The Impact of Millennium Development Goals, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and 4th High Level Forum on Developing Countries

Introduction

In the field of development, there is no perfect strategy which can satisfy the needs of all the actors involved and solve the world poverty likewise. All methodologies and approaches which have been implemented so far have their own strength and weaknesses. However, what makes a development strategy “best” is that it exerts potential capability to include most of the needs and varieties of development obstacles from all sides (donors and recipient countries) and strive to achieve better progress.

Various strategies were formulated and implemented in different epoch since development became the global issue, nevertheless, most of them failed to make happen the targeted goal in a given period to our world. Various reasons can be raised for the failure of these strategies, yet, their incompatibility with the nature and characteristics of the real problems of each developing country is considered to be the main factor. This problem still exists in the global development strategies like the Millennium Development Goal, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the High Forum for Aid Effectiveness.

The Millennium Development Goal is considered to be one of the best among the other strategies which globally implemented in order to realize better development. The goals appear to have been more influential than most other attempts at international target setting in the field of development, at least at the level of international discourse (R. Manning, 2010, pp.1). With its eight major goal, 21 targets and 60 indicators, the millennium development goals are influencing the policies and implementations of recipient and donor countries in different ways. However, there are some groups which are strongly criticizing the nature and formation of MDGs in the way that the goals potentially determined on specific areas of development and neglected other parts concurrently.

The Progress of Ethiopian Health Sector in line with Sustainable development and Poverty Reduction Strategy

   INTRODUCTION

Melesse Zenebework

In the field of development, there is no perfect strategy which can satisfy the needs of all the actors involved and solve the world poverty likewise. All methodologies and approaches which have been implemented so far have their own strength and weaknesses. However, what makes a development strategy “best” is that it exerts potential capability to include most of the needs and varieties of development obstacles from all sides (donors, recipient countries and other development actors) and strive to achieve better progress.

Various strategies were formulated and implemented in different epoch since development became the global issue, nevertheless, most of them failed to make happen the targeted goal in a given period to our world. Various reasons can be raised for the failure of these strategies, yet, their incompatibility with the nature and characteristics of the real problems of each developing country is considered to be the main factor. This problem still exists in the global development strategies like the Millennium Development Goal, the High Forum for Aid Effectiveness and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (which some scholars considered as the other face of structural adjustment policies).

Typically covering a three to five-year planning horizon, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have become the prime vehicle for both providing priorities for public expenditure by the governments of developing countries and delivering international aid for poverty reduction. According to the World Bank, these strategy papers are primarily formulated in order to bring about country driven (of the developing countries) development plans with broad participation of people and civil societies. In spite of its influential dimension and structure, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers have still faced strong criticism from various individuals and development actors. They say, the PRSPs are no different from the former Structural Adjustment Policies in the sense that they are set by the donors and thrown on to the developing countries so that Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPSs) must ensure the ownership (P. Tharakan and M. McDonald, 2004, pp.8).

A Book Review on the book, "Non-Governmental Organizations and Development"

By Melesse Zenebework

To Dr. Rasmus Karlsson

Environment and Sustainable Development Class

HUFS, 2013

Non – Governmental Organizations and Development, by David Lewis and Nazneen Kanji, New York, Routledge Taylor Francis Ltd, 2009, xv + 239 pp., index, $43.44 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-415-45430-8

David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at London School of Economics who specializes in development policy and management, with a particular interest in Non-Governmental Organizations and civil society, and whose work has mainly had a geographical focus on Bangladesh. He has also written on rural development, organizational issues in development agencies, and anthropological approaches to development. Likewise, Nazneen Kanji is a social policy specialist who worked with the government of Mozambique throughout the 1980s and then moved into policy research, teaching and consultancy work after completing a PhD at the London School of Economics on structural adjustment and urban poverty in Zimbabwe. She has carried out field research in various Sub-Saharan African countries and in South and Central Asia, including work with many NGOs. Her main research area is related to gender and livelihoods, in rural and urban contexts. Both of them have long time experience in the field of development research and practice.