In cooperation with the private sector,

make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

47. Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population (ITU)

48. Personal computers in use per 100 population and Internet users per 100 population (ITU)

Source: Website of the United Nations Statistics Division: http://millennium indicators.un.org/unsd/mi/mi_goals.asp (17 May 2004)

Note:

a The poverty gap refers to the money needed to completely erase poverty, if it were perfectly targeted and each poor person were given exactly the value of his or her income shortfall below the poverty line.

1 Introduction

In September 2000, the Millennium Declaration was adopted at the so- called Millennium Summit, held in the framework of the 55th _{General As-}

sembly of the United Nations (UN). The summit was attended by the heads of state or government of nearly all UN member states. Never be- fore had a similarly large number of highest-ranking representatives of in- dependent states come together on one occasion. This, and the fact that all of the representatives attending made statements of their own on the Mil- lennium Declaration, are a clear indication of the importance attached to the declaration even before it had been adopted.

The Millennium Summit is the culmination of a development that began after the end of the Cold War and has entailed a paradigm shift in the in- ternational development debate. The Millennium Declaration, for instance, sums up numerous resolutions and declarations of intent, which were adopted by the international community during the 1990s and have placed good number of new issues and goals on the international agenda.

In the wake of the Millennium Summit, a joint working group was consti- tuted with representatives from the UN, the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and other interna- tional organizations. It extracted a number of measurable targets from the Millennium Declaration. The result was a list of eight Millennium Devel- opment Goals (MDGs) that are further specified by 18 targets and 48 indi- cators. Most of the goals are set to be implemented by 2015. They include: 1 the reduction of income poverty and hunger,

2 the achievement of universal primary education for boys and girls, 3 the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, 4 the reduction of child mortality,

5 the improvement of maternal health,

6 the combat of HIV/Aids, malaria and other infectious diseases, 7 the observance of ecological sustainability by country policies, and 8 the development of a global partnership for development.

In 2001, the MDGs were approved by the 56th _{UN General Assembly. The}

international community is thus in possession of a common goal system that has been agreed upon by all relevant actors and that is both measur- able and set to be implemented by a fixed date. The intention is that both, the international community as a whole and each individual country, should achieve all of the MDGs.

This study looks into the degree to which the MDGs are relevant for the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (the so-called MENA re- gion), most of which are classified as middle- or, in some cases, even high-income countries. It explores specifically whether the adoption of the MDGs has already found expression in changed national policies, what successes have been made thus far on individual MDGs, and where the principle implementation-related problems must be sought.

It furthermore discusses what relevance the MDGs have for German de- velopment cooperation (DC): What contributions Germany, as a bilateral donor, is in fact making toward the implementation of the MDGs in its partner countries, whether and to what extent this contribution is based on preliminary conceptual-analytical considerations, how well the contribu- tion is documented, and what implications all this may have for the future. The study shows that the MDGs are highly relevant for the MENA region. All MENA countries approved the MDGs in September 2000, but they have made only inadequate progress towards implementing the goals since then. This goes above all for MDG1 (reduction of income poverty and hunger), MDG7 (ecological sustainability of country policies), and several targets of MDG8 (good governance, reduction of youth unemployment, improved access to modern information and communications technolo- gies). Substantial deficits, however, have also been noted for the quality of education and the social, economic, legal, and political equality of women. One of the reasons for this situation, especially in the region’s low-income countries, must be seen in both financial bottlenecks and management failures. In addition, political decision-makers in the region also lack ade- quate commitment for the MDG agenda.

German DC is generally relatively well positioned to support its partner countries in the MENA region in their efforts to reach the MDGs. In its main priority sectors, “economic reform and market systems develop- ment,” water management,” and “environmental policy, German DC is in

a position to provide important contributions to implementing the MDGs that are proving especially difficult for the countries in the region to reach. At present, however, neither the partner side nor the donor side is paying sufficient heed to the need to analyze and document these contributions: Most of the country concept and priority country strategy papers prepared by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Develop- ment / Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Ent- wicklung (BMZ) provide no information either on the concrete contribu- tion German DC is providing to implement the MDGs or on the measures being used to this end.

The present study breaks down as follows:

– Chapter 2 goes at more length into the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs and their historical background, looks into the strengths and weaknesses of this international goal system, and discusses the latter’s significance for German DC.

– Chapter 3 is devoted to the Millennium process in the MENA coun- tries. It deals with the question of what significance the indicators de- signed for the MDGs have in the MENA region and what progress the region’s countries have made thus far in reaching the MDGs. – Chapter 4 analyzes, from a more general perspective, the extent to

which the MDGs have influenced national development policies and public discourse in the Middle East and North Africa.

– Chapter 5 looks into the orientation of German DC. It asks what con- tribution Germany is making toward implementing the MDGs in its MENA partner countries, whether and to what extent this contribu- tion is based on preliminary conceptual-analytical considerations, and how well the contribution is referenced and documented.

– Chapter 6 concludes the study with a number of recommendations for the governments of the Middle East and North Africa as well as for German DC.

2

Millennium Declaration and Millennium Develop-

ment Goals

2.1

Historical background and genesis of the Millennium

Declaration

The Millennium Summit is the outcome of a development that entailed an at least partial departure from the so-called Washington Consensus, which dominated the international debate during the 1980s and rested squarely on neoliberal economic theory (Gsänger 1996a; Eberlei 2000). It found ex- pression above all in the stabilization and structural adjustment programs (SAPs) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that provided for consolidation of the current accounts and budgets of indebted developing countries, continuous and noninterventionist monetary and fis- cal policies, and structural market reforms (market opening, deregulation, and privatization). Poverty reduction was largely equated with higher eco- nomic growth, the assumption being that such growth would, sooner or later, benefit the poor through trickle-down effects (Decker 2003, 488). In the early 1990s, however, it gradually become apparent that this as- sumption was, at least in its then current form, not tenable. Indeed, in many developing countries – above all in Africa, but also in Latin America – poverty had even worsened under the SAPs (Decker 2003, 488; Betz 2003, 456). As early as the mid-1980s UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, voiced criticism of the high costs exacted by the SAPs and called for “adjustment programs with a human countenance.” This demand was underpinned pro- grammatically by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which, in 1990, released its first Human Development Report (HDR), a counter piece to the World Bank’s World Development Report. The HDR argued that economic growth did by no means automatically come along with social development (e.g. on education and health indicators) (UNDP 2000). The report further noted critically that the development debate was largely dominated by a one-dimensional, purely economic understanding of poverty. Based on the capabilities approach pioneered mainly by Amar- tya Sen (Sen 1981; Sen 1999), poverty was now defined as multiple depri- vation of capabilities, i.e. as a lack of means that are needed to carry out the activities one cherishes and to live a life of self-determination (Lipton / Ravallion 1995).