ECA Conducts Workshop to review Progress with MDG-consistent National Development Plans.
ECA Press Release No. 83/2009
Nairobi, Kenya, 18 December 2009 (ECA) - The fourth meeting of the African Learning Group on Poverty Reduction Strategies and the Millennium Development Goals opened in Mombasa, Kenya 16 December 2009. The three-day workshop is organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and is attended by policy-makers and
academics from several countries that have already prepared MDG-consistent national development plans. Partner institutions attending include the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission, the United Nations Development Programme and the Canadian International Development Agency.
While opening the workshop, Mr. Kasirim Nwuke, head of ECA’s Millennium Development Goals and Least Developed Countries Section, reminded participants of the need for ambitious and effective national development plans. He recalled the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome Resolution that countries facing extreme poverty should adopt MDG consistent development strategies.
“The parameters of such a strategy are defined as ambitious, it must be based on needs assessments, including a scenario for scaling up public sector investments and indicators that are tied to MDGs” he said.
Mr. Nwuke said that 46 African countries have developed MDGs-based development plans. This meeting will review the process of developing these plans and examine the benefits this has brought to policy-making and development prospects.
Noting that there is skepticism in some African countries about additional benefits of this new approach, Mr. Nwuke said: “Should that be the view of this meeting, based on what comes from the consultants’ reports, it is important to state that as it is critical for resource poor countries to make adjustments accordingly.”
The outcome of this meeting will feed into several regional and international processes taking place next year as the target date for attaining the MDGs will only be five years away. These processes include the articulation and formulation of the African Union common position on the MDGs in advance of the UN High-level Event on the MDGs, taking place in September 2010; and the regional review of progress towards achieving the MDGs in Africa, which will take place
during the ECA/AUC Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development at the end of March 2010. The outcome of the meeting will also serve as an input for the 2010 regional report on the MDGs jointly prepared by the ECA, AfDB and AUC.
Participants will review studies commissioned by ECA covering 15 African countries, review the benefits and challenges of the process and make recommendations on the way forward. The workshop will also explore the regional dimensions of the MDGs as closer integration is an important objective of African countries.
All papers presented during this workshop and background information on the Learning Group is available at: www.uneca.org.
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