Bono
The MDG Summit begins tomorrow! Are you ready?
Bono is. Read his op-ed in the New York Times today, and ponder these short-term tests Bono proposes to assess the Goals:
1) Find what works and expand on it.
2) Governance as an effect multiplier.
3) Demand clarity, measure inputs and outputs.
The rest of the op-ed summarizes what we already know: in some ways the MDGs are working, but in most they are not, and the recent financial crisis has not helped. Corruption is still rampant and it’s hard to measure progress when data is so unreliable. All this is true, but I can’t help still feeling iffy about the whole concept of the MDGs. Maybe it’s my cynical nature, but I’m not expecting anything earth shattering to come out of this summit. But I’ll be watching! It would be fun to be there, if only to hear the speeches in person.
I’ve read some papers that suggest that the only lasting impact of the MDGs will be to teach us how to better structure our next big push for development (be less ambitious, choose a longer timeframe, make goals more specific, etc). Talk about a cynical assessment, but I’m beginning to see their point. Given how successfully the world rallied around the MDGs, it’s clear that we can create uniform development goals and expect governments to stand by them- but maybe we didn’t get it right this first time around.
