January 2013 in Review!

We are already deep into January and a lot has been going on in the world of Progress. This blog will provide you with a selection of headlines and highlights from the month. With the Post 2015 debate on what framework should follow the Millennium Development Goals underway, this blog focuses on Wikiprogress’s new interactive Post 2015 page and Save the Children’s recent report ‘Ending Poverty In Our Generation’. It also includes Wikigender’s synthesis of its online discussion ‘Engaging Men and Boys to Transform Discriminatory Social Norms’, The OECD’s latest issue of ‘Education Indicators in Focus’ and President Obama’s impassioned words on climate chance in his recent inaugural address.

Wikiprogress has created an interactive Post 2015 page for users to access articles, publications, discussion boards and news on upcoming events.  There are new meetings, reports and conferences on the subject occurring every day and this page is intended to bring together all the key information so that Wikiprogress followers can stay up to date on proceedings.  To visit the Post 2015 page, click here

In a bid to make an early footmark in the Post 2015 debate, Save the Children recently released ‘Ending Poverty in Our Generation’, a vision of their new development framework. The report, consisting of ten key goals, aims to support the creation of a world where all people realise their human rights within a generation. To access the ‘Ending Poverty’, visit Wikichild’s Spotlight section.

Following on from the online discussion ‘Engaging Men and Boys in Transforming Discriminatory Social Norms’ that ran from 22nd until 31^st of October, Wikigender released a synthesis of the rich exchange of views, examples and recommendations. The key issues of the discussion included: the power of men to change; rethinking ideas of masculinity; and educating society (both women and men) about gender equality and its benefits. Click here to read the synthesis.

The OECD’s latest issue of Education Indicators in Focus seeks to answer the question of what are the social benefits of education. The link between education and social benefits has long been recognized and research recently revealed that education not only enables individuals to perform better in the labour market, but also helps to improve their overall health, promote active citizenship and contain violence. Read more.

Lastly, a newly invigorated President Obama yesterday addressed the issue of climate change head on in his inaugural address. The topic that was completely overshadowed by the stuttering economy in the lead up to the election was one of the main focal points of Obama’s speech. Watch the clip below.

Stay tuned for more Progress reviews in the coming weeks!

Robbie Lawrence

Wikichild Coordinator

@Wiki_child

@robbielawrence1

The threat of inequality to children

Migrant families pitch camp next to a railway line in Delhi, while they look for work, India. ©Raghu Rai:Magnum for Save the Children

As a group that are often the most vulnerable to poverty and its detriments, children were a central focus when the Millennium Development Goals were implemented in 2000.

The eight goal plan adopted by World leaders at the UN Millennium Summit in New York has arguably been a success, having facilitated huge progress in dealing with a number of the world's biggest challenges.

In the last decade, the number of people suffering from extreme poverty fell from almost 2 billion to less than 1.3 billion, child mortality dropped to 6.9 million (12 million in 1990) and huge improvements were made in school enrolment. 

Research from the World Bank shows that in 1981, almost three-fourths of citizens in the developing world lived on less than $2 a day – this rate has dropped dramatically to 43 percent. Their report Inequality in Focus claims that, “Progress is undeniable”, with preliminary estimates revealing that positive trends are set to continue. This encouraging assessment is backed up in part by Justin Forsyth, the Chief Executive of Save the Children who recently stated:

 “The world has made dramatic progress in cutting child deaths and improving opportunities for children.”

Despite the considerable improvements made to child well-being, the positive figures on show bely the rapidly growing problem of inequality. In a recent report Born Equal: How reducing inequality could give our children a better future, Save the Children argues that global progress masks a huge number of disparities. When broken down, national statistics on poverty reduction, hunger, child mortality show striking imbalances between rich and poor, urban and rural areas, men and women and ethnic groups.

The top deciles of populations in developed and developing countries are getting rapidly richer and the disproportionate levels of healthcare, nutrition and better access to school enjoyed by this section of society make it difficult to provide an accurate picture of whether the progress being made is benefiting those who need it most. In a TED Talk on economic inequality and its effects on society, public health researcher Richard Wilkinson describes the 'extraordinary' disparities between rich and poor, pointing at a near ten year life expectancy gap between the wealthy and the impoverished in England and Wales. Born Equal exemplifies the issue by using the case of Madagascar, where a striking drop in under-five mortality between the late 90s and the mid-2000s had been concentrated in the top wealth quintile:

“While child mortality in the richest quintile fell from 142 to 49 per 1000 live births, the poorest quintile saw less progress, with a more modest fall from 195 to 101 per 1000 live births.”

The report stipulates that children bear the brunt of inequality, demonstrating that in some cases children born into the richest households have access to 35 times (Born Equal) the resources of the poorest. Furthermore, child mortality rates are more than double among the poorest countries and stunting rates can reach levels six times higher in rural than in urban areas in countries with noticeable spatial inequalities. Notably, research from the OECD has shown that for the first time inequality has risen in traditionally low-inequality countries, such as Germany, Denmark, and Sweden (and other Nordic countries), where it grew more than anywhere else in the 2000s. Widening disparities in income have been shown to compromise a country's economic growth, damage well-being outcomes and threaten poverty reduction. On a micro level, inequality threatens the right of every child to have an equal chance to survive and thrive.

Despite the fact that children are hardest hit by inequality, little focus has been applied to the measurement of inequality among them. Born Equal not only lays out the damaging effects of inequality on children but identifies the policies and interventions that have successfully dealt with the problem up until now and then goes further by providing a number of recommendations for the upcoming post- 2015 framework that will replace the Millennium Goals. These include a call for a more equitable approach to the pursuit of development goals through the disaggregation of targets and indicators by wealth and other forms of group based inequalities. They also provide suggestions on progressive taxation and break away from other major development organisations by being the first to call for a fight against illicit flows.

The problem of inequality is transcendent throughout the world and it seems paramount that while focus is still applied to the current MDGs – the next generation of these goals must pursue equity in similar measure. Only by shifting the attention to those who have not benefited from the current program will its aims be fully achieved. Justin Forsyth emphasized this necessity when he added:

“Unless inequality is addressed...any future development framework will simply not succeed in maintaining or accelerating progress. What’s more, it will hold countries – and the world – back from experiencing real growth and prosperity.”

Robbie Lawrence

Wikichild Coordinator

@Wiki_child

@Robbielawrence1

The role of data in keeping governments accountable

With the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals drawing nearer, there is much discussion around what needs to be done to achieve these goals, as well as what will happen post 2015.

It must be acknowledged that the Goals have provided a clear framework for the monitoring and evaluation of progress in key areas of development. This has resulted in a wealth of data that allows for country comparisons, which helps to give insight into where resources are the most needed. The importance of data was also recently highlighted on the topic of gender equality.

On the issue of children, the 2012 MDG report states that:

• The world has achieved parity in primary education between girls and boys
• Significant progress has been made towards achieving universal primary education
• Child survival progress is gaining ‘momentum’

Nonetheless,

•         Decreases in maternal mortality are far from the 2015 target
•         Hunger remains a global challenge and it is one that severely affects children

Data, as stated by Hilary Rodham Clinton, “not only measures progress, it inspires it. (…) what gets measured gets done”. Measurement is integral to the development of effective policy and the assurance of outcomes. It is there to guide and evaluate progress on agreed priority areas as well as to hold decision makers and leaders accountable.

This week’s Wikichild Spotlight report, ‘Governance and the Rights of Children’ by UNICEF IRC discusses the role of monitoring and evaluation processes and the importance of good governance to ensuring the fulfilment of children’s rights, specifically those set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

As the paper states, “guaranteeing and monitoring the requirements of human rights instruments is difficult and measurement of children’s rights more so”.

Why? Because the four principal challenges put forward by the report are: 1) implementation issues; 2) multifarious organisational conditions; 3)coordination of the complexities of protecting children’s rights and 4) conducting independent evaluations and assessments of the performance of governments.

To solve these issues, a coordinated response, looking beyond procedures and legal compliance to what is actually being done and the delivery of services is stated to be essential. In addition to this, monitoring and evaluation to identify impacts is fundamental.

David McNair of Save the Children stated earlier this year, “Aid alone is not enough, but transparency and accountability are essential”. Gaining clarity around what has been done and what needs to be done through the use of measurement tools lends itself to this statement. The report openly states that it is not an easy task, however one that is crucial for the lives of children and although it is unclear what form the post 2015 agenda will take in regards to children, the tracking of progress is important to make sure it continues and that governments remain key drivers of change.


Hannah Chadwick

Wikichild Coordinator 

A Better Future for All

This post first appeared on Wikiprogress partner, UNDP's  Let's Talk Human Development

In June 2012 world leaders will gather in Rio de Janeiro to seek a new consensus on global actions to safeguard the future of the planet and the right of future generations everywhere to live healthy and fulfilling lives. This is the great development challenge of the 21st century.

The 2011 Human Development Report offers important new contributions to the global dialogue on this challenge, showing how sustainability is inextricably linked to basic questions of equity—that is, of fairness and social justice and of greater access to a better quality of life. Sustainability is not exclusively or even primarily an environmental issue, as this Report so persuasively argues. It is fundamentally about how we choose to live our lives, with an awareness that everything we do has consequences for the 7 billion of us here today, as well as for the billions more who will follow, for centuries to come.

Understanding the links between environmental sustainability and equity is critical if we are to expand human freedoms for current and future generations. The remarkable progress in human development over recent decades, which the global Human Development Reports have documented, cannot continue without bold global steps to reduce both environmental risks and inequality. This Report identifies pathways for people, local communities, countries and the international community to promote environmental sustainability and equity in mutually reinforcing ways.

In the 176 countries and territories where the United Nations Development Programme is working every day, many disadvantaged people carry a double burden of deprivation. They are more vulnerable to the wider effects of environmental degradation, because of more severe stresses and fewer coping tools. They must also deal with threats to their immediate environment from indoor air pollution, dirty water and unimproved sanitation. Forecasts suggest that continuing failure to reduce the grave environmental risks and deepening social inequalities threatens to slow decades of sustained progress by the world’s poor majority— and even to reverse the global convergence in human development.

Major disparities in power shape these patterns. New analysis shows how power imbalances and gender inequalities at the national level are linked to reduced access to clean water and improved sanitation, land degradation and deaths due to indoor and outdoor air pollution, amplifying the effects associated with income disparities. Gender inequalities also interact with environmental outcomes and make them worse. At the global level governance arrangements often weaken the voices of developing countries and exclude marginalized groups.

Yet there are alternatives to inequality and unsustainability. Growth driven by fossil fuel consumption is not a prerequisite for a better life in broader human development terms. Investments that improve equity—in access, for example, to renewable energy, water and sanitation, and reproductive healthcare—could advance both sustainability and human development. Stronger accountability and democratic processes, in part through support for an active civil society and media, can also improve outcomes. Successful approaches rely on community management, inclusive institutions that pay particular attention to disadvantaged groups, and cross-cutting approaches that coordinate budgets and mechanisms across government agencies and development partners.

Beyond the Millennium Development Goals, the world needs a post-2015 development framework that reflects equity and sustainability; Rio+20 stands out as a key opportunity to reach a shared understanding of how to move forward. This Report shows that approaches that integrate equity into policies and programmes and that empower people to bring about change in the legal and political arenas hold enormous promise. Growing country experiences around the world have demonstrated the potential of these approaches to generate and capture positive synergies.

The financing needed for development—including for environmental and social protection—will have to be many times greater than current official development assistance. Today’s spending on low-carbon energy sources, for example, is only 1.6 percent of even the lowest estimate of need, while spending on climate change adaptation and mitigation is around 11 percent of estimated need. Hope rests on new climate finance. While market mechanisms and private funding will be vital, they must be supported and leveraged by proactive public investment. Closing the financing gap requires innovative thinking, which this Report provides.

Beyond raising new sources of funds to address pressing environmental threats equitably, the Report advocates reforms that promote equity and voice. Financing flows need to be channelled towards the critical challenges of unsustainability and inequity—and not exacerbate existing disparities.

Providing opportunities and choices for all is the central goal of human development. We have a collective responsibility towards the least privileged among us today and in the future around the world—and a moral imperative to ensure that the present is not the enemy of the future. This Report can help us see the way forward.

By Helen Clark

Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)