A practical plan to achieve the MDGs.

We have the opportunity in the coming decade to cut world poverty by half. Billions more people could enjoy the fruits of the global economy, and tens of millions of lives could be saved. The practical solutions exist. The political framework is established. And for the first time, the cost is utterly affordable. Whatever one's motivation for combating extreme poverty--human rights, religious values, security, fiscal prudence, ideology--the solutions are the same. All that is needed is action.

The United Nations Millennium Project is an independent advisory body commissioned by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a global plan for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. If the world achieves these Goals, more than 500 million people will be lifted out of poverty and 250 million will no longer suffer from hunger, while 30 million children and 2 million mothers who might reasonably have been expected to die will be saved.

The UN Millennium Project presented its report, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, to the Secretary-General in January 2005. Based on the work of a blue-ribbon team of 265 of the world's leading development experts, their findings present the most comprehensive strategy ever put forward for combating global poverty, hunger and disease. The release of the report is the first in a series of major global initiatives on the MDGs in 2005, culminating in a high-level summit of the General Assembly in September, representing an historic chance for making the global policy breakthrough needed to help the poorest countries achieve the Goals. The report also provides a detailed blueprint for making this happen.

The Project's recommendations outline the key steps that specific actors must commit to in the coming months and crucially follow through for the next 10 years. Developing-country Governments should adopt development strategies bold enough to meet the MDG targets by 2015. To meet this deadline, we recommend that all countries have their strategies in place by 2006, and where Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) already exist, they should be aligned with the MDGs.

The MDG-based poverty reduction strategies should anchor the scaling up of public investments, capacity-building, domestic resource mobilization and official development assistance (ODA). They should also provide a framework for strengthening governance, promoting human rights, engaging civil society and promoting the private sector. They should be based on an assessment of investments and policies needed to reach the MDGs by 2015. These strategies should spell out the detailed national investments, policies and budgets for the next three to five years, with investments focussing on rural and urban productivity, education, gender equality, water and sanitation, environmental sustainability, science and technology, innovation and policies that focus on women's and girls' health, including reproductive health, as well as on education outcomes, access to economic and political opportunities, right to control assets and freedom from violence.

In order for these strategies to be effective, countries must: promote mechanisms for transparent and decentralized governance; include operational strategies for scale-up, such as training and retaining skilled workers; involve civil society organizations in decision-making and service delivery; provide resources for monitoring and evaluation; outline private-sector promotion and income-generation strategies for poor people; and tailor these strategies, as appropriate, to the special needs of landlocked, small island developing, least developed and fragile States.

Strategies should aim to understand the resource implications of their implementation, including mobilization of increased domestic resources by up to 4 percentage points of the gross national product (GNP) by 2015, calculations of ODA needed, and description of an "exit strategy" to end aid dependency that is appropriate to the country's situation. These strategies should be devised in transparent and inclusive processes, working closely with civil society organizations, the private sector and international partners. Civil society organizations should contribute actively to designing policies, delivering services and monitoring progress, while the private-sector firms and organizations should contribute actively to policy design, transparency initiatives and, where appropriate, public-private partnerships. International donors should identify at least a dozen MDG-"fast-track" countries for a rapid scale-up of ODA in 2005, recognizing that many countries are already in a position for a massive scale-up on the basis of good governance and absorptive capacity.

Developed and developing countries should jointly undertake a series of "Quick Win" actions to save millions and improve their lives and promote economic growth. They should also launch a massive effort to build expertise at the community level. The Quick Wins include, but are not limited to:

* Free mass distribution of bed-nets and effective anti-malarial medicines for all children in regions of malaria transmission by the end of 2007.

* Ending user fees for primary schools and essential health services, compensated by increased donor aid, as necessary, no later than the end of 2006.

* Successful completion of the 3 X 5 campaign to bring antiretroviral treatment to 3 million AIDS patients in developing countries by the end of 2005.

* Expansion of school meal programmes to cover all children in hunger hotspots using locally produced foods no later than the end of 2006.

* A massive replenishment of soil nutrients for small-holder farmers on nutrient-depleted lands, through free or subsidized distribution of chemical fertilizers and agroforestry no later than the end of 2006.

The massive training programme of community-based workers should aim to ensure by 2015 that each local community has expertise in health, education, agriculture, nutrition, infrastructure, water supply and sanitation, and environmental management, as well as in public-sector management and appropriate training to promote gender equality and participation.

Governments in developing countries should align their national strategies with such regional initiatives as the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the Caribbean Community and Common Market. Regional development groups should receive increased direct donor assistance, in particular in implementing cross-border projects. They should be supported in identifying, planning and implementing high-priority cross-border infrastructure projects, such as roads, railways and watershed management. The groups should be encouraged to introduce and implement peer-review mechanisms to promote best practices and good governance.

High-income countries should increase ODA from 0.25 per cent of donor GNP in 2003 to around 0.44 per cent in 2006, and 0.54 per cent in 2015 to support the MDGs, particularly in low-income countries, with improved aid quality, including aid that is harmonized, predictable and largely in the form of grants-based budget support. Each donor should reach 0.7 per cent no later than 2015 to support the MDGs and other development assistance priorities. Debt relief should be more extensive and generous. Importantly, ODA should be based on actual needs to meet the MDGs and on the readiness of developing countries to use the ODA effectively. Criteria for evaluating the sustainability of a country's debt burden must be consistent with the Goals' achievement. Aid should be oriented to support the MDG-based poverty reduction strategy, rather than donor-driven projects. Donors should measure and report the share of their ODA that supports the actual scale-up of MDG-related investments.

Middle-income countries should seek opportunities to become providers of ODA and give technical support to low-income countries. High-income nations should open their markets to developing-country exports through the Doha Trade Round and help the least developed countries raise export competitiveness through investments in critical trade-related infrastructure, including electricity, roads and ports. The Doha Development Agenda should be fulfilled and the Doha Round completed no later than 2006. International donors should mobilize support for global scientific research and development to address the special needs of the poor in areas of health, agriculture, natural resource and environmental management, energy and climate. We estimate the total needs to rise to approximately $7 billion by 2015.

Secretary-General Annan and the UN development group should strengthen the coordination of UN agencies, funds and programmes to support the MDGs at headquarters and country level. UN country teams should be strengthened and work closely with the international financial institutions--World Bank, International Monetary Fund and regional development banks--to support the MDGs and improve the quality of technical advice at the country level. These teams should also be properly trained, staffed and funded to support programme countries to achieve the Goals.

To ensure success, the world in 2005 must start building capacity, improving policies and delivering the investments needed to meet the MDGs, and this would need to be sustained at the global, national and local levels over the next 10 years. And only by acting now can long-term environmental challenges, such as climate change and fisheries depletion, be contained before they inflict irreparable harm on the poor countries that are least able to protect themselves.

Urgent action is needed if we are to usher in a decade of bold ambition to achieve the MDGs. Developing countries need to make every effort to mobilize around the Goals. Rich countries need to ask themselves if they should be more concerned with pointing fingers at the responsibilities of poor countries, as many of them are today, than with meeting their own commitments. The international community needs desperately to follow through on its commitments, taking quick practical steps at scale before the MDGs become impossible to achieve. If we fail to invest now, it will be a very long way to the next Millennium Summit in the year 3000.

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, is the Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the MDGs. Mr. Sachs is internationally renowned for advising Governments on economic reforms and for his work to promote poverty reduction, disease control and debt reduction of poor countries. Named among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by Time magazine, he is the author of hundreds of scholarly articles and books.

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