ambitious and accountable strategies to achieve long-term economic growth and reach the internationally-agreed development goals in the Millennium Declaration."

U.S.-EU Declaration on the 60th Anniversary of the Signing of the San Francisco Charter
June 20, 2005
http://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/48381.htm

 

 

 

 

"Too often, humanitarian relief has been separated from development and from achievement of the goals of the Millennium Declaration...

...if we are to continue the recent increases in ODA and assure the goals of the Millennium Declaration are achieved, we must also ensure aid effectiveness, sustainability and results. ...

With the right choices, we have a good chance of reaching the goals we set for ourselves at Monterrey and in the Millennium Declaration."

Andrew S. Natsios, Administrator for U.S. Agency for International Development
Statement to the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development
June 27, 2005
http://2001-2009.state.gov/e/eeb/rls/rm/2005/48689.htm

 

 

 

"We, the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the African Union,
...on 4th and 5th July 2005...

Determined further to fulfill our commitments to the Millennium Declaration and the
achievement of the MDGs within the deadline
"

www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/declaration_mdgreview_2005.pdf

 

 

 

 

eJOURNAL USA Economic Perspectives / August 2005

Dimensions Of Development

International Development Goals: Moving Forward

Leaders of the world’s eight major economies

(G8), at their annual meeting in July

2005, called on all nations to recommit

themselves to supporting economic progress

and good governance in the developing world,

particularly in Africa—the only continent not on

track to meet by 2015 any of the goals agreed on

at the international Millennium Summit in 2000

and put forth in the Millennium Declaration. ...

 

This journal provides a glance at some of the individual

U.S. development projects throughout Africa,

Asia, and Latin America that seek to address the

key objectives of the Millennium Declaration...

 

Question:

What is your assessment of progress to

date by the global community in meeting the

goals of the Millennium Declaration agreed

to in the year 2000?

 

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/vietnam/8621/translations/ej082005.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Agreement signed by leaders of

USA, Russia, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy and Canada

Presidents Bush, Putin, Chirac, Berlusconi
Prime Ministers Blair, Koizumi, Martin
Chancellor Schroeder
President of the European Commission Barroso

July 2005:


"We need to work with our partners to increase access to energy if we are to support the achievement of the goals agreed at the Millennium Summit in 2000."

"...the action needed for all developing countries to meet the Goals agreed at the Millennium Summit in 2000.

...Africa, which is the only continent not on track to meet any of the Goals of the Millennium Declaration by 2015. ...

The core aims for education and health are stated in the UN Millennium Declaration. We support our African partners’ commitment...to reduce mortality ...particularly women and children; and so that ...people have access to safe water and sanitation. ...

A substantial increase in official development assistance, in addition to other resources, is required in order to achieve the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration (the Millennium Goals) by 2015, as we agreed at Monterrey in 2002.   Fulfilling this commitment is needed in order to consolidate and build on recent progress in Africa..."


G8 agreement
July 2005, Gleneagles, Scotland
Signed by:
Presidents Bush, Putin, Chirac, Berlusconi;
Prime Ministers Koizumi, Blair, Martin;
Chancellor Schroeder; President of the European Commission Barroso
http://web.archive.org/web/20051027075956/http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/PostG8_Gleneagles_Communique,0.pdf

 

 

 

"Let there be no doubt: the United States supports the development goals of the Millennium Declaration. ...

The next year...the Secretariat formulated...“Millennium Development Goals”...which member states never formally adopted.

Since then, the term “MDGs” has become ambiguous. Most people assume that the MDG targets and indicators were agreed in the Millennium Declaration. In fact, some of them are drawn from positions agreed by governments and others are simply Secretariat proposals.  ....

To avoid the ambiguity of the term “MDGs,” UN member states have consistently agreed to use the formulation “internationally agreed development goals, including those in the Millennium Declaration” in negotiated texts. This spells out exactly what we are committed to, and distinguishes the goals adopted by governments from the Secretariat product.

If the Outcome Document is to move us all forward and garner acceptability by heads of state, it must not backtrack on previous agreements or create ambiguity that will be subject to further misinterpretation. On the eve of the UN Monterrey Conference in 2002, President Bush said in a speech at the Inter-American Development Bank, "America supports the international development goals in the UN Millennium Declaration.” We remain committed to work with member states in support of those goals.

Yours sincerely,
John R. Bolton
Ambassador

26 August 2005
https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/0826bolton.pdf
http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/assets/attachments/documents/bolton_letter_mdgs.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We envisage
A world where we reaffirm our commitments regarding the human right to safe drinking water" 

[!]

United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda
Outcome document
25 September  2015
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/L.1


 

 

 

"The General Assembly adopted resolution 56/192…on 21 December 2001. Reaffirming the Millennium Declaration goal of reducing by half, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water, the Assembly…"

Global Ministerial Environment Forum
Governing Council of the UN Environmental Programme
Note by the Secretariat
30 January 2002
http://www.unep.org/GC/GCSS-VII/Documents/k0260039.pdf

 




We, the representatives of the peoples of the world…
commit ourselves to
the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and to expedite the achievement of the time-bound… targets contained therein.”

Plan of Implementation:

"reduce, by 2015, mortality rates for infants and children under 5 by two thirds, and maternal mortality rates by three quarters, of the prevailing rate in 2000 and reduce disparities between and within developed and developing countries as quickly as possible "

World Summit on Sustainable Development
4 September 2002
http://www.un-documents.net/jburgdec.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/WSSD_PlanImpl.pdf

 

 

"Remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at World Summit on Sustainable Development
September 4, 2002

Here in Johannesburg, we have recommitted ourselves to achieving, by 2015, the development goals set forth in the Millennium Declaration."

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2002/020904/epf306.htm

 

 

 

"the target of reducing by half, between now and 2015, the proportion of people who lack sustainable access to adequate sources of affordable and safe water ....was  endorsed at the Millennium Assembly of the United Nations held in September 2000."

United Nations
Economic and Social Council
23 February 2001
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
Fifty-seventh session 19-25 April 2001
Note by the secretariat
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NB0/100/09/PDF/NB010009.pdf

 

 

"When the summit meeting ends, there are to be commitments to ambitious global targets. World leaders will pledge to halve the number of the world’s people who live on less than $1 a day. There are more than a billion such people.

Almost an equal number — many of them the same ones — do not have access to clean water. Their number should also be cut in half by 2015, leaders will say."

"Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report."

Sept. 5 2000
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82712&page=1&singlePage=true



[Above references to "number" rather than "proportion" are incorrect.  However, the report seems to refer to an expectation that the leaders would agree a 2000 baseline.]



"The declaration endorsed…halving by the year 2015 the 22 percent of the world's population now existing on less than a dollar a day."

Reuters, 8 September 2000
http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/RTV/2000/09/08/009080017/?s=millennium%20summit

 

 


 

"The General Assembly…
Reaffirming the goal of reducing by half, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water…"

Resolution 56/192
21 December 2001
http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/56/192
http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/UNGA/2001/301.pdf

 



"We, the Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation...

reaffirm
our commitment to the Millennium Declaration...

and
the outcomes of all the major UN conferences and summits in the economic, social, and environmental fields."

25 September 2013
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Outcome%20documentMDG.pdf

 

 

"universality comes with shared responsibility, as already enshrined in the Millennium Declaration.  ...
We need to recommit and build more clearly on the Millennium Declaration, reaffirming its values and principles, such as solidarity and

shared responsibility, and its substantive human rights content."

Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States

Post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations session
22-25 June 2015
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/14920eu.pdf

 

 

"The...clear vision embodied by the Millennium Declaration stands as a model, a standard of excellence"

Remarks by Tony Pipa,
U.S. Lead Negotiator for the Post-2015 Process,
at the Post-2015 Intergovernmental Negotiation Process February Session
17 February 2015
http://usun.state.gov/remarks/6378

 

 

"The Rio+20 outcome document, The future we want [2012]...set out a mandate to establish an Open Working Group to develop a set of sustainable development goals...
The Rio outcome gave the mandate that the SDGs should be...integrated into the UN development agenda beyond 2015. ...

It reaffirmed the commitments in the outcomes of all the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and environmental fields, including the United Nations Millennium Declaration..."

Proposal for Sustainable Development Goals
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html

 

 

 

 

Millennium Declaration,  8 September 2000:

"We resolve...by the year 2015...
to have reduced maternal mortality by three-quarters, and
child mortality by two thirds,
of their current rates"

[to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day]

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm




"reducing by half, between now and 2015, the proportion of people who lack sustainable access to adequate sources of affordable and safe water and to hygienic sanitation  facilities.  ...

This ambitious target....was  endorsed at the Millennium Assembly of the United Nations held in September 2000."

UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
23 February 2001
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA  AND THE PACIFIC
Fifty-seventh session 19-25 April 2001
Note by the secretariat
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NB0/100/09/PDF/NB010009.pdf

 

 

"The declaration endorsed…halving by the year 2015 the 22 percent of the world's population now existing on less than a dollar a day."

Reuters, 8 September 2000
http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/RTV/2000/09/08/009080017/?s=millennium%20summit

 

 

 

"GOALS THAT UN MEMBER STATES HAVE AGREED TO IN THE [MILLENNIUM] DECLARATION....

"MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS"...ARE SOLELY A SECRETARIAT PRODUCT, NEVER HAVING BEEN FORMALLY ADOPTED BY MEMBER STATES.

...THE MILLENNIUM DECLARATION, WHICH THE UNITED STATES SUPPORTS. ...

FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO ALL DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR POSTS COLLECTIVE
US State Department
26 April 2005
pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB560.pdf

 



 

 

 

………………………………………………………..

 

 

 

In 1996 leaders pledged to halve the number of hungry people not from a 1990-2 baseline but from its "present level".

In 2000 leaders pledged in the Millennium Declaration to reduce child mortality by two-thirds not from 1990 rates, but from 2000 rates.

Other pledges in the Declaration were also clearly from 2000 baselines.

The General Assembly reaffirmed the Declaration's more ambitious pledges on
21 December 2001, in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2013. 

Leaders reaffirmed the Declaration in 2005.

Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation reaffirmed the Declaration  in 2013.

In July 2015, leaders reaffirmed the Monterrey Consensus, which called for a publicity for agreed goals including those of the Millennium Declaration.

 

On 6 September 2001, the Secretary-General proposed generally easier "Millennium Development Goal" targets with 1990 baselines.

This reduced the number of children's lives to be saved in 2000-15 by about 5 million.



Contrary to popular belief, the United Nations General Assembly did not commit to the easier targets in 2000 or 2001.

On 16 December 2002 the Assembly encouraged


"interested parties…to continue to pursue vigorously the achievement of the objectives and goals contained in the Millennium Declaration".


Leaders reaffirmed the Declaration in 2005 and representatives in 2013.

In July 2015 leaders reaffirmed a statement that countries would bring economic conditions to fulfil agreed goals, including Millennium Declaration pledges.

Several of those are, at a global level and for most countries, more ambitious than the "Millennium Development Goal" targets.

Despite the General Assembly's call for publicity for the Declaration, the easier MDG targets were publicised instead of the actual pledges.

The Monterrey Consensus, reaffirmed in 2015, again stated that countries would help publicise agreed goals including the Declaration's pledges, of which several have 2000 baselines.

 

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sgreport2001.pdf

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/GAResolutions/57_144/a_res57_144e.pdf

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Outcome%20documentMDG.pdf

http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/69/313

http://www.ycsg.yale.edu/assets/downloads/monterrey_consensus.pdf

 

 

 

July 2015:

"We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives...reaffirm and build on the 2002 Monterrey Consensus"

2002 Monterrey Consensus:

"Upholding the Charter of the United Nations and building upon the values of the Millennium Declaration, we commit ourselves to promoting national and global economic systems based on the principles of justice, equity, democracy, participation, transparency, accountability and inclusion."


"…economic conditions needed to fulfil internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declarationwill be our first step to ensuring that the twenty-first century becomes the century of development for all."

"we should encourage…coordination….and coherence…to meet the Millennium Declaration development goals"

"We shall support …a global information campaign on the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration."

http://www.ycsg.yale.edu/assets/downloads/monterrey_consensus.pdf

 

 

It is not clear why this statement is made, since the conference outcome document does not mention MDGs at all:

"The Monterrey conference established the MDGs as the first global framework anchored in an explicit, mutually agreed-on partnership between developed and developing countries."

Brookings Topics - Millennium Development Goals
http://asyle4.rssing.com/chan-3536669/all_p2.html

 

The 2002 conference outcome document  in fact stated,

"we should encourage policy and programme coordination of international institutions and coherence at the operational and international levels to meet the Millennium Declaration development goals..."

 

 

In 2013 nations renewed some more ambitious global pledges than the Millennium Development Goals. 

"We, the Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation...
reaffirm our commitment to the Millennium Declaration...
and the outcomes of all the major UN conferences and summits in the economic, social, and environmental fields."

25 September 2013
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Outcome%20documentMDG.pdf

 


Contrary to popular belief, the UN General Assembly did not mention the MDGs in 2000 or 2001. 

On 21 December 2001 and in later resolutions it reaffirmed the 2000-baseline Declaration. 

 

The internationally agreed goals include the following.



1996, World Food Summit, Rome Declaration on World Food Security:

"We, the Heads of State and Government, or our representatives, gathered at the World Food Summit…

pledge our political will…

with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015."

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.htm



 

In 2006 the BBC understated the commitment by wrongly claiming the baseline is "1990-2":

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6099460.stm

 

 

 

…………………………………………….

 

 

 

"At its fifty-third session, the General Assembly, convinced that the year 2000 constituted a unique and symbolically compelling moment to articulate and affirm an animating vision for the United Nations in the new era, and that a Millennium Assembly would provide an opportunity to strengthen the role of the United Nations in meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century, decided to designate the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly “The Millennium Assembly of the United Nations”… (resolution 53/202)."

www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/55/Chapter54-61.pdf

 

 

 

"Annan...asked the United Nation's 188 member states to set such ambitious goals as...cutting in half the proportion of people, currently 22 percent of the global population, who earn less than $1 a day"

Annan Seeks Debate on U.N. Future in 'Millennium Report'
By Colum Lynch April 4, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/04/04/annan-seeks-debate-on-un-future-in-millennium-report/b5aef075-4e01-4094-8254-b45f82a3d418/



"secretary-general...suggests...that the world could try to halve by 2015 the figure of 1.2 billion people or 22% of its population, who currently exist in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day."

6 April 2000
http://www.economist.com/node/299914  



 

 

 

 

Millennium Declaration,  8 September 2000:

"We resolve...by the year 2015...
to have reduced maternal mortality by three-quarters, and
child mortality by two thirds,
of their current rates"

[to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day]

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm



"The declaration endorsed…halving by the year 2015 the 22 percent of the world's population now existing on less than a dollar a day."

Reuters, 8 September 2000
http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/RTV/2000/09/08/009080017/?s=millennium%20summit

 

 

"A main target, set by Mr Annan and agreed to by the summiteers, is to halve by 2015 the 22% of people who live on less than a dollar a day"

Editorial
7 September 2000
http://www.economist.com/node/359559

 


"Baseline year – 1990 or 2000?

...In two cases - maternal mortality and under-five mortality - the term "current rates" is used, directly specifying a 2000 baseline. For the remainder, the targets are stated in the form of "to halve by 2015…" This would imply a 2000 baseline year of the Millennium Declaration. After discussions within the UN system and with other partners, the issues
[?] have been resolved in favour of 1990 serving as the baseline year."

Guidance Note sent by heads of UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP to country offices
United Nations Development Group
Reporting on the Millennium Development Goals at the Country Level
October 2001
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://undg.org/archive_docs/2356-English.doc

 

 

US Government after the easier 1990-baseline MDGs were proposed:

"Justice demands that global terrorism be silenced so that the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations can be heard."
October 1, 2001
http://2001-2009.state.gov/p/io/rls/rm/2001/5127.htm

 

 

"…PEOPLE…ASSUME THAT THE "MDGS" ARE AGREED DEVELOPMENT GOALS FROM THE MILLENNIUM DECLARATION, WHICH THE UNITED STATES SUPPORTS. OFTEN THE UN SECRETARIAT AND REPRESENTATIVES OF A NUMBER OF COUNTRIES, HOWEVER, USE IT TO REFER TO THE SECRETARIAT GOALS...…

SUBJECT: THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS) -- WHAT ARE THEY?
04/26/05
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO ALL DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR POSTS COLLECTIVE
pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB560.pdf

 

 

 

 

2005:

"We, Heads of State and Government...reaffirm the United Nations Millennium Declaration....

We strongly reiterate our determination to ensure the timely and full realization of the development goals and objectives agreed at the major United Nations conferences and summits, including those agreed at the Millennium Summit that are described as the Millennium Development Goals… " 

[Strange statement.  The time-bound Summit goals are not accurately described as the MDGs.  Is "that are described"  misleading?] 

"we commit ourselves to: ...integrating [the reproductive health] goal in strategies to attain the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, aimed at reducing maternal mortality, improving maternal health, reducing child mortality...."

"We therefore resolve to create a more peaceful, prosperous and democratic world and to undertake concrete measures to continue finding ways to implement the outcome of the Millennium Summit"

"We emphasize the critical role of both formal and informal education in the achievement of poverty eradication and other development goals as envisaged in the Millennium Declaration"

"22. …we resolve:  (a) To adopt, by 2006, and implement comprehensive national development strategies to achieve the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals…

(c) …support developing countries by providing a substantial increase in aid of sufficient quality and arriving in a timely manner to assist them in achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals…"

"23. We reaffirm the Monterrey Consensus and recognize that mobilizing financial resources for development and the effective use of those resources in developing countries and countries with economies in transition are central to a global partnership for development in support of the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals."

[Comment:  The Monterrey Consensus states that economic conditions to fulfil internationally agreed objectives, including those of the Declaration, will be the "first step" and expresses an intention for a "global information campaign" on those objectives, again including those of the Declaration.
http://www.ycsg.yale.edu/assets/downloads/monterrey_consensus.pdf ]

"We call for strengthened cooperation between the United Nations and national and regional parliaments, in particular through the Inter-Parliamentary Union, with a view to furthering all aspects of the Millennium Declaration"

"Inviting the Secretary-General to launch work to further strengthen the management and coordination of United Nations operational activities so that they can make an even more effective contribution to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals"

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf




While leaders in 2005 did refer in other passages of the outcome document to meeting MDG targets, that makes no difference to the commitments they reaffirmed to the more ambitious pledges.




……………………………………………………………………….





What is President Obama committed to?


"We, heads of State and Government, have gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 6 to 8 September 2000, at the dawn of a new millennium
We resolve…by the year 2015...to have reduced maternal mortality by three-quarters, and child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates"

[to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day]

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm

 

"...Charter of this United Nations...
Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
a decade ago, at the dawn of a new millennium, we set concrete goals...
These are the standards that we set."

Remarks by the President at the Millennium Development Goals Summit
22 September 2010
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/22/remarks-president-millennium-development-goals-summit-new-york-new-york

 

 

………………………………………………………………………..

 

 

 

What did countries commit to in 2015?

 

 

In July 2015 leaders renewed some relevant commitments:

a) to ensure economic conditions to meet agreed pledges including those in the Millennium Declaration

and

b) to publicise the pledges.


Some of these pledges are generally more ambitious than the later Millennium Development Goals about which agreement is less certain.  The pledges' baselines were not backdated.


 

In July 2015 leaders and the Assembly reaffirmed commitments to:

1) economic conditions to fulfil agreed goals including those in the Millennium Declaration – which has a 2000 baseline -

and

2) a global information campaign on the Millennium Declaration and other agreed goals.


The other agreed goals include the 1996 World Food Summit pledge to work on halving the 1996 number of hungry people to, by current official FAO method and estimates, about 500 million.


http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/69/313

 

The current estimate is around 800 million: 

millenniumdeclaration.org/hunger.pdf .

 

 

The child mortality target pledged in the Millennium Declaration is about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, not the 4.3 million implied by the MDG target.

millenniumdeclaration.org

 

The difference in 2000-15 with constant progress is about 5 million deaths or children saved, and rising as time goes by.  It is very roughly 2,000 children per day in 2015. 

 

 

July 2015:

"We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives...reaffirm and build on the 2002 Monterrey Consensus"

2002 Monterrey Consensus:

"…economic conditions needed to fulfil internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declarationwill be our first step to ensuring that the twenty-first century becomes the century of development for all."

"we should encourage…coordination….and coherence…to meet the Millennium Declaration development goals"

"We shall support …a global information campaign on the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration."

http://www.ycsg.yale.edu/assets/downloads/monterrey_consensus.pdf

 

 

"I am pleased that the Declaration we are about to adopt at this Summit has such a broad range of commitments, and the specificity of the language and the time scales mean that we can and will be held accountable for delivery."
Bertie Ahern, Prime Minister of Ireland 6 September 2000

 

 

"...let us be honest at this Millennium Summit, too many times we have set new deadlines to reach old goals."
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark 8 September 2000
http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=A/55/PV.7&Lang=E

 

"We resolve...by the year 2015...to have reduced maternal mortality by three-quarters, and child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates"

[to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day]

Millennium Declaration
8 September 2000
http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm

 



"The Co-Chairperson (Namibia): We have come to the close of this historic Millennium Summit...
We cannot, therefore, afford to go back home from here and continue business as usual."

 

 

 

"The declaration endorsed…halving by the year 2015 the 22 percent of the world's population now existing on less than a dollar a day."

Reuters, 8 September 2000
http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/RTV/2000/09/08/009080017/?s=millennium%20summit

 

 


"Council of the European Union

Council conclusions on a transformative post-2015 agenda

General Affairs Council meeting

Brussels, 16 December 2014


The Council adopted the following conclusions...


The EU and its Member States remain strongly committed to the Millennium Declaration, to

accelerating efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to ensuring

that the post-2015 agenda provides a comprehensive follow-up to Rio+20 and addresses the

structural causes of poverty, inequality..."

 

16 December 2014
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/foraff/146311.pdf

 

 

 

"Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit...

Executive summary

The road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration....outlines potential strategies for action that are designed to meet the goals and commitments made by the 147 heads of State and Government, and 189 Member States in total, who adopted the Millennium Declaration.

The report addresses fully each and every one of the goals and commitments contained in the Millennium Declaration...

Section III, “Development and poverty eradication: the millennium development goals”, focuses...

... as you have requested, I will submit an annual report...which will chart progress, made or not made, in fulfilling the Millennium commitments...

The road map concludes by noting that there will be annual reports and, every five years, a comprehensive report on progress made or not made in reaching these goals. The entire United Nations family of Member States, international organizations, funds, agencies, programmes, the private sector and civil society must join together to meet the lofty commitments that are embodied in the Millennium Declaration. Success requires solidarity. ...

 

... 1. The United Nations Millennium Declaration (General Assembly resolution 55/2), which was adopted by all 189 Member States of the United Nations (147 of them represented directly by their head of State or Government) on 8 September 2000, embodies a large number of specific commitments aimed at improving the lot of humanity in the new century.

2. In paragraph 18 of its resolution 55/162 on the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit, the General Assembly asked me to prepare a “road map” to set out in detail how these commitments could be fulfilled. That is the purpose of the present report.  ...

The present report not only examines each of the commitments contained in the Millennium Declaration in its own right but also considers how they interact with each other.  ...

At its twenty-fourth special session, held in 2000, the General Assembly reaffirmed the commitments agreed at the World Summit for Social Development and produced very significant new initiatives for the eradication of poverty. In particular, there was agreement for the first time on a global target of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, and the commitment to the global targets for poverty reduction was subsequently endorsed by all countries in the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted in September 2000.  ...

...these priorities include the national efforts to reach the Millennium Declaration goals.  ...


Annex

Millennium development goals

1. As part of the preparation of the present report, consultations were held among members of the United Nations Secretariat and representatives of IMF, OECD and the World Bank in order to harmonize reporting on the development goals in the Millennium Declaration and the international development goals.  ...

2. The list of millennium development goals does not undercut in any way agreements on other goals and targets reached at the global conferences of the 1990s...

[The Secretary-General misled.  The MDGs clearly do undercut the 1996 World Food Summit target, and perhaps others such as that promising clean water for all by the year 2000.  They also undercut the Millennium Declaration.]

"For the purpose of monitoring progress, the normal baseline year for the targets will be 1990, which is the baseline that has been used by the global conferences of the 1990s."

[The Secretary-General misled.   Contrary to the FAO position in 2015, the World Food Summit has a baseline of 1996 - as their own documents from the 1990s show.]

"The United Nations will report on progress towards the millennium development goals at the global and country levels... "

 

 

 

Where relevant, indicators should be calculated for subnational levels — i.e., by urban and rural area, by region, by socio-economic group, and by age and gender.

The proposed formulation of the 8 goals, 18 targets and 40+ indicators are listed below.  ...

...between 1990 and 2015"

[Relevant targets mention 1990 except for water, which states:]

"Target 10. Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water"

Report of the Secretary-General: Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration
6 September 2001
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sgreport2001.pdf

 




The MDG target is for around 4.3 million child deaths in 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why does the official MDG list have no baseline for the water target?
 

Other MDG targets have a 1990 baseline, but not the water target. 

Why?


The answer seems to be that the MDG target, as  agreed, in fact  has a 2000 baseline.

 

"Millennium Development Goals...
The proposed formulation of the 8 goals, 18 targets and 40+ indicators are listed below.  ...
...the normal baseline year for the targets will be 1990..."
"proposed list of goals, targets...listed below...
between 1990 and 2015"

[relevant targets mention 1990 except for water target]

Report of the Secretary-General: Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration
6 September 2001
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sgreport2001.pdf

 

 

 

 

"OECD
MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
(Note by the Secretariat)
17 September 2001
...Staff
from the Secretariats of the UN (Secretary General’s Office and UNDG), IMF, OECD-DAC, and the World Bank met in New York on 21 June 2001 to discuss aligning the goals"

[MB note: That means:

a) civil servants' generally easier 1990-baseline International Development Goals whose seven-goals-21-indicators structure and baseline were the basis of the MDG framework,
and

b) the world leaders' 2000-baseline Declaration goals for 2015;  there were some other differences].

"In subsequent correspondence they reached agreement
on a presentation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)...

It was agreed that there should be a standard baseline year of 1990 against which to measure progress (with an exception of using 2000 for the safe water goal as that was agreed in a recent UN conference)."

http://www.mofat.go.kr/webmodule/common/download.jsp?boardid=106&tablename=TYPE_DATABOARD&seqno=075ffcfdafa0fa2ff1fd103b&fileseq=05b06bfb1fd504dfa303b07b

[.pdf document which may need the extension .pdf to be added]

or

http://millenniumdeclaration.org/mdgwaterbaseline.pdf .

 

 

 

 

 

"This General Assembly was to have been dedicated to the goals of the millennium declaration of last year. And in a sense, it certainly still is, because those goals are, in our view, the antithesis of terrorism. They are freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility for the world community. Those are still the goals of the U.N. and certainly the goals of U.S. actions within the U.N."

Background Briefing: United Nations General Assembly Scenesetter

Senior Administration Official
Foreign Press Center Background Briefing
US Department of State

Washington, DC
November 7, 2001
https://wayback.archive-it.org/1078/20080605224135/http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/7529.htm

 

 

 

 

 

"The General Assembly adopted resolution 56/192…on 21 December 2001. Reaffirming the Millennium Declaration goal of reducing by half, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water, the Assembly welcomed…"

Global Ministerial Environment Forum
Governing Council of the UN Environmental Programme
Note by the Secretariat
30 January 2002
http://www.unep.org/GC/GCSS-VII/Documents/k0260039.pdf

 

 

 

"The Millennium Development Goal’s target for water and sanitation (MDG Target 10) aims to reduce by half the number [!] of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, using 1990 as the baseline year. [!]

...there is no evidence that the so-called “improved” technologies do provide safe water or adequate sanitation.

Moreover, the concept of safety and reliability of water sources and of adequacy of sanitation facilities from a user’s point of view, key to any analysis of the status of the water supply and sanitation sector, have until now been overlooked in the monitoring process. In some locations, for instance, an unprotected household well may provide a better supply of water, both in terms of quantity and quality of water, than a household connection that may be subject to intermittence and poor water quality. The concept of sustainability (both in terms of service and environment), present in the Target 10 definition, is not addressed by indicators 30 and 31. Finally, affordability is only implied, but not clearly stated.

b) Baseline date

The definition of Target 10 does not explicitly provide for a baseline date against which progress should be monitored. Although the MDGs were formulated in 2000 [!], and in spite of the initial statement of UN Secretary General ( “Halve, by 2015,…” – [see above section 1.2]), the baseline for the MDG target on water and sanitation, and for most MDG targets in general, has been set as 1990 22.

According to the French Water Academy, who used 2000 as baseline year in its March 2004 report 23, selecting 1990 as the baseline year is not, as could be thought, neutral and [perhaps the writers mean "but"] less demanding: in fact it results in a decrease of the target for access to water at global level from 91 per cent to 89.5 per cent in 2015 and of the target for access to sanitation from 81 per cent to 77.5 per cent. …

22 JMP report, “Meeting the MDG drinking water and sanitation target – A mid-term assessment of progress”, 2004.

23 Water Academy 2004, “The cost of meeting the Johannesburg targets for drinking water”, by Henri Smets. "

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Meeting the Millennium Development Goal Drinking Water and Sanitation Target in the EECCA region:a goal within reach ?
Financing water supply and sanitation in EECCA
Conference of EECCA Ministers of Economy/Finance, Environment and Water and their partners from the OECD
17-18 November 2005, Yerevan, Armenia
http://www.oecd.org/environment/outreach/35372500.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

………………………………………………………….

 

 

"We, the grown-ups, must reverse this list of failures. And we are pledged to do so. The very rights I described for you are part of the promises made in the Millennium Declaration -- a list of pledges agreed by all the leaders of the world. They promised that, by the year 2015, we will have cut by half the number of people living on less than one dollar a day. ...
This gathering of the General Assembly is a reminder that these were promises made to you, the next generation."

The Secretary-General
Address at the opening of the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children
New York, 8 May 2002
http://www.un.org/ga/children/sgopening.htm

 

 

 

 

"Remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at World Summit on Sustainable Development
September 4, 2002

Here in Johannesburg, we have recommitted ourselves to achieving, by 2015, the development goals set forth in the Millennium Declaration." 

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2002/020904/epf306.htm

 

 

 

16 December 2002:

"The General Assembly…

Reaffirming the importance of the implementation of and follow-up to the Millennium Declaration in a comprehensive…manner

Recognizes the uneven progress made so far in achieving the objectives agreed upon in the Millennium Declaration, and urges Member States to continue to undertake with determination appropriate measures towards its implementation; …

Invites the organizations and agencies…and encourages other interested parties…to continue to pursue vigorously the achievement of the objectives and goals contained in the Millennium Declaration…"

Resolution 57/144
http://www.preventionweb.net/files/resolutions/N0254#2.pdf
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/GAResolutions/57_144/a_res57_144e.pdf

 

 

 

20 December 2002:

"The General Assembly…

Reaffirming also that…major United Nations conferences and summits should be viewed as interlinked and contributing to an integrated frame work for the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, and to a global partnership for development"

Resolution 57/270

 

 



23 December 2003:

"The General Assembly...

Reaffirming the United Nations Millennium Declaration...

Recognizes that a substantial increase in official development assistance and other resources will be required if developing countries are to achieve the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration...

Encourages the international community, the United Nations system, the private sector and civil society to continue to provide the necessary financial resources to assist national Governments in their efforts to meet the development targets and benchmarks agreed upon at the World Summit for Social Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women, the International Conference on Population and Development, the Millennium Summit..."

Resolution 58/206
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N03/460/64/PDF/N0346064.pdf

 

 


2005:

"We, Heads of State and Government...reaffirm the Millennium Declaration

We strongly reiterate our determination to ensure the timely and full realization of the development goals and objectives agreed at the major United Nations conferences and summits, including those agreed at the Millennium Summit that are described as the Millennium Development Goals"   
[?]

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf

 

 

……………………………………………………………………..

 

 

Nations support the proposals for 2000 baselines:

 

"Let us resolve therefore: - To halve, by the time this century is 15 years old, the proportion of the world’s people (currently 22 per cent) whose income is less than one dollar a day.

- To halve, by the same date, the proportion of people (currently 20 per cent) who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water."

"Specifically, I urge the Summit to adopt the target of reducing by half, between now and 2015, the proportion of people who lack sustainable access to adequate sources of affordable and safe water."

Secretary-General
Millennium Report
27 March 2000
www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/We_The_Peoples.pdf

 

 


"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has worked hard to build international support for the UN Secretary-General's proposals for the Millennium Summit."

UK Parliament.  House of Commons, Written Answers for 15 May 2000.  Mr Hain.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo000515/text/00515w09.htm

 

 

 

"The Clinton Administration strongly supports Secretary General Kofi Annan's call to action on poverty alleviation, on economic and social development"

U.S. Efforts on the Millennium Report "Call To Action" on Poverty and Economic Development Issues
The White House September 7, 2000
http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/new/html/Wed_Oct_4_132349_2000.html 

  

 

"President Clinton is strongly committed to working…to meet the vision of a sustainable future outlined in the Secretary General's Millennium Report."

The White House September 7, 2000
http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/new/html/Wed_Oct_4_133235_2000.html

 

 

Mark Malloch Brown says world leaders accepted Kofi Annan's report with the 2000-baseline goals:

"in September 2000...Annan...In his report …
The assemblyaccepted his report wholesale."

Mark Malloch Brown
Head of UN Development Programme in 2000
The Unfinished Global Revolution
Penguin Books, 2011

 

 

Mark Malloch Brown wrote in 2004, wrongly, that leaders agreed the easier 1990-baseline MDGs:

"These Millennium Development Goals did not come out of thin air.
They were agreed at the historic UN Millennium Summit in 2000"

Targeting Development
Routledge
2004
samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781134410804_sample_527274.pdf 

 

 

Malloch Brown went on, again misleadingly;

"They [the MDGs] also lie at the heart of the Monterrey Consensus and the Johannesburg Plan agreed at the

World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002."


In fact the Monterrey outcome document does not mention "Millennium Development Goals" at all.

Although the Johannesburg Declaration mentions MDGs, the Plan refers to reducing mortality from the "prevailing rate in 2000". 

National representatives at the Monterrey meeting spoke of the Declaration.  A phrase they did use in their outcome document was,

"the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration".


They stated,

"We should encourage...coordination...to meet the Millennium Declaration development goals".


http://www.ycsg.yale.edu/assets/downloads/monterrey_consensus.pdf

http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/WSSD_PlanImpl.pdf

 

 

 

"His Millennium Report...offers concrete, accomplishable and far-sighted recommendations. Austria welcomes this roadmap for the future course of UN activities and will follow its guidelines." 

Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs Benita Ferrero-Waldner
http://www.un.org/ga/webcast/statements/austriaE.htm

 



 



Speakers at the Millennium Summit endorsed a 2000 baseline



These speeches are in the verbatim records of 6-8 September 2015:

http://www.un.org/ga/55/pvlista55.htm



Several speakers directly endorsed the Secretary-General's Millennium Report, which has a 2000 baseline:


"Let us resolve therefore:

- To halve, by the time this century is 15 years old, the proportion of the world’s people (currently 22 per cent) whose income is less than one dollar a day.

- To halve, by the same date, the proportion of people (currently 20 per cent) who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water. …

Specifically, I urge the Summit to adopt the target of reducing by half, between now and 2015, the proportion of people who lack sustainable access to adequate sources of affordable and safe water."

 
www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/We_The_Peoples.pdf  




"...Millennium Report serves as an excellent reference for checking whether our homework has been properly done."

Mr Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden



"Secretary-General...the report he presented...sets out clear and precise objectives. Belgium fully supports it. My country commits itself ...to support all actions that can help attain those objectives"



"I am pleased that the Declaration we are about to adopt at this Summit has such a broad range of commitments, and the specificity of the language and the time scales mean that we can and will be held accountable for delivery."

Bertie Ahern, Prime Minister of Ireland
6 September 2000

 

"...let us be honest at this Millennium Summit, too many times we have set new deadlines to reach old goals."

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
8 September 2000
http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=A/55/PV.7&Lang=E

 

"we must overcome poverty....
It would be unforgivable if we do not gather the means to do it. We heartily support the objectives set out to this end in the Secretary-General’s report for the Millennium Summit..."

Spain

 

"The Co-Chairperson (Finland): I now give the floor to the Chairman of the round table held yesterday afternoon...

President Chávez Frías ( spoke in Spanish ): ...round table with heads of State, representatives of Governments of America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania.
 ...we spent about four hours there...
I am going to make a major effort in these first few minutes to reflect the spirit that prevailed...

My colleagues and I agree on one question based on the deliberations we are witnessing here and on the excellent report submitted by the Secretary-General to guide us at this Millennium Summit. How can the goals determined there be met? ...

Let us inform our peoples about what was discussed here, about the conclusions that were drawn in this Summit..."

 

 

"This Summit embodies the commitment of the world's political leaders to strengthen the foundations of the United Nations…

In the international arena, there is no alternative to strong, multilateral institutions based on impeccable democratic legitimacy. Decisions and procedures must be transparent. Civil society must be more directly involved."

Romano Prodi
President of the European Commission
8 September 2000 

 

 

 

"We resolve...by the year 2015...to have reduced maternal mortality by three-quarters, and child mortality by two thirds, of...current rates"

[to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day]

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm

 

 

"The Co-Chairperson (Namibia): We have come to the close of this historic Millennium Summit...

We cannot, therefore, afford to go back home from here and continue business as usual. We, as heads of State or Government, have the mandate and the responsibility individually and collectively to take bold steps....

We must act now by translating our commitments into action. It is time to combine our vision and our renewed commitment with the increased resources for the United Nations in a purposeful manner....

We must fulfil our promises..."

[The following text of the co-chairperson's statement is from a press release, http://www.un.org/press/en/2000/20000908.ga9758.doc.html , since the official record refers to a non-existent paragraph in the Declaration:]

"I ... call upon [the new President of the General Assembly, Harri Holkeri] to ensure the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and pay particular attention to paragraph 31."


Paragraph 31 of the Millennium Declaration reads:


"We request the General Assembly to review on a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions of this Declaration..."

 

 

 


"...the Summit is a unique, symbolic moment. The Summit Declaration ...will guide our work....for years to come. …
The Declaration will constitute an authoritative mandate for our work.…
It will be the responsibility of the General Assembly to...put into practice the political commitment of our Heads of State or Government. The General Assembly and its Main Committees ...must reflect the results of the Summit in their work. We need to avoid a business as-usual mentality."

Harri Holkeri, President of the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session

 

 

 

………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

Nations supported 2000 baselines in following years:

 



 

"Remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at World Summit on Sustainable Development
September 4, 2002

Here in Johannesburg, we have recommitted ourselves to achieving, by 2015, the development goals set forth in the Millennium Declaration."
 

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2002/020904/epf306.htm

 

 


2005: "We, Heads of State and Government...reaffirm the Millennium Declaration

We strongly reiterate our determination to ensure the timely and full realization of the development goals and objectives agreed at the major United Nations conferences and summits, including those agreed at the Millennium Summit that are described as the Millennium Development Goals"   
[?]

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf

 

 

"In a little over two months our heads of state and government will review progress against their Millennium Declaration commitments.  ...

The EU welcomes this year’s coordination segment theme - “Towards achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration” – which focuses on how UN system coordination can contribute to these broad objectives in 2005 and beyond. ...

The European Union is strongly committed to the implementation of the outcomes of the conferences in the economic, social, environmental and related fields, and in particular to the Millennium Declaration and the achievement of the MDGs  ...

We underline the link between achieving the MDGs and reaffirming and implementing these outcomes, including those set out in the Millennium Declaration and those from Beijing, Copenhagen, Cairo, Istanbul, Monterrey, Vienna, Johannesburg, Rome, as well as Brussels, Almaty and Mauritius."

EU Presidency Statement – ECOSOC Co-ordination Segment:
Towards achieving internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration
July 6, 2005
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_4864_en.htm

 

 

"The EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) (Council of the European Union, 2006) ...objective is ‘to ...ensure that...policies are consistent with...its international commitments’.

 ...the EU SDS sets out...:

Make significant progress towards meeting the commitments of the EU with regard to internationally agreed goals and targets, in particular those contained in the Millennium Declaration ..."

Sustainable development - global partnership - Statistics Explained
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Sustainable_development_-_global_partnership

 

 

 

A Foreign Office spokesman said ... it was "important that we do not row back from...the UN millennium summit."

August 27, 2005
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/aug/27/uk.usa

 

 

 

G8, Gleneagles 2005:

"We need to work with our partners to increase access to energy if we are to support the achievement of the goals agreed at the Millennium Summit in 2000."

http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/summit/2005/ccc.txt
http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2005gleneagles/climatechange.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asian Development Bank Independent Evaluation Department 2013:


"The Millennium Declaration of 2000….In the following year, the development goals were slightly amended and expanded into a single list called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). …

The UN General Assembly only embraced the separate list of eight MDGs as late as...2005."


MB note:  But the US claimed that the wording meant the Declaration's goals.

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2005/09/20050916110129akllennoccm0.3649256.html#ixzz3pPkGi19h

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2005/050916/epf509.htm

 



 

 

"The General Assembly focus has always been on calling for implementation and monitoring of all the goals and measures in the broader Millennium Declaration framework."

"...the OECD’s International Development Goals (IDGs) in 1996, whose targets were expanded to become the MDGs."

"concerns have been raised as to the formulation and implementation of MDGs from a human rights perspective, particularly as the MDGs were decoupled from the broader agenda encapsulated in the Millennium Declaration. It has been queried whether the MDGs have lowered human rights standards in some instances:

for instance, Goal 2 does not require primary education to be free, contrary to the near-universally ratified Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the goal of ‘fair trade’ in the Millennium Declaration was reduced to ‘free trade’ in the MDGs.

Furthermore, most of the quantitative targets are likely to be lower than minimum human rights standards in the case of middle income countries. This can be discerned in the seemingly triumphant tone of national MDG reports of some of these countries when they report on meeting the goals."

Human Rights and MDGs in Practice:
A review of country strategies and reporting
"This report is based on a global analytical paper commissioned by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) from Malcolm Langford, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent those of OHCHR, UNICEF or the United Nations."
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/MDGs/Human_rights_and_MDGs_in_practice_ML.pdf

 

MB note: It is questionable whether goals to "halve" hunger or extreme poverty meet internationally agreed human rights standards - rights to life, food. 

 

"The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) emerged in 2001 as a compromise between the IDGs and the Millennium Declaration, with a view to avoiding separate development agendas. While the IDGs essentially became the basis for the MDGs…"

http://www.oecd.org/derec/adb/ADB_supportforAchievingMDG_Post2015.pdf

 

 

 

………………………………………………………….


 

 

In 2001 the General Assembly endorsed the 2000 baseline, not the easier MDG targets


Some people think UN member states adopted the MDGs in 2001.  In fact they reaffirmed the 2000-baseline Declaration.

In a resolution of 14 December 2001, the General Assembly welcomed the Secretary-General's Road Map, which contained among other things the 1990-baseline MDG structure.   But the Assembly did not say which parts of the report it agreed with, or whether it welcomed the different baseline. 

In the same resolution of 2001 member states called for more publicity for the 2000-baseline Declaration, which they reaffirmed the next week and in later years. But even if it had specifically endorsed the new baseline, it was still bound by the more ambitious pledges.

 

 

The following statement that the MDGs were not formally endorsed is correct, at least up to September 2005 (and perhaps beyond, since the US claimed that the 2005 wording in fact referred to the Declaration's goals), but the second part is not correct:


"as Manning (2010) notes, the MDGs are not formally endorsed by the UN membership, but described as ‘a useful guide’".


Andy Sumner and Meera Tiwari

Global Poverty Reduction to 2015 and Beyond

October 2010 Working Paper

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/771ids.pdf

 

What the UN members mentioned in the relevant resolution, 56/95 of 14 December 2001, was not the MDGs but the 58-page report containing among other proposals an Annex proposing them. 

They did not say which part or parts they considered a "useful guide" or were for the Secretary-General to "draw on" for his reports.  

Far from describing the 1990-baseline targets as a "useful guide" the General Assembly in the same resolution of 2001 called for increased publicity for the 2000-baseline Declaration, and reaffirmed the Declaration on 21 December 2001. 


The authors misquote Mr Manning, who was referring to the annex containing the MDGs.

Richard Manning is a former UK Department for International Development Director-General.  His 2010 version is not correct either:

"(MDGs), of which the authoritative version was contained in an Annex to a ‘Road Map’ produced by the Secretary-General in September 2001...
the Annex to the ‘Road Map’ was not formally endorsed by the UN membership, but merely described as ‘a useful guide’
in the relevant Resolution"

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2010.00098.x/abstract



The General Assembly in the resolution of 14 December 2001 recommended the 58-page "Road Map" as a useful guide.

It did not mention, as Richard Manning claims, the Annex containing the MDG framework. 

The 2001 resolution did not mention the MDGs, as some academics have claimed.  The Assembly did not make clear whether it was referring to the MDGs as a useful guide, or other parts of the report.

The resolution in fact called for publicity for the Declaration.

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/GAResolutions/56_95/a_res56_95e.pdf .



Richard Manning is however correct here: 

"…despite this less than robust formal basis, there can be no doubt that the MDGs have become highly influential at least at the level of international discourse about development."

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2010.00098.x/abstract
2010
The Impact and Design of the MDGs: Some Reflections

 

 

Mr Manning wrote correctly in 2009 that it was the 58-page Road Map as a whole which the Assembly mentioned:

"The results of this exercise, a framework containing 8 Goals, 18 Targets and 48 Indicators, were annexed to the Secretary-General’s Road Map of 2001. This list became the authoritative statement of the MDG framework, despite the fact that, ironically, it was never endorsed as such by the General Assembly, not least because of both US and G77 reservations (from dierent perspectives) about aspects of Goal Eight. Instead the relevant resolution, though adopted without a vote, recommended that the Secretary-General’s report ‘Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration’ be considered ‘a useful guide’ …"

Richard Manning, former Director General, UK Department for International Development
2009
http://www.oecd.org/site/progresskorea/44117550.pdf



Mr Manning says,

"The Millennium Declaration was not entirely clear about base year."

Elsewhere in the same article he quotes the Declaration twice as stating that the mortality reductions are to be from "current rates".

This, together with other information such as the Secretary-General's proposals to the Summit and the leaders' speeches - and frankly common sense -  would indicate a 2000 baseline.

On 14/17 September 2001 - after the Secretary-General had produced his Road Map, the OECD Secretariat said in its report about the outcome of the group of MDG architects that even the MDG target for water had a 2000 baseline.

In October 2001 UN development agencies agreed guidance notes for country reporting, which stated that the text of the Declaration "would imply" a 2000 baseline.

 

Mr Manning continues:

"The designers of the Annex to the Road-Map
[which contained the proposed MDG framework] decided on 1990 for purposes of consistency and feasibility."

In isolation, this passage would contribute to the misleading impression about baselines:

"As part of the preparation of the Road Map, a group of sta
from the UN (Secretariat, Funds and Programmes, and several Specialised Agencies), OECD, IMF and World Bank, slightly expanded from that which had drafted the ‘Better World for All’ document, reconvened in June to July 2001 under the chairmanship of Michael Doyle from the UN Secretary General’s Oce. Its task was to agree a set of goals that would highlight key commitments in the Millennium Declaration [!] that could be quantified, and for which there were established indicators for which reasonable data existed."

The idea that the task of the MDG architects was to simply "highlight key commitments in the Millennium Declaration" is a fantasy repeated, for example, in the BBC fact-checking programme "More or Less" on 3 July 2015.

 

The BBC removed the audio file from its website without explanation, in an apparent breach of its guidelines.  It is available here:

http://millenniumdeclaration.org/bbc-world-service-more-or-less-mdgs-3-july-2015.mp3  

The task given was actually to "harmonise" the seven 1990-baseline International Development Goals, originally formulated as six goals by the OECD in 1996, with the Millennium Declaration.

http://millenniumdeclaration.org/mdgwaterbaseline.pdf

That is one reason why the group was, as Mr Manning says, expanded from that which had drafted the "Better World for All" document.  That document contained the seven 1990-baseline goals.

The OECD stated in September 2001 that the MDGs contained 20 of the 21 targets from the IDGs.

 

 

 

 

 

Leaders did mention MDGs at the 2005 World Summit.

But a) the US claimed this meant the Declaration's goals, and
b) leaders at the same time specifically reaffirmed the Declaration's more ambitious commitments.  


It is not clear why people who know the difference might write about the MDG framework with easier targets rather than what leaders actually pledged. 

 

The error that the UN membership mentioned the MDGs as a "useful guide" appears also in the following.  It in addition strangely refers to the Declaration "consisting" of six values rather than as including both them and specific time-bound commitments.


"The broader Millennium Declaration (that all UN Member States agreed to) consists of six ‘fundamental values’ (some of which are only partially represented in the MDGs): freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibility.

...The MDGs (which are not formally endorsed by the UN membership but described as ‘a useful guide’) were produced by the UN Secretary General in 2001 and updated in 2005…"

EADI Policy Paper Series
The MDGs and beyond: pro-poor policy in a changing world
Andrew Sumner and Thomas Lawo
With inputs from Tom Mitchell, Andreas Rechkemmer, Chetna Desai, Giulia Frontini, Ben Mann, Richard Mallet, Ricardo Santos, Aislinn Delany
European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes
March 2010
http://www.slideshare.net/andrewwilliamsjr/eadi-policy-papermarch2010

 

 

Similarly, this is not correct:


"Welcomed as a useful guide, the MDGs..."

The UN had not in the relevant resolution of 2001 mentioned MDGs themselves as a "useful guide".

"...were not formally endorsed by the General Assembly until 2005 (Manning, 2009; Hulme, 2010: 19; Manning, 2010; Sumner and Lawo, 2010; Langford, Sumner and Yamin, 2013)…"

 

On the day of that announcement, the US Government published a statement by Assistant Secretary of State Silverberg, that the document would not endorsing the MDGs but referring through that phrase to the goals of the Millennium Declaration.

"By the time the MDGs were finally endorsed..."

[ditto],

"...the initial framework had evolved…to 8 goals, 21 targets and 60 indicators. They were distilled from the resolutions of 23 international conferences and summits held between 1990 and 2005."

[not perhaps clear enough, since for example the 1996 World Food Summit, as Pogge has written, has a 1996 baseline and a more ambitious target to halve the number of hungry people rather than the proportion.]

Thomas Pogge and Nicole Rippin
www.post2015hlp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Pogge-Rippin_Universal-Agenda-on-the-Multiple-Dimensions-of-Poverty.pdf

 

 

 

In the following article, it is not completely clear that the words "consequently the MDGs [were] welcomed as a useful guide" are entailed by the text of the resolution - especially if we take into account the concept of diplomatic language in UN resolutions:



"Annexed to the report was a ‘Road Map’ that contained the initial MDG framework, which at that time comprised 8 Goals, 18 Targets and 48 Indicators. The Road Map – and consequently the MDGs – was welcomed as ‘a useful guide’…."

Nicole Rippin
Progress, Prospects and Lessons from

the MDGs

Background Research Paper for the Report of the High Level Panel on

the Post-2015 Development Agenda
2013
www.post2015hlp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Rippin_Progress-Prospects-and-Lessons-from-the-MDGs.pdf

 

The same paper claims,

"the MDGs were only informally approved at the UN Conference on International Financing for Development"

That refers to the Monterrey Consensus of 2002.  

But nations at the 2002 conference did not mention "Millennium Development Goals" at all in their outcome document.

A phrase they used is,

"the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration".


They stated,

"We should encourage ...coordination ...to meet the Millennium Declaration development goals ..."


http://www.ycsg.yale.edu/assets/downloads/monterrey_consensus.pdf

 



"On behalf of Canada I would like to voice strong support for the Monterrey Consensus.
A consensus that is unprecedented in scope and participation.
That seeks to take an indispensable step forward together in securing a fundamental common cause of the United Nations.
As expressed in the Millennium Declaration."

Monterrey, Mexico March 2002

 


"To achieve the aims of the Millennium Summit, the World Bank estimates it will be necessary to double the amount currently spent on poverty eradication."

Jacques Chirac, President of France
http://www.un.org/ffd/statements/franceE.htm

 

 


"We [the European Community] are conscious of the absolute moral imperative of combating the extreme poverty suffered by one fifth of humanity and we have fully endorsed the historic development goals written into the Millennium Declaration.

We know that in order to attain these objectives it is necessary...."

European Community
Romano Prodi
President of the European Commission at the International Conference on Financing for Development
Monterrey, Mexico
March 22, 2002
http://www.un.org/ffd/statements/ecE.htm

 

 

"Something must be done to galvanize the global political will for an accelerated drive to meet the Millennium Declaration targets.

I am convinced that the UN Millennium Declaration points the way forward."

Han Seung-soo
President of the General Assembly of the United Nations
International Conference on Financing For Development, Monterrey, Mexico
March 2002
http://www.un.org/ffd/statements/gaunE.htm

 

 

Even if the MDGs had been formally endorsed in 2001 or 2002, that would not alter the commitment to the more ambitious pledges.

Pogge and Rippin write,

"In an attempt to nevertheless ‘create the semblance of consensus’ (Vandemoortele, 2011b: 5), member states deliberately omitted the specification of the baseline and, in consequence, the level of aspiration."


Did they deliberately omit the baseline?  A President's Draft of the Millennium Declaration is available from non-UN sources, which refers to baselines - besides those on mortality - which clearly relate to 2000.   

Jan Vandemoortele co-chaired the group negotiating the MDG framework.   The group chose easier targets than leaders had actually pledged.  Following its decisions the UN began falsely claiming in the official MDG list that the easier targets were "from the Millennium Declaration". 

His position is that the baseline was not clear in the Declaration.  

But his version omits

a) nations' support, quoted elsewhere in the present document, for the Secretary-General's proposals to the Summit, which clearly do have a 2000 baseline for money and water,

b) other evidence cited in the present document,

and not least a common-sense argument:

c) the fact that the meaning of a pledge – as I explained in response to an FAO statistician in 2015 – is not in the mind of the person giving it, but in the perception of people who hear of it.  


If I tell you I will double your salary, you would be reasonable in saying I was deceitful if I later said I meant from ten years ago.

 

Pogge and Rippin write,

"The baseline year 1990 was finally set [by] the IAEG when formulating the MDGs"

The group was not called the IAEG (Inter-Agency and Expert Group) at the time.  In fact it was so informal that it seems there are no public records of its procedures. 

Perhaps the only contemporary account of what the group did is the OECD report from September 2001 which states that the group agreed the water target has a 2000 baseline.

 

 

......................................................................................................

 

 

 

A draft chapter for the UN "flagship" publication World Economic and Social Survey: MDG Lessons for Post-2015 is thoroughly confused on the Declaration and the MDGs.

It ignores the baseline difference - written about for many years by Thomas Pogge - completely, while using pompous, authoritative-sounding legalistic language.

It strangely claims that the goals were lifted "verbatim" from the Declaration.

It ignores other evidence, including from the resolution which the draft implies "approved" the MDGs, that the General Assembly actually endorsed and reaffirmed the Declaration.

The main page for the drafts wrongly states:

"In September 2000, world leaders came together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets—with a deadline of 2015—that have become known [!]  as the Millennium Development Goals "

https://wess.un.org/chapters/ 

The wrong statement is repeated here:

https://wess.un.org/chapters/intellectual-and-institutional-background/

 

The passage says that leaders "committed" to a partnership but strangely, only that leaders "set out" time-bound targets. 

In reality leaders did not merely "set out", but were "committed" to the targets
, and these were more ambitious than those "known as the MDGs". 

The authors write:

"The United Nations Millennium Declaration …which followed in the footsteps of the report entitled “We the peoples”, in terms of its expansiveness, included sections on…The section on development and poverty eradication contained the following list of time-bound targets:"



Here again material for the proposed "flagship" UN report fails to note that leaders "resolved" to achieve these targets.  They did not simply adopt a declaration "containing" a "list".  The authors continue:

 
"• To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than a dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water….

• By the same date, to have reduced maternal mortality by three quarters, and under-five child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates. …

This list clearly reflects several of the IDGs set out in the report entitled “A better world for all”.



[The IDGs have the easier 1990 baseline, but the draft UN "flagship" report fails to note the difference]


"In paragraph 31 of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the General Assembly was requested to review on a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions of the Declaration, and to ask the Secretary-General to issue periodic reports for consideration by the Assembly and as a basis for further action. The report of the Secretary-General on the road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration (United Nations, General Assembly, 2001) was issued on 6 September 2001 pursuant to that request. The annex to the report contained MDGs, formulated based on the targets given directly above." 
 [!]



[The statement that the MDG targets were "formulated based on the targets given directly above" is at best confused and may mislead. 

The targets "given ...above" do not have the easier MDGs baseline but instead include two from "current rates".

The MDG targets were
formulated largely based on the IDG targets with 1990 baselines, rather than simply on the Declaration "targets given directly above".]

 

"Issues of omission and commission

The critical comments can be divided into two broad groups: one focusing on omissions and the other on acts of commission.

With regard to omissions, some commentators noted that while the United Nations Millennium Declaration was wide-ranging, covering many different areas, the MDGs were focused on only one section of the Declaration, namely, that entitled “Development and poverty eradication” (sect. III), thereby neglecting the issues of peace, security and disarmament; protecting our common environment; and human rights, democracy and good governance, among others. Many thought that, even within the area of development and poverty eradication, some important issues were omitted, such as reproductive health rights, employment and job opportunities, access to secondary and tertiary education, and equality of opportunities and outcome (Manning, 2009; Rippin, 2013; Fukuda-Parr, 2010; and Fehling, Nelson and Venkatapuram, 2013).7

Regarding flaws of commission, some observers were unhappy with the use of the $1/day measure of poverty, finding it to be too narrow and/or too low. Some were puzzled by the decision to specify some MDGs in the form of proportions while expressing others in terms of absolute numbers (Saith, 2006; 2007).

[This draft for the “flagship” UN report entirely omits Pogge’s observation that some well-known MDG targets are easier than the Declaration pledges]

Along similar lines, some commentators asked why the end point for some MDGs was 2020, while for most others it was 2015. Many questioned why some targets were left quantitatively unspecified (under, for example, MDGs 7 and 8), while the other MDGs and associated targets were quantitatively specified. Many thought that a focus on social sectors would divert resources away from more productive sectors (Manning, 2009; Rippin, 2013; Fehling, Nelson and Venkatapuram, 2013; and Nayyar, 2012).

There were procedural questions, too. Some noted that the MDGs were introduced in the annex to a report of the Secretary-General (on the road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration) instead of being formally set out and discussed and adopted by the General Assembly (Rippin, 2013).

In response to the above criticisms, it has been pointed out that the MDGs were taken verbatim [!]

[UN draft misleads  - the targets were in fact different]

from the
United Nations Millennium Declaration, which was discussed and adopted at the Millennium Summit, so that another round including discussions and adoption was not necessary. Further, since the General Assembly, in its resolution 56/95 of 14 December took note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General on the road map, including the annex thereto,

[! – the resolution said nothing about the annex containing the MDGs]

and recommended that the road map be considered a useful guide in the implementation of the Millennium Declaration by the United Nations system, it was determined in consequence that the MDGs had been formally considered and approved [?] by the Assembly."

"...it was noted that the intention in formulating the MDGs was to create a small set of precise and measurable goals on which the international community could focus. The aspirations expressed in sections of the Millennium Declaration other than that on development and poverty eradication were generally not measurable, at least not to everybody’s satisfaction. Also, only goals already included in the Millennium Declaration (and on which consensus among the States Members of the United Nations had been achieved) could be included in the MDGs"

Chapter I
History, impact and outline of lessons of MDGs
https://wess.un.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/WESS2015_DRAFT1_chapter1.pdf

 

It is not clear what the phrase "it was determined" means. 

There is no problem if states wish to claim that they are committed to, or approved, additional pledges. 

However, to refer to MDG targets as the global targets agreed by the UN, would be ignorant or dishonest.   Member states in fact reaffirmed the more ambitious pledges in 2001 and later years.

The statement that only goals in the Declaration could be in the MDGs makes little sense.  

The MDG targets with 1990 baselines are not in the Declaration.  The strange statement seems to tie in with the error that the targets were lifted "verbatim" – a word used by Jan Vandemoortele - from the Declaration.

www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/DESA---post-2015-paper---Vandemoortele.pdf



Given that an OECD document appears to state that the MDG architects agreed a 2000 baseline for water, it is surprising that none of their or their associates or interviewers' or historians' accounts – at least, those I know of from Doyle, Vandemoortele, the UNDP, Malloch Brown, Annan, Fukuda-Parr, Hulme, and so on -  note this.

It is also puzzling that they do not note the falsehood in the official MDG list that the easier MDG targets come from the Declaration, or similar falsehoods from UNICEF, the WHO, the FAO, the Secretary-General, governments and so on. 



 

A 2015 report by the UN Development Programme Independent Evaluation Office misleads.   It repeats Jan Vandemoortele's strange claim that the 1990-baseline MDG targets were taken "verbatim" from what was clearly a 2000-baseline Declaration.


"DRAFTING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

At the following session, the United Nations General Assembly requested that “the Secretary-General urgently prepare a long-term ‘roadmap’ towards the implementation of the Millennium Declaration within the UN system.”44 An inter-agency expert group was assembled under the co-chairmanship of Michael Doyle (Special Assistant to the United Nations Secretary-General) and Jan Vandemoortele (Head of the UNDP Poverty Group), consisting mainly of statisticians and development economists from OECD/DAC, various UN agencies, the World Bank and the IMF. The group met several times in the spring and summer of 2001 to arrive at a short list of quantitative goals and targets that could be used to monitor the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. In the end, 18 of such targets were taken out verbatim [!] from the agreed language of the Millennium Declaration, assigned indicators and grouped under eight Millennium Development Goals."

Evaluation of the role of UNDP in supporting national achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
2015
"The analysis and recommendations of this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Development Programme, its Executive Board or the United Nations Member States. This is an independent publication by the Independent Evaluation Office.
Jayati Ghosh and Miguel Szekely, from the IEO External Advisory Panel, provided excellent methodological and substantive advice and quality assessed the draft report.
The evaluation was carried out with the invaluable assistance of UNDP staff at headquarters and in the eleven case study countries. Their insight, knowledge, advice and comments made this evaluation possible. "
 http://erc.undp.org/evaluationadmin/downloaddocument.html?docid=8657

 

 

The UNDP evaluation document wrongly claims that the General Assembly "noted" the MDGs in 2001, rather than the Road Map which talked of both MDGs and meeting the Declaration commitments.  

There was no such resolution in "September 2001".  The resolution noting the Road Map was 56/95, of 14 December 2001.

"The considerations that presided over the selection of MDGs and their targets from those listed in the Millennium Declaration were mainly technical in nature and related to measurability, although the process was not devoid of political considerations. Good governance and democratization, while mentioned in the declaration, were deemed likely to dampen some nations’ enthusiasm towards the MDGs and were thus not included among them."

In the end, the MDGs were quite recognizably similar to the OECD-defined set of goals, except Goal 6 focused on HIV/AIDS instead of reproductive health, and Goal 8 was added about development cooperation.  The result was articulated in the Secretary-General’s ‘Road Map towards the Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration’, which enumerated the newly coined MDGs in an appendix. When the ‘Road Map’ was presented to the September 2001 General Assembly, the MDGs [!] were merely noted as useful guidance"


MB note: Not true.  The Assembly noted the 58-page report, not the parts containing the MDGs.

"rather than officially approved. It was only four years later, at the 2005 General Assembly meeting, that the MDGs were officially recognized in a declaration adopted by the General Assembly."


MB note:  But see the statement by the US Assistant Secretary of State of September 2005, that the wording meant the Declaration and not Annan's "MDGs".  


"Meanwhile, the G
77 and the European Union had formally welcomed the MDGs at various meetings and expressed their willingness to endorse them."


See below.

" Irrespective of the language, the September
[?] 2001 General Assembly ‘noting’ of the MDGs... "


[MB: Again, not true. The Assembly noted the 58-page report, not the parts containing the MDGs.]


"...signalled that a consensus had been reached and brought an end to decades of negotiation and bargaining over the international development agenda."



"not even formally approved until 2005, the MDGs..."

See above on the US position. 


The UNDP evaluation report says

"the G77 and the European Union had formally welcomed the MDGs at various meetings and expressed their willingness to endorse them".


But the EU said in 2015 that it was strongly committed to the Declaration, and G-77 foreign ministers, like the General Assembly, reaffirmed the Declaration in 2003 and 2013:

 

"the [2015 Summit] declaration needs to show the international community's resolve to fulfil the promise of the Millennium Declaration and Rio+20, completing and building on the unfinished business of the MDGs."

17 February 2015, New York
Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States
delivered by Mr. Gustavo Martin Prada, Director EU Development Policy -
DG DEVCO, European Commission,
at the United Nations Post-2015 Intergovernmental Negotiations
http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_16119_en.htm

 

 

 

 

2003:


"We, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 and China...at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 25 September 2003, adopted the following declaration: ...

We reaffirm our commitment to the Millennium Declaration and call upon the international community to fully and speedily implement the provisions set out therein and in other major United Nations conferences and summits"

www.g77.org/doc/decg77-xxvii-mm%28english%29.pdf

 

 

2013:

"The Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the Group of 77 and China...reaffirmed... the Millennium Declaration..."

Ministerial Declaration
http://www.g77.org/doc/Declaration2013.htm

 

 

2004:

"We welcome the adoption of General Assembly resolution 58/291 of 6 May 2004 on the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits in the economic and social fields, which decided to convene in New York in 2005, a High-level plenary meeting to undertake a comprehensive review of the progress made in the fulfillment of all the commitments contained in the Millennium Declaration, including the internationally agreed development goals and the global partnership required for their achievement. "

Declaration of the Twenty-eighth Annual Ministerial Meeting of the G-77
http://www.g77.org/doc/Decl2004.htm

 

 

 

"The Group of 77 is determined to work actively for the success of the high-level plenary meeting to be held at the...General Assembly, in 2005... to review progress made in the fulfillment of all the commitments made in the United Nations Millennium Declaration"

Ministerial Declaration
2004
http://www.g77.org/40/declaration.htm

 

 

"On behalf of the Group of 77 and China...

Our leaders agreed upon some common goals which have been clearly articulated in the outcome documents of various UN conferences and summits including the Millennium Summit. And all our leaders agreed that those common goals must be achieved. ...

Regrettably, the report on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration points out that many of us are being left far behind and to those countries, these common goals are becoming increasingly distant.  ...

...the Millennium Declaration must be implemented in its entirety.  ...

The Millennium Declaration is no doubt important, but equally important are the outcomes of other UN conferences and summits. ...

The realization of the goals of the Millennium Declaration have gained increasing importance..."

Statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China
Integrated and Coordinated Implementation of and follow-up to the Outcomes of the Major United Nations Conferences and Summits in the Economic, Social and Related Fields
Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration,  General Assembly Plenary
(New York, 22 November 2004)
http://www.g77.org/Speeches/112204.htm

 

 

 

"G8 countries have agreed on the following set of actions to encourage and support national policies and programs that promote effective private sector-led development to help alleviate poverty, thereby helping to achieve the international development goals of the Millennium Declaration."

Sea Island 2004
Official Website of the G8 presidency of the Russian Federation in 2006

http://en.old.g8russia.ru/g8/history/seaisland2004/11/

 

 

The European Union was also, a year after the MDGs were proposed, talking of the Declaration goals:

 

"On behalf of the European Union...the world community still has far to go if we are to meet the goals of the Millennium Declaration.

For many countries, the United Nations is first and foremost about combating poverty. How to ensure everyone access to the essentials of life; the next meal; the medicine and health care to survive; and access to basic education. These are the promises contained in the Millennium Declaration. And we must not let the world down."

Statement by H.E. Anders Fog Rasmussen
Prime Minister of Denmark on behalf of the European Union
Fifty-Seventh Session Of The General Assembly
General Debate
New York, 12 September 2002
http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/57/statements/020912denmarkE.htm

 

 

 

.............................................................................................




"Millennium Development Goals...
The proposed formulation of the 8 goals, 18 targets and 40+ indicators are listed below.  ...
...the normal baseline year for the targets will be 1990..."
"proposed list of goals, targets...listed below...between 1990 and 2015"

[relevant targets mention 1990 except for water target]

Report of the Secretary-General: Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration
6 September 2001
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sgreport2001.pdf

 

 



"OECD
MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
(Note by the Secretariat)
17 September 2001
...Staff
from the Secretariats of the UN (Secretary General’s Office and UNDG), IMF, OECD-DAC, and the World Bank met in New York on 21 June 2001 to discuss aligning the goals"

[MB note: That means:
a) civil servants' generally easier 1990-baseline International Development Goals whose seven-goals-21-indicators structure and baseline were the basis of the MDG framework,
and
b) the world leaders' 2000-baseline Declaration goals for 2015;  there were some other differences].

"In subsequent correspondence they reached agreement
on a presentation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)...

It was agreed that there should be a standard baseline year of 1990 against which to measure progress (with an exception of using 2000 for the safe water goal as that was agreed in a recent UN conference)."

http://www.mofat.go.kr/webmodule/common/download.jsp?boardid=106&tablename=TYPE_DATABOARD&seqno=075ffcfdafa0fa2ff1fd103b&fileseq=05b06bfb1fd504dfa303b07b

[.pdf document which may need the extension .pdf to be added]

or

http://millenniumdeclaration.org/mdgwaterbaseline.pdf .

 

 

 

 

On 6 November 2001 the heads of UNDP, UNICEF, WFP and UNFPA announced to UN country representatives,

"The International Development Goals (IDGs) and the development goals contained in the Millennium Declaration have recently been merged under the designation of "Millennium Development Goals" (MDGs). They have been agreed by the United Nations system, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and OECD/DAC." 

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://undg.org/archive_docs/1607-MDGs_-_letter_-_MDGs_-_letter.pdf


The heads of UN agencies attached a guidance note for country reporting.

This stated that the text of the Declaration "would imply" a baseline of 2000 for both the mortality and other relevant pledges. 

"The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)…

For the purpose of monitoring progress, the normal baseline year for the targets will be 1990... ...the Secretary-General is to report annually to the General Assembly on progress towards a sub-set of the MDGs…"

"Baseline year – 1990 or 2000?

...In two cases - maternal mortality and under-five mortality - the term "current rates" is used, directly specifying a 2000 baseline. For the remainder, the targets are stated in the form of "to halve by 2015…" This would imply a 2000 baseline year of the Millennium Declaration. After discussions within the UN system and with other partners, the issues have been resolved in favour of 1990 serving as the baseline year."


Guidance Note sent by heads of UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP to country offices on 6 November 2001
United Nations Development Group
Reporting on the Millennium Development Goals at the Country Level
October 2001
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://undg.org/archive_docs/2356-English.doc

 

 

 

In 2001 the General Assembly did not say it "adopted" the new targets.

It recommended

"that the "road map" be considered as a useful guide in the implementation of the Millennium Declaration".

At the same time it requested 

"the Secretary-General to prepare an annual report and a comprehensive report every five years on progress...towards implementing the Millennium Declaration, drawing upon the "road map" map” and in accordance with resolution 55/162...while the quinquennial comprehensive reports examine progress achieved towards implementing all the commitments made in the Declaration".


It looks like member states were asking the Secretary-General to report not just on the generally easier MDG4 and MDG5 but on their pledges of 2000.

This interpretation is boosted by the fact that they at the same time invited

"specific measures to give widespread publicity to the Millennium Declaration".

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/GAResolutions/56_95/a_res56_95e.pdf  

 

 

Resolution 55/162 reads:

"The General Assembly…requests the Secretary-General to prepare a comprehensive report every five years, supplemented by an annual report on progress achieved towards implementing the Millennium Declaration...

(a) The annual reports should reflect the broad array of specific goals and commitments enunciated in the Millennium Declaration


(b) All reports should focus, in this respect, on the results and benchmarks
achieved, identify gaps in implementation….


Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
55/162 Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit
14 December 2000
http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/RES/55/162

 

 

 

 

"Paris, 4 May 2005

OECD Ministers reaffirm Millennium and Monterrey development commitments

...OECD Ministers meeting in Paris have reasserted their countries’ commitments to the Millennium Declaration and the Monterrey Consensus on development....

But the OECD countries also emphasise the responsibilities of individual countries for their economic and social development. “Sound macro-economic policies, good governance based on solid democratic institutions and accountability responsive to the needs of the people …” their statement says.

Corruption is a major impediment to development and investment, the OECD countries warn. In their statement, they pledge to help developing countries build effective anti-bribery systems. But they also insist that increased aid must be accompanied by more effective use, and that aid programmes must be monitored and measured for their effectiveness. ...

ENABLING DEVELOPMENT

OECD statement to the follow-up of the

UN Millennium Declaration and Monterrey Consensus

1. We, Ministers of OECD countries, gathered at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting on 3-4 May 2005 in Paris, reaffirm our strong commitment to the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and the Monterrey Consensus and for achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration (MDGs)."  [?]

OECD Ministers reaffirm Millennium and Monterrey development commitments
www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote%3DPAC/COM/NEWS(2005)16%26doc

 

 

 

"The Millennium Declaration is the strategic framework for German development co-operation."

Policy changes in DAC members’ development co-operation
OECD 2011
http://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/47368129.pdf

 

 

 

"We are faced with unique opportunities and responsibilities over the coming months. We should be excited by the emerging Sustainable Development Goals. They have the potential to rekindle the spirit of solidarity that underpinned the Millennium Declaration. We have a collective responsibility to deliver on our promises"

[!]

Official visit of Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, to the OECD
April 2015
http://www.oecd.org/about/secretary-general/introduction-of-united-nations-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon-at-oecd-28-april-2015.htm

 

Note:  The General Assembly asked the Secretary-General in 2000 and 2001 to report on progress on the Millennium Declaration commitments.  Instead, he and Mr Ban reported on the easier MDGs.   Mr Ban's 2015 Report on the Work of the Organization entirely omits the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Summit.

 

 

National leaders did not make any explicit statement at the UN on "MDGs" until September 2005, and even then the US claimed that this mean the Declaration's goals.

The USA in 2005 emphasised that the MDG framework was "solely a Secretariat product" and not formally endorsed by the UN membership.


For example:

pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB560.pdf  

 

Another example:

 

 

"The U.S. stands by its commitment to the goals in the Millennium Declaration. The President has said so specifically. This is an important commitment we made and, of course, we remain committed to it.

Separate from the Millennium Declaration, the UN Secretariat created a document that provides a number of indicators, ways to measure, ways the UN Secretariat thinks would be appropriate to measure progress towards those goals. Some of them we agree with, some of them we don't agree with. The U.S. never signed onto it. Other member-states didn't sign onto it. So we try to be very precise when we're talking about the Millennium Declaration to say we support the goals in the Millennium Declaration that were subject to U.S. agreement."

Kristen Silverberg, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
On-The-Record Briefing
Washington, DC
August 31, 2005
2001-2009.state.gov/p/io/rls/rm/52382.htm

 

 

 

 

Heads of State and Government and High Representatives,
25 September 2015:

"...Follow-up to the outcome of the [2000-baseline] Millennium Summit...
 
The new Agenda is…grounded in…the
[2000-baseline] Millennium Declaration…

"We
reaffirm the outcomes of all major United Nations conferences and summits

[which includes the 2000-baseline Millennium Declaration and the more ambitious pledge of 1996 to halve the number, not just the proportion, of hungry people by 2015]

Almost 15 years ago, the
[1990-baseline] Millennium Development Goals [!] were agreed."

 
[! - Untrue and misleading.  In fact what was agreed "almost 15 years ago" was the more ambitious 2000-baseline Declaration.]

http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/L.1
 

 

 

 

2013:

"We, the Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation...

reaffirm
our commitment to the Millennium Declaration...

and
the outcomes of all the major UN conferences and summits in the economic, social, and environmental fields."

25 September 2013
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Outcome%20documentMDG.pdf

 

 

 

"We, the Heads of State and Government of...the Group of 77 and China...
...decide to accelerate the implementation of our respective commitments in this regard
[the vital role of women and the need for full and equal opportunities for their participation and leadership in all areas of sustainable development] as contained in...
...the United Nations Millennium Declaration..."

June 2014
http://www.g77.org/doc/A-68-948(E).pdf

 

 

Note:  Women cannot have "full and equal" opportunities for "their participation...in all areas of sustainable development" if they die from childbirth, or their children die, or they have no access to affordable and clean water, as a result of governments' failure to meet international commitments. 

Women cannot "participate" fully if governments give them the wrong information on what they pledge. 

The G-77 now includes most nations.

The decision

"to accelerate the implementation of our respective commitments [in regard to participation of women in development]..in...the... Millennium Declaration"

therefore cannot reasonably be interpreted as other than this: 


In 2014, most of the world's nations recommitted to the Declaration pledges.

 

 

 

"Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
55/2.   8 September 2000
United Nations Millennium Declaration

...We, heads of State and Government, have gathered...As leaders we have a duty therefore to...in particular, the children...

We resolve...

- To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water. ...

- By the same date, to have reduced maternal mortality by three quarters, and under-five child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates. ....

We request the General Assembly to review on a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions of this Declaration...

We therefore pledge our unstinting support for these common objectives and our determination to achieve them."

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm 

 

 

 

 

On 27 July 2015 the UN General Assembly reaffirmed member states' commitment to

1) economic conditions to fulfil goals of the Millennium Declaration - the Declaration is in at least one respect more ambitious than later "Millennium Development Goal" targets, since it has a 2000 baseline -

and

2) a global information campaign on the Millennium Declaration and the other agreed goals, which include the World Food Summit goal of halving the 1996 number of hungry people to, by current official FAO method and estimates, about 500 million.


http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/69/313

 

 

 

The target pledged in the Millennium Declaration is about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, not the 4.3 million implied by the MDG target.

 

 

July 2015:

"We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives...reaffirm and build on the 2002 Monterrey Consensus"

2002 Monterrey Consensus:

"…economic conditions needed to fulfil internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declarationwill be our first step to ensuring that the twenty-first century becomes the century of development for all."

"we should encouragecoordination of international institutions and coherence…to meet the Millennium Declaration development goals"

"We shall support the United Nations in the implementation of a global information campaign on the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration."

http://www.ycsg.yale.edu/assets/downloads/monterrey_consensus.pdf

 

 

 

"The declaration endorsed targets set by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a near-Utopian report last April that called for halving by the year 2015 the 22 percent of the world's population now existing on less than a dollar a day."

Reuters, 8 September 2000

http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/RTV/2000/09/08/009080017/?s=millennium%20summit

 

 

 

"A main target, set by Mr Annan and agreed to by the summiteers, is to halve by 2015 the 22% of people who live on less than a dollar a day"

The Economist, editorial. 7 September 2000
http://www.economist.com/node/359559

 

 

"A declaration to be signed on Friday when the summit meeting ends has set ambitious benchmarks....

One such goal proposes to reduce by half over the next 15 years the number of people earning less than a dollar a day. To achieve that, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela reckoned, ''we should increase that income to levels of fairness and dignity for 140,000 persons each day of each month and of each year from the present until Dec. 31, 2015.''

"The Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, agreed that radical efforts were required. "

"Published: September 8, 2000 United Nations, Sept. 7"
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/08/world/summit-in-new-york-the-orators-un-speakers-urge-increase-in-charity-to-the-poor.html

 

 


"Setting out to halve in fifteen years the number of poor people we now have is an undoubtedly remarkable endeavor..."

Felipe Perez Roque, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, General Debate of the 55th General Assembly
http://www.un.org/ga/webcast/statements/cubaE.htm 
15 September 2000

"Proponernos reducir a la mitad, dentro de quince años, el número de pobres que hoy tenemos, es un empeño sin duda encomiable..."

http://www.un.org/ga/webcast/statements/cubaS.htm

 

 

"the targets set by the Millennium Summit, including the target to halve, by the year 2015, the current proportion of the world's poor people"

Nguyen Dzy Nien, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Vietnam,
General Debate of the 55th Session of the UN General Assembly
13 September 2000
http://www.un.org/ga/webcast/statements/vietnamE.htm

 

 


"PLEDGES MADE AT 2000 MILLENNIUM SUMMIT MUST BE TRANSFORMED INTO REALITY, SPEAKERS STRESS…

JEAN DE RUYT (Belgium), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the Union
would like the Millennium Declaration to be the touchstone for any practical steps taken by the United Nations and its specialized agencies, and by all governments."

19 November 2001
Press Release
http://www.un.org/press/en/2001/GA9973.doc.htm



 


"Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
56/95.  Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 55/2 of 8 September 2000, by which it adopted the
United Nations Millennium Declaration as the outcome of the Millennium Summit
of the United Nations, held at Headquarters from 6 to 8 September 2000,

Recalling also its resolution 55/162 of 14 December 2000, in which it, inter
alia, requested the Secretary-General to prepare a long-term
road map” towards the
implementation of the Millennium Declaration
within the United Nations system
and to submit it to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session,

Reaffirming
the need to maintain the will and momentum of the Millennium
Summit
, as well as the importance of a comprehensive and balanced approach in the
implementation of and follow-up to the Millennium Declaration,

 1. Takes note with appreciation
of the report of the Secretary-General
entitled
Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium
Declaration”;

 2. Recommends that the “road map” be considered as a useful guide in the
implementation of the Millennium Declaration
by the United Nations system, and
invites
Member States, as well as the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade
Organization and other interested parties to consider the “road map”
when
formulating plans for implementing goals related to the Declaration;

 3. Requests the Secretary-General
to prepare an annual report and a
comprehensive report every five years on progress achieved by the United Nations
system and Member States towards implementing the Millennium Declaration,
drawing upon the “road map”
and in accordance with resolution 55/162, and
requests that the annual reports focus on cross-cutting and cross-sectoral issues, as
well as on the major areas set forth in the “road map”, while the quinquennial
comprehensive reports
examine progress achieved towards implementing all the
commitments made in the Declaration
;

 4. Invites the United Nations system, in cooperation with Member States, to
adopt specific measures to give widespread publicity to the Millennium Declaration
and to increase the dissemination of information on the Declaration;

 5. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-seventh session
the item entitled “Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit”.

86th plenary meeting
14 December 2001
http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/56/95&Lang=E

 

 

 

2000: "As leaders we have a duty therefore to...in particular, the children...
We resolve...by the year 2015...to have reduced child mortality by two thirds, of...
current rates
"

[to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day]

http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm

 

 

 

2005: "We, Heads of State and Government...reaffirm the Millennium Declaration

We strongly reiterate our determination to ensure the timely and full realization of the development goals and objectives agreed at the major United Nations conferences and summits, including those agreed at the Millennium Summit that are described as the Millennium Development Goals"   
[?]

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf

 

 

2013: "We, the Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation...

reaffirm
our commitment to the Millennium Declaration...

and
the outcomes of all the major UN conferences and summits in the economic, social, and environmental fields."

25 September 2013
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Outcome%20documentMDG.pdf

 

 

 

 

2002, World Summit on Sustainable Development
Johannesburg Declaration:

We, the representatives of the peoples of the world…
commit ourselves to
the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and to expedite the achievement of the time-bound, socio-economic and environmental targets contained therein.”

Plan of Implementation:

"Develop programmes and initiatives to reduce, by 2015, mortality rates for infants and children under 5 by two thirds, and maternal mortality rates by three quarters, of the prevailing rate in 2000 and reduce disparities between and within developed and developing countries as quickly as possible "

World Summit on Sustainable Development
Earth Summit
2-4 September 2002
Johannesburg Declaration and Plan of Implementation
http://www.un-documents.net/jburgdec.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/WSSD_PlanImpl.pdf

 

 

 

On 20 December 2002 the General Assembly endorsed the Johannesburg Declaration and its Plan which included:

"Develop programmes and initiatives to reduce, by 2015, mortality rates for infants and children under 5 by two thirds, and maternal mortality rates by three quarters, of the prevailing rate in 2000 and reduce disparities between and within developed and developing countries as quickly as possible"

Resolution 57/253
www.preventionweb.net/files/resolutions/N0255606.pdf

 




Nations in 2002 did mention the MDGs twice in the Johannesburg Declaration:

"20. We are committed to ensuring that women's empowerment, emancipation and gender equality are integrated in all the activities encompassed within Agenda 21, the Millennium development goals /6 and the Plan of Implementation of the Summit."

"30. We undertake to strengthen and improve governance at all levels for the effective implementation of Agenda 21, the Millennium development goals and the Plan of Implementation of the Summit."

 

However, they still committed to the more ambitious goals:

"We also commit ourselves to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration  and in the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and international agreements since 1992."

"….concerted and concrete measures are required at all levels to enable developing countries to achieve their sustainable development goals as related to the internationally agreed poverty -related targets and goals, including those contained in Agenda 21, the relevant outcomes of other United Nations conferences and the United Nations Millennium Declaration . This would include actions at all levels to:

 ( a ) Halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than 1 dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water…

"we agree to halve , by the year 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water (as outlined in the Millennium Declaration) and the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation…"

"furtherance of the agreed Millennium development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, in particular to halve by 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger"

"Bearing in mind the target of halving the number of people who live in poverty by the year 2015, as provided in the Millennium Declaration…

"81 . The implementation of Agenda 21 and the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration as well as in the present plan of action, require a substantially increased effort…"

 

 

 

The Johannesburg Plan of Action of September 2002 echoed the Monterrey Consensus of March in talking about the first step being economic conditions to fulfil the Millennium Declaration commitments:

 

"achievingeconomic conditions needed to fulfil internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declarationwill be our first step to ensuring that the twenty-first century becomes the century of sustainable development for all ."

"Provide technical and financial assistance… to:
Design programmes for capacity-building and support for local, national and community-level programmes that focus on meeting the challenges of globalization more effectively and attaining the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration…"

"An effective institutional framework for sustainable development at all levels is key…
Measures aimed at strengthening such a framework…should promote the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, taking into account the Monterrey Consensus and relevant outcomes of other major United Nations conferences and international agreements since 1992."

 

Poor governance has been evident in the false statements by UN agencies and others on leaders' commitments.   This is what the Johannesburg Plan of Action said:



"138. Good governance is essential for sustainable development. Sound economic policies, solid democratic institutions responsive to the needs of the people and improved infrastructure are the basis for sustained economic growth, poverty eradication, and employment creation. Freedom, peace and security, domestic stability, respect for human rights, including the right to development, and the rule of law, gender equality, market-oriented policies, and an overall commitment to just and democratic societies are also essential and mutually reinforcing."



Providing the wrong information on government pledges to the poorest is not exactly "respect for human rights", "democratic institutions responsive to the needs of the people",  "the right to development" or a "commitment to just and democratic societies".

 

 

…………………………………………………

 




"(MDGs), of which the authoritative version was contained in an Annex to a ‘Road Map’ produced by the Secretary-General in September 2001...the Annex to the ‘Road Map’ was not formally endorsed by the UN membership, but merely described as ‘a useful guide’ in the relevant Resolution, "

[Clarification by MB:  Mr Manning is not correct.  The General Assembly in Resolution 56/95 of 14 December 2001 recommended the "Road Map", not its Annex containing the MDGs, as a useful guide.
No UN resolution of 2001 mentioned the MDGs or the Annex containing the MDG framework. The full text is later in this document]

"and that the subsequent updating has been carried out by the so-called Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the Millennium Development Goal Indicators, a body whose status is pleasingly unclear.
Nevertheless, despite this less than robust formal basis, there can be no doubt that the MDGs have become highly influential at least at the level of international discourse about development."

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2010.00098.x/abstract
2010
The Impact and Design of the MDGs: Some Reflections
Richard Manning (former UK Department for International Development Director General)

 

 

 

 

"We, the representatives of the peoples of the world, have gathered in Tunis from 16-18 November 2005 for this second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)...
We reaffirm our desire and commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society..."

 


MB note:  So why is it that the BBC, for example, has no information at all on the Millennium Declaration pledges on mortality on its website?   

Where is that information on the UK Government and UK Parliament websites?

There are billions of internet terminals (smartphones).  How many people know what their nations committed to in the Declaration?

 


"...premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, international law and effective multilateralism, and respecting fully and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so that people everywhere can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, ...to attain the internationally-agreed development goals of the Millennium Declaration. ..."


"This Summit is an important stepping-stone in the world’s efforts to eradicate poverty and to attain the internationally-agreed development goals of the Millennium Declaration."


World Summit on the Information Society
2005
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/40912.pdf

 

 

 

"We seek to reduce hunger in Africa by half by 2015, in keeping with the United Nations (UN) Development Goals of the Millennium Declaration. "

Department of State and USAID Strategic Plan

Bureau of Resource Management
2007
http://www.state.gov/s/d/rm/rls/dosstrat/2007/html/82960.htm

 

 

 

 

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General:

“The norms and values embedded in the Millennium Declaration and international human rights instruments must continue to provide the foundation for engagement, in particular the key human rights principles of non-discrimination, meaningful participation and accountability”.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/Quotes.aspx

 

 

 

"...the deputy secretary general pointed out. "What the Summit will do is elevate the level of commitment to make it a commitment by the leaders themselves. This makes a big difference."

30 August 2000
http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2000/000830/epf304.htm

 

 

 

"Let us resolve therefore: - To halve, by the time this century is 15 years old, the proportion of the world’s people (currently 22 per cent) whose income is less than one dollar a day.

- To halve, by the same date, the proportion of people (currently 20 per cent) who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water."

"Specifically, I urge the Summit to adopt the target of reducing by half, between now and 2015, the proportion of people who lack sustainable access to adequate sources of affordable and safe water."

www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/We_The_Peoples.pdf 

 

 


In 2001 member states at the UN did not refer to the Secretary-General's proposed MDG structure at all. 

The resolution of 14 December 2001 only referred to the 58-page "road map" containing the MDGs, not the MDGs themselves.

The "road map" has many more suggestions.  Member states did not say which parts they welcomed, recommended as a useful guide, or invited the Secretary-General to take into account for his reports on implementing the Declaration. 

Far from formally adopting the easier 1990-baseline MDGs, the next week member states reaffirmed the 2000-baseline Declaration more than once:


 

"The General Assembly…Reaffirming also the United Nations Millennium Declaration"

Resolution 56/188. Women in Development
21 December 2001
http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/56/188





"Reaffirming also the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted by heads of State and Government"

Resolution 56/189.
Human resources development
21 December 2001
www.worldlii.org/int/other/UNGARsn/2001/272.pdf
http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/56/189





"Reaffirming the United Nations Millennium Declaration, in particular the targets and commitments relating to development and poverty eradication ….


R
equests the Secretary-General to provide the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session with an overview of the challenges and constraints as well as progress made towards achieving the major development goals and objectives adopted by the United Nations during the past decade"

Resolution 56/191.
Implementation of the Declaration on International Economic Cooperation, in particular the Revitalization of Economic Growth and Development of the Developing Countries, and implementation of the International Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade
21 December 2001
http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/UNGARsn/2001/274.pdf
http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/56/191



 

2007:

"The General Assembly…
Reaffirming also the United Nations Millennium Declaration
Encourages the international community, the United Nations system, the private sector and civil society to continue to provide the necessary financial resources to assist national Governments in their efforts to meet the development targets and benchmarks agreed upon at the World Summit for Social Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women, the International Conference on Population and Development, the Millennium Summit, the International Conference on Financing for Development, the World Summit on Sustainable Development…"

Resolution 62/206
Women in Development
19 December 2007
css.escwa.org.lb/GARes/62-206.pdf
http://www.refworld.org/docid/47ea37eb2.html
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N07/476/13/PDF/N0747613.pdf

 

 

 

"without vigorous democratic participation, official accountability, strengthened institutional capacity, Governments are unlikely to deliver on commitments to achieve the Millennium Declaration, including the Millennium Development Goals, and other internationally agreed development goals."
 
Report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization
2007
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sgreport2007.pdf

 

 

How can people have "vigorous democratic participation" if the authorities tell them leaders only pledged the easier MDG targets?

 

 

"At the 2005 World Summit (see General Assembly resolution 60/1), world leaders committed themselves to achieving four targets additional to the ones included in the United Nations Millennium Declaration"

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sgreport2007.pdf

 

 

The Secretary-General's 2007 report falsely refers to the 1990-baseline targets as

"targets (from the Millennium Declaration)…1990…1990…"

- in the cases of the mortality targets, directly contradicting the Declaration's text,

"of their current rates".

 

 

 

The General Assembly on 14 December 2001 requested the Secretary-General to draw on the "road map" for his reports.

However, the same resolution requested the Secretary-General to submit reports on “all the commitments in the Declaration”.  The resolution called for reports in accordance with Resolution 55/162, which states:


"The General Assembly…requests the Secretary-General to prepare a comprehensive report every five years, supplemented by an annual report on progress achieved towards implementing the Millennium Declaration, taking into account the following:

(a) The annual reports should reflect the broad array of specific goals and commitments enunciated in the Millennium Declaration

(b) All reports should focus, in this respect, on the results and benchmarks achieved, identify gaps in implementation…"

55/162
Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit
14 December 2000
http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/RES/55/162

 



So any idea that the Assembly in 2001 was giving up the pledges and replacing them with the easier MDG targets seems to be misplaced. 

The Assembly agreed the 2000-baseline Declaration, and again in 2001 and later.

 

 

 

 

"The General Assembly adopted resolution 56/192…on 21 December 2001. Reaffirming the Millennium Declaration goal of reducing by half, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water, the Assembly welcomed…"

Global Ministerial Environment Forum
Governing Council of the UN Environmental Programme
Note by the Secretariat
30 January 2002
http://www.unep.org/GC/GCSS-VII/Documents/k0260039.pdf

 

 

 

The General Assembly debated the Secretary-General's Road Map on implementing the Millennium Declaration.

The Road Map contained the proposed easier MDG targets.

The debate took place on 19 November 2001 - after UN staff had distributed the MDG structure to UN country representatives.

 

 

 

19 November 2001

United Nations Press Release GA/9973

"PLEDGES MADE AT 2000 MILLENNIUM SUMMIT MUST BE TRANSFORMED INTO REALITY, SPEAKERS STRESS, AS GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONSIDERS SUMMIT FOLLOW-UP

Takes Up ‘Road Map’ to Millennium Declaration Implementation

[Comment:  The resolution resulting from this debate of 19 November 2001 was not until 14 December.  The mention of the Road Map in that resolution, 56/95, was not exactly that the Assembly "took up" the Road Map.]

…Before the Assembly there is a report of the Secretary-General on the road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration (document A/56/326).  The report contains an integrated and comprehensive overview of the current situation.  It outlines potential strategies for action that are designed to meet the goals and commitments made by the 147 heads of State and government, and 189 Member States in total, who adopted the Millennium Declaration"


"Speaking on behalf of the European Union, the Belgian representative said that one must not forget the goals of the Millennium Declaration. …
  The Millennium Declaration offered the opportunity to make multifaceted action more effective and coherent, with a view to realizing the objectives that governments had set themselves, particularly in the area of development and human rights. 
One must not forget that the goals of the Millennium Declaration were ambitious, he continued." 


"JEAN DE RUYT (Belgium), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the Union would like the Millennium Declaration to be the touchstone for any practical steps taken by the United Nations and its specialized agencies, and by all governments. …
  The Millennium Declaration offered the opportunity to make multifaceted action more effective and coherent, with a view to realizing the objectives that governments had set themselves, particularly in the area of development and human rights. 
One must not forget that the goals of the Millennium Declaration were ambitious, he continued.  The road leading to the Millennium objectives was a difficult one, as it was both foggy and much travelled, which was why it needed to be clearly and precisely marked. 
"


"KISHORE MAHBUBANI (Singapore) said that the history of the United Nations was replete with summits and declarations.  They came, they went, and nothing much changed.  It was, therefore, easy to become cynical about such summits and their results.  If the Millennium Summit and its results were not to be tarnished with such cynicism, the international community would have to be serious about matching beautiful words with beautiful deeds.  To ensure that the United Nations did not once again fail to implement agreed commitments, Member States should complement the excellent “road map” produced by the Secretariat with an objective analysis of the “roadblocks” that had prevented the implementation of previous commitments."


"GERT ROSENTHAL (Guatemala) said …His delegation, however, observed that in requesting, in its resolution 55/162, a “road map‚” the General Assembly may have erred, for the Millennium Declaration itself constituted such a map."

General Assembly
Press Release
http://www.un.org/press/en/2001/GA9973.doc.htm



 


Note: Gert Rosenthal has been named as involved in the drawing up of the Declaration:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080510151408/http://www.ippf.org/en/What-we-do/Advocacy/Reproductive+Health+and+the+Millennium+Development+Goals.htm

www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2012/wp117_2012.pdf

 

 

 

 

"On September 25, 2008, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a keynote speech at the U. N. High-Level Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the United Nations headquarters in New York. ...

Wen said that China has honored its commitments to the Millennium Declaration and done what it can to help some least developed countries.

Meanwhile, the premier pointed out, about one billion people in the world still live below the poverty line. To attain the goals of the Millennium Declaration globally remains a long and uphill journey...

...It is important to improve the working mechanisms for the development goals in the Millennium Declaration."

Wen Jiabao Delivers Keynote Speech at U.N. High-Level Meeting on MDGs
2008
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/zyjh_665391/t515546.shtml

 

 

 



"If the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations were not to become another waste paper lying buried in the archives, it would have to be implemented in all sincerity and entirety, said the representative of Pakistan this afternoon, as the General Assembly continued its consideration of the follow-up to the Millennium Summit."


"The pace of the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit fell far short of the goals set in the Millennium Declaration, said the representative of China. …WANG YINGFAN (China) said …"


"Switzerland, said…Road Map presented by the Secretary-General. …closely followed the main guidelines of the Millennium Declaration. …The best way forward would be to concentrate on the objectives put forward during the Millennium Summit."


"(Brazil) said that the road map prepared by the Secretary-General was extremely useful. … Many of the goals of the Millennium Declaration had been with us for years, he said.  Brazil believed that to be effective, assessment must be continuous and it therefore endorsed the Secretary-General's proposal to follow up the road map with yearly reports, supported by strategic five-year evaluations on the long-term implementation of the millennium goals." 


"(Argentina) reaffirmed the commitments of the Millennium Declaration and said it was a matter of political will for States to implement the road map the Secretary-General had set out." 

Kazakhstan "supported the strategies of the “road map” prepared by the Secretary-General.  It was committed to a peaceful, stable and environmentally safe world, and supported all of the objectives of the Millennium Summit."


"(Cameroon) said that in the Millennium Declaration, a year ago, the world’s leaders had embodied all the highest aspirations of the world’s people for peace and development.  The documents before the Assembly today represented the Secretary-General’s roadmap for implementing the ideal then set out."


United Nations
Press Release 19 November 2001
http://www.un.org/press/en/2001/GA9974.doc.htm

 

 

 

"The General Assembly…
Reaffirming the goal of reducing by half, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water…"

Resolution 56/192
21 December 2001
http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/56/192
http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/UNGA/2001/301.pdf

 



"The General Assembly...Endorses the Addis Ababa Action Agenda…

Addis Ababa Action Agenda…We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives, gathered in Addis Ababa from 13 to 16 July 2015….reaffirm and build on the 2002 Monterrey Consensus…"


http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/69/313

 

 

Monterrey Consensus 2002:


"…achieving the…economic conditions needed to fulfil internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declarationwill be our first step to ensuring that the twenty-first century becomes the century of development for all."

"commitments of the Millennium Declaration and other internationally agreed development targets can help countries to set short- and medium-term national priorities…"

"we should encourage…coordination of international institutions and coherence…to meet the Millennium Declaration development goals"

"We recognize the link between financing of development and attaining internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, in measuring development progress and helping to guide development priorities. We welcome in that regard the intention of the United Nations to prepare a report annually. We encourage close cooperation between the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization in the preparation of that report. We shall support the United Nations in the implementation of a global information campaign on the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration. In that respect, we would like to encourage the active involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including civil society organizations and the private sector."


Final text of agreements and commitments adopted at the International Conference on Financing for Development

Monterrey, Mexico, 18-22 March 2002

http://www.ycsg.yale.edu/assets/downloads/monterrey_consensus.pdf






 

 

 

 

 


UNITED NATIONS

 

 

Governing Council

of the United Nations

Environment Programme

 

 

30 January 2002

 

 

Seventh special session

Cartagena, Colombia, 13-15 February 2002

 

GLOBAL MINISTERIAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM…

Note by the secretariat

 

...The General Assembly adopted resolution 56/192 on ‘Status of preparations for the International Year of Freshwater, 2003’, on 21 December 2001. Reaffirming the Millennium Declaration goal of reducing by half, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water, the Assembly welcomed…

By its resolution 56/95 on the ‘Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit’ of 14 December 2001, the Assembly, reaffirming the need to maintain the will and momentum of the Millennium Summit as well as the importance of a comprehensive and balanced approach in the implementation of and follow-up to the Millennium Declaration, recommended that the “Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration” submitted by the Secretary-General (document A/56/326) be considered as a useful guide in the implementation of the Millennium Declaration by the UN system. The Assembly requested the Secretary-General to prepare, drawing upon the road map and in accordance with its resolution 55/162, an annual report and a comprehensive report every five years on progress achieved by the UN system and Member States towards implementing the Millennium Declaration, and requested that the annual reports focus on cross-cutting and cross-sectoral issues, as well as on the major areas set forth in the road map, while the quinquennial comprehensive reports examine progress achieved towards implementing all the commitments made in the Declaration. In this regard, the Assembly invited the UN system, in cooperation with Member States, to adopt specific measures to give widespread publicity to the Millennium Declaration and to increase the dissemination of information thereon."

 

 

 

 

"World Food Summit, countries back global action plan against hunger

11 June 2002 – Countries from across the globe attending a United Nations conference in Rome have renewed their commitment to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world by no later than 2015, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which is organizing the event, announced today."

United Nations News Centre
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?newsid=3896&cr=&cr1=#.Vmwoj169Vcw

 

 

 

 

World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002  
(Earth Summit)
Johannesburg Declaration 2002:

We, the representatives of the peoples of the world…commit ourselves to the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and to expedite the achievement of the time-bound, socio-economic and environmental targets contained therein. … we solemnly pledge to the peoples of the world and the generations that will surely inherit this Earth that we are determined to ensure that our collective hope for sustainable development is realized.

Plan of Implementation:

""We also commit ourselves to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration and in the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and international agreements since 1992"

"Develop programmes and initiatives to reduce, by 2015, mortality rates for infants and children under 5 by two thirds, and maternal mortality rates by three quarters, of the prevailing rate in 2000 and reduce disparities between and within developed and developing countries as quickly as possible"

http://www.un-documents.net/jburgdec.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/WSSD_PlanImpl.pdf

Note: The Johannesburg Summit website was available in September 2015 but not on 12 October 2015.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150907021450/http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/basic_info/faqs.html

How will Government adherence to commitments made in Johannesburg be monitored?

Following decisions made at the Summit, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) will now have an enhanced role in respect of reviewing and monitoring …”

 

 

 

2002:

"The General Assembly…
C
ognizant of…the need to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including those set out in the Millennium Declaration..."
 
Resolution 57/7 
Final review and appraisal of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s and support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development 
4 November 2002

www1.uneca.org/nepad/nepad_ares577.aspx   

 

 

 

2003:

"We, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 and China...at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 25 September 2003, adopted the following declaration:

...We reaffirm our commitment to the Millennium Declaration and call upon the international community to fully and speedily implement the provisions set out therein and in other major United Nations conferences and summits"

www.g77.org/doc/decg77-xxvii-mm%28english%29.pdf



 

2003:

"The General Assembly...

Reaffirming the United Nations Millennium Declaration...
Recognizes that a substantial increase in official development assistance and other resources will be required if developing countries are to achieve the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration...

Encourages the international community, the United Nations system, the private sector and civil society to continue to provide the necessary financial resources to assist national Governments in their efforts to meet the development targets and benchmarks agreed upon at the World Summit for Social Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women, the International Conference on Population and Development, the Millennium Summit..."

23 December 2003
A/RES/58/206
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N03/460/64/PDF/N0346064.pdf





 

"We reaffirm our commitment to fight global poverty and to help countries achieve the international development goals of the Millennium Declaration"

Statement by G-7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, 2004
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/js1979.aspx

 

 

 

"We strongly reiterate our determination to ensure the timely and full realization of the development goals and objectives agreed at the major United Nations conferences and summits, including those agreed at the Millennium Summit that are described as the Millennium Development Goals... " [!]

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf

 

 

"Achieving the goals articulated in the Millennium Declaration is very much...central to the mission of USAID."
 
Andrew Natsios
Administrator

U.S. Agency for International Development
August 2005
https://web.archive.org/web/20050908193817/http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/ites/0805/ijee/natsios.htm

 

 

 

This looks like President Bush endorsed the 1990-baseline MDGs in 2005 - until you read what the US said afterwards:

 

"We are committed to the Millennium Development goals." 

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(New York, New York)
September 14, 2005
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT UNITED NATIONS HIGH-LEVEL PLENARY MEETING
http://wayback.archive.org/web/20050915232647/http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=September&x=20050914111525mbzemog0.841427&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

 

 

 

"U.N. Document Clarifies [?] Development Goals, State's Silverberg Says
General Assembly consensus on document expected September 16

By Kathryn McConnell | Washington File Staff Writer | 16 September 2005

New York – The negotiated final summit document expected to be adopted September 16 by the U.N. General Assembly clarifies that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are those agreed to by the United States and other U.N. members in the 2000 Millennium Declaration, says Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg.

In an exclusive interview with the Washington File September 15, Silverberg, who heads the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, said the United States regards the Millennium Declaration – a key set of principles and objectives on an array of international issues – as a “good product.”

She said that to reach a consensus agreement, all countries participating in its negotiation process gave up something they initially wanted. The document, as a result, reflects “disparate views” of the interests of countries around the world, she said. (See related article.)

Silverberg said the United States continues to “strongly support” the goals it agreed to in the Millennium Declaration, such as reducing world poverty by half by 2015 and reducing instances of HIV/AIDS.

“Sometimes people use [the term] MDGs to mean other things, in particular of a list of targets and indicators that were in a document the [U.N.] secretariat produced” following the Millennium Declaration, Silverberg said. The United States did not negotiate that document or agree to it and neither did many other states. It is solely a document of the secretariat, she said.

She said confusion about the U.S. stance on the MDGs was a result of erroneous reports presented by some media about the meaning of the term “Millennium Development Goals.”

“The outcome [final summit] document clarifies the term MDGs, which means goals in the Millennium Declaration,” she said.    [?]


http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2005/09/20050916110129akllennoccm0.3649256.html#ixzz3pPkGi19h

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2005/050916/epf509.htm

 

 

 

 

 

"Mr. Chairman, Excellencies Heads of State and Government,

At the Millennium Summit, leaders across the world declared they would spare no effort...
The peoples of the world are looking to us in anticipation. They expect real steps towards realising the goals in the Millennium Declaration."

Kjell Magne Bondevik, Prime Minister of Norway
International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico
March 2002

 

 

 

 

"1.2 billion people around the World live in extreme poverty. They live on less than one dollar-a-day. They constitute approximately one fifth of the World population. In the United Nations Millennium Declaration we decided to reduce this share by half in 2015.  ...the target of halving the number of poor by 2015."

Per Stir Møller, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. 
Statement at the International Conference on Financing for Development Monterrey, Mexico
18th-22th March 2002

 

 

 

 

 

"In September 2000, at the UN Millennium Summit, world leaders agreed to a set of time–bound and measurable goals and targets.....

These targets

 
[? - in fact the "time-bound" targets have a different standard baseline in the MDGs] ,

plus a number of other targets with which UN member states have not agreed, were listed as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the UN Secretary–General’s 2001 report, “Road Map Towards the Implementation of the UN Millen­nium Declaration.” The United Nations mounted a campaign to raise pub­lic awareness of the MDGs, and aims to build coalitions and mobilize worldwide political action on behalf of the MDGs.

In March 2002, the President said, “America supports the international development goals in the UN Millennium Declaration, and believes that these goals are a shared responsibility of developed and developing countries." "


United States Participation in the United Nations
2002
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/26863.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

"…in the year 2000 we had 150 heads of states and government and princes come to the UN …They have challenged us to reduce abject poverty by 50 per cent between now and 2015."

Secretary-General
Press conference
Boston, 6 May 2002
http://www.un.org/sg/offthecuff/?nid=67
http://www.un.org/sg/cuffarch/sgcu0402.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

"Dozens of heads of government from Africa, Asia and Latin America came to what was billed as an effort to halve the number of hungry people, from more than 800 million to 400 million ...

The summit was called to generate money and momentum for a flagging effort, launched at a similar gathering in 1996, to halve the number of hungry people by 2015. Those who did come to Rome yesterday admitted that, six years on, little progress had been made.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said 24,000 people died each day from hunger. "In a world of plenty, ending hunger is within our grasp. Failure to reach this goal should fill every one of us with shame. The time for making promises is over. It is time to act."

Western leaders snub UN food summit
UK sends lowest-ranking delegation to event...
Rory Carroll in Rome
Tuesday 11 June 2002 16.05 BST Last modified on Thursday 13 June 2002 16.05 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jun/11/famine.rorycarroll

 

 

 

 

"Remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at World Summit on Sustainable Development
September 4, 2002

Here in Johannesburg, we have recommitted ourselves to achieving, by 2015, the development goals set forth in the Millennium Declaration." 

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2002/020904/epf306.htm

 

 

 

 

"On behalf of the European Union...the world community still has far to go if we are to meet the goals of the Millennium Declaration.

For many countries, the United Nations is first and foremost about combating poverty. How to ensure everyone access to the essentials of life; the next meal; the medicine and health care to survive; and access to basic education. These are the promises contained in the Millennium Declaration. And we must not let the world down."

Statement by H.E. Anders Fog Rasmussen
Prime Minister of Denmark on behalf of the European Union
Fifty-Seventh Session Of The General Assembly
General Debate
New York, 12 September 2002
http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/57/statements/020912denmarkE.htm

 

 

 

 

 

"The President: The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor, President of the Republic of Ghana.

President Kufuor: The eyes of the people of Africa are on us today. For so long they have heard pledges and promises from their leaders and their development partners, and they have seen those promises broken.

We appeal to this Organization, and through it to the world, to seize this opportunity to work together with Africa to implement NEPAD, which is our framework for achieving the vision of the Millennium Declaration."

 

 

 

 

 

"Unless we can speed things up dramatically, we shall find when we get to 2015, that the words of the Declaration ring hollow."

Kofi Annan
1 October 2002
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/UN-Annan/98e563abc1f9ea8f00130359afb0f962   

 

 

 

16 December 2002:

57/144. Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit

The General Assembly…Reaffirming the importance of the implementation of and follow-up to the Millennium Declaration in a comprehensive, integrated, coordinated and balanced manner…

 2. Recognizes the uneven progress made so far in achieving the objectives agreed upon in the Millennium Declaration, and urges Member States to continue to undertake with determination appropriate measures towards its implementation;

 3. Invites the organizations and agencies of the United Nations system, the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization, and encourages other interested parties, including civil society and the private sector, to continue to pursue vigorously the achievement of the objectives and goals contained in the Millennium Declaration

6. Decides to consider…a high-level plenary meeting…[in 2005-6] on the review of the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and consideration of the quinquennial comprehensive report of the Secretary-General on the progress achieved towards implementing the Millennium Declaration;

 7. Also decides that the review process of the implementation of the development goals contained in the Millennium Declaration will be considered within the framework of… follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields, while taking into account the need to attach more importance, coherence and visibility to the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and its review process;

 8. Invites the United Nations system, in cooperation with Member States, to promote awareness of the Millennium Declaration, and the development goals contained therein, through increased dissemination of information and widespread publicity…"

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/GAResolutions/57_144/a_res57_144e.pdf

 

 

 

23 December 2003:

"The General Assembly...

Reaffirming the United Nations Millennium Declaration...

...resources will be required if developing countries are to achieve the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration...

Encourages ...to continue to provide....resources...to meet the development targets... agreed upon at ...the Millennium Summit..."

A/RES/58/206
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N03/460/64/PDF/N0346064.pdf

 

 

 

6 May 2004

Resolution 58/291

"The General Assembly,

1. Decides to convene in New York in 2005….a high-level plenary meeting of the Assembly with the participation of heads of State and Government…

2. …this major event will undertake a comprehensive review of the progress made in the fulfilment of all the commitments contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration….and of the progress …of the outcomes and commitments of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields, on the basis of a comprehensive report to be submitted by the Secretary-General"

http://www.omdg.org/en/images/a_res_58_291.pdf

 

 

 

 

2005:

"We, Heads of State and Government...call for strengthened cooperation..., in particular through the Inter-Parliamentary Union, with a view to furthering all aspects of the Millennium Declaration"

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf

 

 

 

2008:

 

"we reaffirm our commitment to contribute decisively [? - ambiguously? ] to the Millennium Development Goals of the Millennium Declaration agreed to at the 2000 Summit and other development targets we have agreed to in other international fora. We will reinvigorate our efforts to meet these goals...we pledge our commitment to...foster human rights, democracy, and good governance...

[The EU and US broke their stated intention on democracy and good governance before they made the declaration, by including in it a passage either blurring the difference or falsely implying that the easier MDGs were the Millennium pledges.]

...We will continue to support partner countries as they work to achieve the health-related goals of the Millennium Declaration. We are accountable for progress in delivering on our promises to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, polio and other diseases."

2008
U.S. - EU Summit Declaration
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080610-8.html

 

 

 

 

"The United States is a strong and consistent supporter of the goals of the Millennium Declaration"

 

[quotes Monterrey Consensus:

"Achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, demands a new partnership between developed and developing countries.
-  International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, March 2002"
]

 

"To meet and sustain the goals of the Millennium Declaration, the world community must help developing nations harness the full potential of resource flows to countries in the developing world."


"The United States has extensive programs in education, infectious diseases, famine prevention, and other areas that support the goals of Millennium Declaration."


The United States Commitment to the Millennium Development Goals
United States Agency for International Development
April 2008

http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pdacl239.pdf

 

 

 

 

"The General Assembly,
Reaffirming the commitments made by the international community in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, in particular its goal to create an environment conducive to development and the elimination of poverty"

Resolution 63/23
17 November 2008
Promoting development through the reduction and prevention of armed violence
http://www.genevadeclaration.org/fileadmin/docs/UNGA-Resolution-AVD-2008-final-english.pdf

 

 

 

 

"The G-8 agreed that support for good governance...is essential to... achieving the goals of the Millennium Declaration."

Fact Sheet: Development and Africa
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/07/20080708-17.html

 

 

 

 

2010 MDG Summit:

"We, Heads of State and Government…reaffirm our resolve to work together for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, recalling the development goals and commitments emanating from the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome.

2. We reaffirm that we continue to be guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with full respect for international law and its principles.

3. We also reaffirm the importance of freedom, peace and security, respect for all human rights, including the right to development, the rule of law, gender equality and an overall commitment to just and democratic societies for development.

4. We underscore the continued relevance of the outcomes of all major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields and the commitments contained therein, including the Millennium Development Goals…"

General Assembly Resolution 65/1
22 September 2010

 


Note:  It is not clear why the UN is talking about "commitments" to the MDGs in outcomes of UN conferences and summits.   The US claimed in 2005 that the mention of MDGs in the 2005 Summit outcome in fact meant the Declaration goals, not the "MDGs" produced by Kofi Annan's staff.   

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2005/09/20050916110129akllennoccm0.3649256.html#ixzz3pPkGi19h

 

 

 

 

"We reaffirm the importance of the United Nations Millennium Declaration and underscore the continuing relevance of the outcomes of all major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields, as well as the important commitments contained therein."

Statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China
High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals
20 September 2010
http://www.g77.org/statement/getstatement.php?id=100920

 

 

 

 

"The landmark Millennium Declaration ....and the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document...
reflect the commitment of Member States to reach specific goals..."

UN Press Kit
2013
"United Nations General Assembly opens on 17 September 2013"
http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/68/pdf/presskit/backgrounder.pdf

 

"The Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals was initiated by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway in 2007. The Campaign brings together a number of actions and initiatives, all aimed at fulfilling the promises given by world leaders in the Millennium Declaration in 2000."

WHO
2013
http://www.who.int/woman_child_accountability/news/post_coIA/en/index1.html

 

 

 

 

"The General Assembly
Reaffirming also its commitments contained in resolution 55/2 of 8 September 2000, entitled “United Nations Millennium Declaration”..."

A/RES/68/188
18 December 2013
The rule of law, crime prevention and criminal justice in the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015
http://www.unodc.org/documents/commissions/CCPCJ/Crime_Resolutions/2010-2019/2013/General_Assembly/A-RES-68-188.pdf

 

 

 

 

"The MDGs were informally endorsed at the UN Conference on International Financing for Development at Monterrey in 2002..."

A post-2015 global development agreement: why, what, who?
Claire Melamed and Andy Sumner
Overseas Development Institute, London and United Nations Development Programme
2011
www.odi.org/resources/docs/7369.pdf

 

[MB note: Very informally if so. 

I think the statement that the MDGs were "informally endorsed" at a UN conference of 2002 is misleading. 

The Monterrey outcome document does not mention MDGs at all.  It does mention the Declaration, as did national representatives.  

An OECD document states more accurately,

"The MDGs were endorsed by multilateral development banks, among others, at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey in March, 2002."

http://www.oecd.org/derec/adb/ADB_supportforAchievingMDG_Post2015.pdf ]

 

Melamed and Sumner write,

".The Declaration has a longer and higher set of aspirations, and should not be confused with the very specific and time-bound

[Confusing and/or misleading:  the Declaration already had "specific" and "time-bound" indicators]

set of indicators which comprise the 8 MDGs and 21 targets
through with progress towards the Declaration is to be measured. ..."


MB note:  The fact that the Declaration had already set specific, time-bound indicators was emphasised by Prime Minister Ahern at the Millennium Summit.

 

It is not clear that Melamed and Sumner are right that the US were "persuaded to retain" the MDGs in the leaders' document of 2005. They write:

"As late as 2005, in the build up to the World Summit, the government of the United States argued for removing the references to the MDGs in the draft Summit Outcome Document, with the rationale that they had never been agreed..."

That is true.  But it was not only "in the build up to the World Summit".  During the Summit, the US also argued on 15 September 2005 that the references which were in the agreed document were not to the MDGs but to the Declaration goals. 

Melamed and Sumner continue: 

"...(although they were eventually persuaded to retain them)."

Was the US government persuaded to retain the MDGs in the 2005 outcome document? 

Not according to Assistant Secretary of State Silverberg the day before the agreement.  She said that the wording referred to the Declaration, not the MDGs.   

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2005/09/20050916110129akllennoccm0.3649256.html#ixzz3pPkGi19h

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2005/050916/epf509.htm


Melamed and Sumner write:

"The final 2005 World Summit Outcome document reaffirms the UN Millennium Declaration on the first page, but only begrudgingly recognizes the MDGs in paragraph seventeen"

Is it true that leaders in 2005 recognised the MDGs? 

See above - the US stated that it and other member states were still not recognising the MDGs. 

The leaders' paragraph 17 reads:

"We strongly reiterate our determination to ensure the timely and full realization of the development goals and objectives agreed at the major United Nations conferences and summits"
- which means among other things, bringing number of hungry people to half the 1996 level, and certainly meeting the Millennium Declaration goals.

But the paragraph continues:

"including those agreed at the Millennium Summit that are described as the Millennium Development Goals, [?]  which have helped to galvanize efforts towards poverty eradication."

 

The wording in the document and in the statement by the Assistant Secretary of State are strange.

The Millennium Summit certainly did agree goals "described as the Millennium Development Goals" - but those were the non-time-bound overall Goals 1 to 7.  The situation on the targets for 2015 is more complex.

The leaders' statement of 2005 is either restrictive to the point of excluding many of the most well-known MDG targets, or at least partially nonsensical. 

For example, there is a Millennium Summit goal on water with a 2000 baseline, and the OECD document of September 2001 states that the MDG architects agreed a 2000 baseline for water.  So that might be a goal which was agreed at the Summit and known as an MDG target (perhaps incorrectly, since most people seem to think it has a 1990 baseline).  But the Summit goal includes affordability.  So even this does not really fall into the category defined by leaders in 2005.  

The US position of 15 September 2005 in relation to this paragraph does not make much sense either, as by then people did generally think of the term "Millennium Development Goals" as referring to the framework with 1990 baselines. 

However, it is clear that the Assistant Secretary of State was saying on 15 September that the US position was this:  Kofi Annan's MDG document with the 1990 baselines was not what was about to be endorsed by the 2005 Summit.



Further, since the leaders reaffirmed the Millennium Declaration and other outcomes of summits and conferences, their actual commitments are not diminished by the publicity given to the  easier MDGs.

 

 

……………………………………………………………..

 

 

The Millennium Declaration commits governments to a break with business as usual. 

The MDGs seem largely based on business as usual.




"The commitment by world leaders at this month's United Nations Millennium Summit to halve global poverty and hunger ...
These and other goals that the world signed up to are...best-case scenarios...might be called a "stretch target."

Mark Malloch Brown
Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
September 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/21/opinion/21iht-edbrown.t_0.html

 

  

"[MDG] targets were formulated based on historical trends....projections to 2015 based on the global trends in the 60s, 70s and 80s."

Yongyi Min
United Nations Statistics Division
http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Capacity/manila/Presentations/S6_P6.2_2_MDG%20monitoring%20Post%202015%20rev.1.ppt

 

 

 

"The Co-Chairperson (Namibia): We have come to the close of this historic Millennium Summit...
We cannot, therefore, afford to go back home from here and continue business as usual."

 

 

 

few observers ever noticed that the Millennium Declaration left considerable room for interpretation as to the level of ambition of the global targets.

[MB note: Did the Declaration leave considerable room for interpretation on the ambition?  Not really, if you consider

a) common sense and what people might reasonably conclude from the words in the Declaration; 
b) that states welcomed the 2000-baseline Millennium Report and its proposed goals for the Summit,
c) that the media reported a 2000 baseline in 2000,
d) that the FAO, at least in the early years, took "present level" in the 1996 World Food Summit pledge to mean 1996,
e) that an OECD document from 2001 states that the MDG water target, which has no baseline in the MDG list, has a 2000 baseline,
f) that the heads of UN development agencies on 6 November 2001 sent out a document stating that the Declaration text "would imply" a 2000 baseline;
g) that the Declaration refers to "safe" and "affordable" water, rather than the "improved sources" in the MDG indicator.]

It was left to the group of UN experts

[MB note: Not accurate enough. It was UN, World Bank, OECD and IMF experts, and the extent of influence by others is not knowable]

to set the baseline year. The choice quickly fell on 1990, for two reasons. First, it proved unrealistic

[MB note: How did they know it "proved unrealistic" less than a year into 15-year pledges?  Is leadership not about leadership?]

to reduce hunger, poverty and the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by half, infant and child mortality by two-thirds, and maternal mortality by three-quarters between 2000 and 2015.”

[MB note:  But the OECD document of 14/17 September 2001, whose contact name is Brian Hammond, who sat on Dr Vandemoortele's group setting the targets, states that the group agreed a 2000 baseline for the water target.]

Jan Vandemoortele, co-chair with Michael Doyle of the group in 2001 agreeing the MDG framework
2011
http://courses.arch.vt.edu/courses/wdunaway/gia5524/vandem11.pdf

 

MB note:  I do not consider that Dr Vandemoortele would have a strong case that the Declaration – in context -  left room for interpretation on the baseline.  

If someone says "I will double your salary" and then later says "I meant from its level ten years ago" that would not be fair.  

The leaders knew perfectly well that what they said would be taken as meaning from 2000. 
The Secretary-General's recommendations, the speakers' words at the Summit, and arguably the fact that the focus of the Summit was the 21st century and not the 20th confirm what common sense might say. 

In any case, even where the politicians did make the baseline clear – for the mortality goals and for the 1996 hunger pledges – the civil servants, and others, began falsely claiming that the politicians set 1990 and  "1990-2" baselines.  

 

"It was left to the group of UN experts to set the baseline year. The choice quickly fell on 1990, for two reasons. First, it proved unrealistic to reduce hunger, poverty and the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by half, infant and child mortality by two-thirds, and maternal mortality by three-quarters between 2000 and 2015. It was obvious that more time would be needed to achieve such ambitious targets.

... The US administration at the time took the view that the General Assembly never formally endorsed the MDGs; thereby questioning their legitimacy and authority. But since the targets were lifted verbatim
[!] from the Millennium Declaration, we argued that formal endorsement was redundant because member states had already agreed upon them earlier." [!]

http://courses.arch.vt.edu/courses/wdunaway/gia5524/vandem11.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

"the [MDG] team determined that 1990 would be a more reasonable fit compared to historical trends, thereby lessening the pressures on world leaders for 2015."

The Origins of the Millennium Development Goals
johnmcarthur.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/SAISreview2014mcarthur.pdf

 

 

 

"MDGs, 18 targets and 40 indicators…were decided by measuring global trends in human development over a 25-year period from 1965-1990, and applying them to living standards over the 1990-2015 period, assuming that rates of progress stayed the same.

The MDGs were not intended to increase rates of progress in human development so much as maintain them. "

http://www.euractiv.com/development-policy/mdg-designer-fears-un-goals-dege-news-530429

 

 

 

"The IAEG finally decided to utilise 1990 as the baseline for the MDGs as most of the targets of the international conferences and summits from which the MDGs have been distilled utilise this baseline. With the decision about the baseline, the IAEG ultimately set the level of ambition for the MDGs. The majority of the targets of the original conferences and summits were derived from simple linear forward projections of the global progress of the 1970s and 1980s. Thus, fully in line with RBM’s idea of realistic targets, the MDGs represented a political statement of what should be feasible at the global level.

Vandemoortele (2008: 221):

‘Were progress for child survival, for instance, to continue as in the 1970s and 1980s, the global under-five mortality rate (U5MR) in 2015 would be two-thirds lower than in 1990. Were the global net enrolment ratio (NER) to continue its increase of the 1970s and 1980s, universal primary education could be achieved by 2015.’"

www.post2015hlp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Rippin_Progress-Prospects-and-Lessons-from-the-MDGs.pdf

 

 

 

 

World Food Summit pledge baseline

 

"At the World Food Summit in Rome in November 1996, the United States and 185 other countries made a promise....
The international community set the goal of reducing the number of undernourished people to half the 1996 level by 2015."

https://web.archive.org/web/20000818013957/http://www.fas.usda.gov/icd/summit/usactplan.pdf

 

 

FAO hunger report 2001:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/y1500e/y1500e03.htm#P2_33

"1990-92 (the benchmark period used at the World Food Summit)" 

[!]

 

 

..............................

 

 

At the World Food Summit in Rome in November 1996, the United States and

185 other countries made a promise to dedicate “our political will and our common

and national commitment to achieving food security for all.” The international

community set the goal of reducing the number of undernourished people to half the

1996 level by 2015.5

https://web.archive.org/web/20000818013957/http://www.fas.usda.gov/icd/summit/usactplan.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Civil society contributed extensively to preparation for the World Food Summit and to development of the Summit declaration and plan of action."

http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pdabw390.pdf

 

 

 

…………………………………………………………….

 

 

The pledges of 2000, reaffirmed 2013, are wider in scope than the Millennium Development Goals.  It is not clear why all the pledges should expire in December 2015.

 

"Many civil society organizations broadly support the global partnership that the Goals encapsulate, as laid out in the UN Millennium Declaration, but remain skeptical about the Goals themselves, for several reasons. They question whether the Goals are different from previous UN goals that were not met. They have not been systematically involved in the Goal-setting process and so feel no ownership. They argue that the Goals are “top down,” imposed by the international community, rather than locally developed, and that there is uncertainty about their role in achieving the Goals. They see the Goals as too narrow and unambitious, especially in comparison to the UN Millennium Declaration, leaving out critical issues of importance."

Investing in Development
UN Millennium Project: Report to the Secretary-General
2005
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/MainReportComplete-lowres.pdf

 

 

 

"the MDGs are also often described as being an outcome of various global summits in the 1990s. Yet several authors believe that for political reasons some ‘hard-fought goals’ got left behind, such as the importance of reproductive health agreed upon in the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995; ; ). sees MDG 1 (‘Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger’) as being far less ambitious when compared to the poverty reduction goal set at the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome. With the MDGs, the choice was made to halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger and poverty instead of halving the absolute numbers of people suffering. Pogge calculates that this would result in a reduction of only 101.5 million instead of 547 million people living on less than $1 per day. In regard to education, explains that only two out of the three timed goals discussed at the Dakar World Education Forum in 2000 were included in the MDGs; the target of adult literacy, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults were not integrated into the MDGs.

doubts that the original intent of eight goals – to be indicators of progress in the implementation of the objectives presented in the Millennium Declaration – was indeed achieved in the formulation of the MDGs. Various authors explain that only one of the seven key objectives of the Declaration (that of development and poverty eradication) became fundamental to the MDG framework, whereas other goals such as peace, security, disarmament, human rights and democracy were left behind (; ). writes that the MDGs of ‘gender equality and the empowerment of women’ were narrowed down to gender equality in education, and the target for ‘affordable water’ was dropped from the MDG list in order to allow for privatisation in the sector."

Glob Public Health. 2013 Dec; 8(10): 1109–1122.

Published online 2013 Nov 25. doi:  10.1080/17441692.2013.845676
PMCID: PMC3877943
Limitations of the Millennium Development Goals: a literature review
Maya Fehling, Brett D. Nelson  and Sridhar Venkatapuram
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3877943/ 

 

 

 

"Before examining the political processes for the next generation of MDGs, it is important to note that the first set was not tabled and voted on in the UN. The global leaders agreed to the UN Millennium Declaration in September 2000, but the actual set of MDGs was put together for the Financing for Development Summit that took place in Mexico the following year. The US government used this ‘ownership’ gap of the process prior to the 2005 MDG Summit when it contended that the United States had never agreed to the MDGs."

World Vision
http://www.beyond2015.org/sites/default/files/MDG%20Framework%20FINAL%20secure.pdf

 

Towards Sustainable Development Goals: Working Paper 18/2014

Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf, Benjamin Görlach, Keighley McFarland Ecologic Institute, Berlin
On behalf of the Federal Environment Agency (Germany)

 

 

 

 

 

"The eight Millennium Development Goals, which were drawn from the declaration, [!] were published along with indicators and targets in August [September] 2001. The goals were devised in a working committee drawn from a range of U.N. bodies, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Unicef, the Population Fund and the World Health Organization, as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Rosenthal described the goals as a “grab bag” of ideas drawn from a host of U.N. sources as well as the Millennium Declaration itself. …

Michael Doyle, a Princeton scholar who had by then taken Ruggie’s place on the Secretary General’s team, led the working committee…

Doyle…said in an interview that his group, in refining the goals and indicators, had to start with the premise that “if it wasn’t in the declaration it couldn’t be in the goals.” "

[!]

http://www.ippf.org/news/blogs/reproductive-health-and-mdgs

 

 


" "internationally agreed development goals, including those in the Millennium Declaration"...spells out exactly what we are committed to...

...must not backtrack on previous agreements...

President Bush said..."America supports the international development goals in the UN Millennium Declaration.” We remain committed to work with member states in support of those goals."

John R. Bolton, Ambassador
26 August 2005
https://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/0826bolton.pdf

 

 

 

"the UK will continue to drive a transparency revolution in every corner of the world through our leadership of the Open Government Partnership."

15 June 2013
(Original script, may differ from delivered version)
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-speech-at-g8-open-for-growth

 

 

 

 

"United Nations Millennium Declaration

The Goals

Adopted by 147 Heads of State and Government and other world leaders meeting at UN Headquarters in September 2000, the Millennium Declaration sets the agenda for a new era.

Based on the Millennium Declaration, the Member States of the United Nations have joined to set goals in the areas of peace, security and disarmament; development; protecting the environment; human rights, democracy and good governance; protecting the vulnerable; meeting the special needs of Africa; and strengthening the UN.

Following are some of the agreed goals relating to the Millennium Declaration:


-- Peace, security and disarmament


    International rule of law — Strengthen compliance with decisions of the International Court of Justice and provisions of the UN Charter; take concerted action against international terrorism; redouble efforts to counter world drug problem, transnational crime;


    UN and armed conflict — Give UN the resources needed for conflict prevention, dispute resolution, peacekeeping, peace-building and reconstruction; strengthen cooperation with regional bodies;


    Disarmament — Strive to eliminate weapons of mass destruction; call on States to consider acceding to Landmines Convention; end illicit traffic in small arms, light weapons


--Development and poverty eradication: The Millennium Development Goals

 [? – phrase not used in 2000]

    Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

    Achieve universal primary education

    Promote gender equality and empower women

    Reduce child mortality

    Improve maternal health

    Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

    Ensure environmental sustainability

    Develop a global partnership for development


--Protecting our common environment

    Reduce greenhouse gas emissions; intensify efforts for sustainable development of forests; press for full implementation of conventions on biological diversity and desertification; stop unsustainable exploitation of water resources, ensuring equitable access and adequate supply; intensify collective efforts to reduce the number and effects of natural and man-made disasters; ensure free access to information on the human genome

 

 

Human rights, democracy, good governance

    Uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; strive for protection of civil, political, economic, social, cultural rights for all; strengthen States' capacity to implement principles and practices of democracy and human rights; combat violence against women, and implement the UN Convention on eliminating discrimination against women

    Take measures to protect the human rights of migrants, migrant workers and their families, to eliminate acts of racism and xenophobia, and to promote greater harmony and tolerance; work collectively for more inclusive political processes; ensure freedom of the media and the public's right of access to information

 

Protecting the vulnerable

    Expand protection of civilians in complex emergencies and strengthen burden-sharing in assistance to refugee host countries; help all refugees and displaced persons return voluntarily in safety; encourage full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its protocols on armed conflict, child prostitution and pornography

 

Meeting the special needs of Africa

    Full support for political and institutional structures of emerging democracies and for regional and subregional mechanisms to prevent conflict and promote stability; ensure reliable flow of resources for peacekeeping

    Take special measures for poverty eradication, sustainable development, including debt cancellation, improved market access, enhanced official development assistance, increased foreign direct investment and technology transfers; help build up Africa's capacity to tackle HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases

 

Strengthening the United Nations

    Reaffirm the role of the General Assembly as the UN's chief deliberative, policy-making organ; intensify efforts for Security Council reform; further strengthen the Economic and Social Council; strengthen the International Court of Justice

    Encourage regular consultations and coordination among the principal UN organs; ensure that the UN is provided, on a timely, predictable basis, with the resources it needs to carry out its mandate; urge the Secretariat to make best use of resources by adopting the best management practices and technologies available; promote adherence to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel

    Ensure greater policy coherence and cooperation between the UN, its agencies, the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization and other multilateral bodies; further strengthen cooperation with the Inter-Parliamentary Union; give greater opportunities to the private sector, non-governmental organizations and civil society in general to contribute to UN goals and programmes…"

web.archive.org/web/20060807135244/http://www.un.org/geninfo/ir/index.asp?id=180   

 

 

 

 

"….disembodied from the human rights context and purposes in the Millennium Declaration, I would question how far the MDGs will ultimately take us.

The international human rights legal framework, to which all States have subscribed, must be seen as part of the solution and the baseline commitment on development. Human rights do not provide all of the answers, far from it, but this publication attempts to illustrate how certain critical gaps in the MDGs edifice can be filled through the application of human rights standards and practices, helping us get to the heart of the reasons for poor performance, empowering people and communities to assert their own claims, and promoting equitable and sustainable results."

Louise Arbour
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
2008

 

 

 

 

The Millennium Declaration states:

 

"We consider certain fundamental values to be essential to international relations in the twenty-first century. These include:

Freedom. Men and women have the right to live their lives and raise their children in dignity, free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression or injustice. Democratic and participatory governance based on the will of the people best assures these rights.

•. Equality. No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity to benefit from development. The equal rights and opportunities of women and men must be assured.

Solidarity. Global challenges must be managed in a way that distributes the costs and burdens fairly in accordance with basic principles of equity and social justice. Those who suffer or who benefit least deserve help from those who benefit most. 

• To ensure that the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies, in conformity with recommendations contained in the ECOSOC 2000 Ministerial Declaration, are available to all.


22. We reaffirm our support for the principles of sustainable development, including those set out in Agenda 21, agreed upon at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

….

V. Human rights, democracy and good governance

24. We will spare no effort to promote democracy and strengthen the rule of law, as well as respect for all internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development.

25. We resolve therefore:

• To respect fully and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• To strive for the full protection and promotion in all our countries of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all.

• To strengthen the capacity of all our countries to implement the principles and practices of democracy and respect for human rights, including minority rights.

…• To work collectively for more inclusive political processes, allowing genuine participation by all citizens in all our countries.

• To ensure the freedom of the media to perform their essential role and the right of the public to have access to information. …

13. Success in meeting these objectives depends, inter alia, on good governance within each country. It also depends on good governance at the international level

29. We will spare no effort to make the United Nations a more effective instrument for pursuing all of these priorities: the fight for development for all the peoples of the world, the fight against poverty, ignorance

31. We request the General Assembly to review on a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions of this Declaration, and ask the Secretary-General to issue periodic reports for consideration by the General Assembly and as a basis for further action.

32. We solemnly reaffirm, on this historic occasion, that the United Nations is the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development. We therefore pledge our unstinting support for these common objectives and our determination to achieve them."



 

…………………………………………………..

 

 

 

"When the millennium declaration was rewritten as a set of specific goals, the baseline for calculating the proportion to be halved was set not at 2000, but at 1990. That meant that progress already made could contribute to the achievement of the goal... it looks very much as if, come 2015, the world's leaders will have failed to keep their (watered down) promises."

Peter Singer, 2010
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/07/millennium-development-goals-un-poverty

 

 

 

"Pogge points out that while the Millennium Declaration adopted by the UN in 2000 makes that year its baseline, the eight specific Millennial Development Goals are measured against 1990."

Frances Moore Lappe, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-moore-lappe/poverty-down-inequality-u=p_b_1878850.html

 

 

Jason Hickel: 

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/08/exposing-great-poverty-red=uctio-201481211590729809.html

 

 

 

George Kent:

"Assessing the Millennium Summit

September 22, 2010 Updated:

Shrinking Commitments

Consider the treatment of the hunger problem, under Millennium Development Goal 1. In the Millennium Declaration of 2000, 191 member states of the UN committed themselves "to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world's people . . . who suffer from hunger." Some have assumed the idea was to reduce the proportion who are hungry to half what it was in the year 2000. A similar commitment was made at the World Food Summit in 1996, when a commitment was made to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their level at that time, 1996, by no later than 2015. On this basis, one might imagine that the Millennium people were thinking of 1996 as the baseline year.

However the project actually uses 1990 as the baseline. Since the proportion of hungry people has been going down until recently, setting the baseline as 1990 rather than 1996 or 2000 makes it easier to achieve the goal of reducing the proportion by half.

While the Millennium Declaration of 2000 promised to reduce by half the proportion of the world's population that are hungry, the FAO and the Millennium Development Project now focus on the percentage of people who are hungry in developing countries. Since developing countries have higher population growth rates, this makes the goal easier to reach. With any given number of hungry people, a growing population means they account for a decreasing proportion of the population."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-kent/post_901_b_735376.html

 

 

 

John McArthur:

"Myth 4: The Millennium Declaration established 1990 baselines.

Explanation

The one substantive adjustment made by UN officials between the 2000 Millennium Declaration and the 2001 Road Map was to identify a 1990 baseline for the 2015 targets."

"Careful assessments of MDG success and failure will form a critical ingredient for any post-2015 policy breakthroughs. To be done well, these should examine the complex pathways through which a diversity of targets were born."

http://johnmcarthur.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/SAISreview2014mcarthur.pdf , pages 16, 23.

 

 

"Back to the Future: MDG Creation Myths"

http://johnmcarthur.com/2015/01/origins-of-mdgs/

 

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/03/06-development-goals-targets-mcarthur

http://johnmcarthur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Declaration_of_the_MDGs-Brookings-online.pdf

http://johnmcarthur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Origins-of-the-MDGs-Ver-Nov30-13.pdf

 

 

 

"...contrast the level of interest in the MDGs today with their relatively informal origins (and the oft-forgotten fact that they were never formally endorsed by the UN General Assembly)"

What’s next for the MDGs?
OECD Insights Blog
http://oecdinsights.org/2013/05/08/whats-next-for-the-mdgs/

 

 

 

"by Asociacion Cubana de las Naciones Unidas (Cuban United Nations Association) [NGO]

27 Apr 2015

...It is necessary to conclude a genuine intergovernmental negotiation among UN member states, to create a real political commitment, in order not to repeat the mistakes of the MDGs, that were not created nor agreed governmentally..."

http://esango.un.org/irene/?page=viewContent&nr=18662&type=8&section=8

 

 

 

...............................................................................

 

 

"I commend this [OHCHR] publication to all policymakers, development practitioners and human rights workers committed to sustainable human development and social justice.

Louise Arbour
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights…

After the Millennium Summit, the eight Development Goals were ....endorsed by United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the ... (IMF) and the ...(OECD). However, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly mentioned and endorsed the eight MDGs only as late as October
[September] 2005. ..."

 

[MB note:  The US claimed that the General Assembly's mention of MDGs in 2005 referred to the Declaration's goals, meaning that it had not endorsed the eight MDGs.]

 

"...Until then it had focused (and still does) on calling for the implementation and monitoring of all goals and measures in the Millennium Declaration, which go beyond development."

Claiming the Millennium Development Goals: A human rights approach
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations
New York and Geneva, 2008
ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Claiming_MDGs_en.pdf  

 

 

Is the report from the  Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights correct that the General Assembly "endorsed the eight MDGs" in 2005?  

 

"U.N. Document Clarifies [?] Development Goals, State's Silverberg Says
General Assembly consensus on document expected September 16

By Kathryn McConnell | Washington File Staff Writer | 16 September 2005

New York – The negotiated final summit document expected to be adopted September 16 by the U.N. General Assembly clarifies that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are those agreed to by the United States and other U.N. members in the 2000 Millennium Declaration,
 says Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg.

In an exclusive interview with the Washington File September 15, Silverberg, who heads the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, said the United States regards the Millennium Declaration – a key set of principles and objectives on an array of international issues – as a “good product.”

She said that to reach a consensus agreement, all countries participating in its negotiation process gave up something they initially wanted. The document, as a result, reflects “disparate views” of the interests of countries around the world, she said. (See related article.)

Silverberg said the United States continues to “strongly support” the goals it agreed to in the Millennium Declaration, such as reducing world poverty by half by 2015 and reducing instances of HIV/AIDS.

“Sometimes people use [the term] MDGs to mean other things, in particular of a list of targets and indicators that were in a document the [U.N.] secretariat produced” following the Millennium Declaration, Silverberg said. The United States did not negotiate that document or agree to it and neither did many other states. It is solely a document of the secretariat, she said.

She said confusion about the U.S. stance on the MDGs was a result of erroneous reports presented by some media about the meaning of the term “Millennium Development Goals.”

“The outcome [final summit] document clarifies the term MDGs, which means goals in the Millennium Declaration,” she said.    [?]


http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2005/09/20050916110129akllennoccm0.3649256.html#ixzz3pPkGi19h

http://wfile.ait.org.tw/wf-archive/2005/050916/epf509.htm

 

 

 

An important omission from the report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is that the General Assembly has  not only "focused" on "goals and measures" in the Millennium Declaration, but has "reaffirmed" what it "resolved" to achieve.

Another omission is this.

It seems obvious that for democracy to function, information from elected officials and their employees must be reasonably accurate.   The information from authorities on leaders' pledges, combined with omissions despite the Assembly calling for more publicity for international commitments,  has been inaccurate and misleading.

I am unable to understand why this is not classed as an infringement of human rights.