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The Save-the-World Clock - Part 9
 Elizabeth Dickinson - Foreign Policy
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September 23, 2010
| | (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images) | |
GOAL: DEVELOP GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT
Targets: The final goal of the MDGs is a sort of political capstone, one drafted in hopes of guaranteeing that politics don't thwart the world's own best intentions. That means paying attention to the countries lagging furthest behind, creating a regulated and rule-based global financial system, eliminating country debt, pushing for affordable access to prescription drugs, and working with the private sector to get new technologies in the hands of the poor.
Reality: This goal was always going to be the hardest to reach, because it involves resolving a host of competing interests. While the world has broadly agreed that agricultural subsidies should be lifted, for example, domestic considerations have kept talks on the matter, the so-called Doha round, from moving forward. There has been some progress on financial architecture, with the United States and Europe approving new financial rules, and the Basel Committee, which monitors international banks, recommended new standards for banks on September 12, 2010. Debt reduction has come further, with three-quarters of eligible countries passing through the IMF's debt-relief program.
Aid reform advocates say that accountability is the key to making sure that governments address the real structural issues, that donors don't float from fad to fad, and that the goals don't just remain lofty rhetoric. Unfortunately, when countries signed on, there were few mechanisms - aside from public shaming - to force them to follow through. This week's session is unlikely to produce any such mechanisms either, judging from the near-final draft seen by FP. (One Western diplomat expressed particular frustration that the G-77, the major developing-country grouping in the U.N. General Assembly, had rejected the idea of any accountability measures.)
This is the key flaw of the MDGs. And it has led many, including Dessima Williams, Grenada's representative to the talks, to believe that there has been "Too much talk, too much playing with the romance of the MDGs." Without anyone to answer to, there is no way to ensure that donors' promised aid comes through or that governments put the money to good use. And so, a project that was conceived by 189 heads of state with the aim of sidestepping politics and getting things done has found that the old rules still apply. Unless, when they meet in New York this week, they surprise us all.
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