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This chapter summarizes research on aid allocation and effectiveness, highlighting the current findings of recent research on aid allocation to fragile states. Fragile states are defined by the donor community as those with either critically poor policies or poorly performing institutions, or both. The chapter examines the research findings in the broader context of research and analysis on how aid should and is being allocated across all developing countries. Various aid allocation models and their implications for aid to fragile states are considered. The chapter also looks at types of instruments and their sequencing in fragile states.

This chapter repositions regional processes within the post-MDGs agenda and inquires as to their contribution to its construction. It assesses the progress made towards the achievement of regional integration in Africa at both the macro-regional (the level of regional economic communities (RECs)) and continental (the level of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)) scales. Pointing out the achievements and the limits of regional economic integration, it suggests that sector-specific projects and programs are more likely to succeed in Africa. If such projects and programs focus on development issues that are crucial for African societies, they will be more likely to gather consensus and facilitate the participation of all stakeholders concerned (states, RECs, private sector actors, CSOs, international institutions, etc.), factors strategic for the success of every regional dynamic. The chapter focuses on the capacities that have to be built for an African sector-specific regionalism.

There are dangers of over-simplification when discussing the development challenges and opportunities facing a continent as vast as Africa at a given point in time! Africa is made up of 54 disparate countries in five regions, and is not a single monolithic whole. The 2014 Ebola crisis in three countries in West Africa once again revealed the tendency of those outside the continent to classify it as a distinct entity. Despite the frequent allusion to a new “Scramble for Africa”, the continent is planning, managing and starting to finance its own destiny, as it attempts to reclaim the twenty-first century. After 2015 Africa anticipates a future that is not just fraught with challenges but also with opportunities. Africa’s vision for the future as it looks beyond the MDGs has been endorsed by Heads of States in the name of Agenda 2063, forming the core element for shaping development conversations for the next 50 years or so.

One of the paradoxes of globalization is that an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world is simultaneously marked by widening health gaps between privileged and less advantaged groups, both between and within countries. Ambitious development and health objectives, most prominently the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), have been set by the global community to promote a fairer distribution of the benefits of progress. But gains toward the targets are too slow, particularly in the countries with the greatest needs. This chapter assesses WHO's capacity to lead in meeting these challenges. It begins with a review of key stages of WHO's history, then surveys the current state of global public health. Finally, it explores strategic directions set by WHO's current leadership to respond and help shape a healthier, more equitable future for all.

This chapter has several parts. Firstly it provides an assessment of the SPF Recommendation in its own terms as a piece of ILO policy. Secondly it asks to what extent the “global social floor” or SPF Initiative has become really embedded in the UN system in the context of parallel debates and processes concerned with environmental sustainability (Rio plus 20) and with the broader Post-2015 UN development agenda planned for the period after the “expiry” of the initial MDG agenda. Thirdly it discusses the further development of a global civil society campaign to realize SPFs in practice in countries and asks both how this new coalition will take forward the work of the original Coalition for a Global Social Floor and which of the two inter-agency coordination mechanisms (UNSPF-I and SPIAC-B) will take forward the campaign at an official UN level. The chapter also discusses the very recent call being made to establish a global social protection fund and asks how this might operate. Finally it returns to the broader question of complex global social governance and assesses the implications of this case study in global social policy formation for the understanding of the existing and future global social governance system.

Tremendous progress has been made toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but progress has been largely uneven across regions and goals. While the goal to halve global poverty has been achieved, progress toward halving global hunger is not on track. Discussions on the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will advance what began with the MDGs, have gained much momentum. This ensuing agenda puts sustainable development at the center and considers as top priority the goal of eliminating extreme poverty to a zero level by 2030. This chapter argues that eliminating hunger and undernutrition is equally important, and we should aim to achieve this goal by 2025. Experiences of countries that have successfully reduced hunger and undernutrition are presented to show that this goal is realistic. The chapter draws out key lessons to inform actions toward achieving the goals of global food security, improved nutrition, and environmental sustainability.

This chapter reviews the evolution of development thought from the Second World War to date, tracing the dynamics and interactions between the circumstances that countries faced, economic thought, and policies. It shows that on gaining independence, countries first aimed to promote economic growth, and while this was quite successful, problems emerged and the human dimension was neglected. A succession of alternatives, including the basic needs approach, was displaced by the debt crisis and stabilization in the 1980s, with very harsh consequences for poverty. The human development approach arose then, with the 1990 Human Development Report, building on basic needs and Sen’s capabilities approach. The chapter traces subsequent developments, including global agreements such as the Millennium Development Goals, and subsequently the Sustainable Development Goals, which can be seen as embodiments of the human development approach.

This chapter takes as its starting point the Millennium Declaration of September 2000, and shows how—building also on the International Development Targets (IDTs) and conclusions from a series of UN Summits—the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) took shape. It looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the MDGs, what was left out (and why), and the read across between development and the environment.

This chapter examines the implicit compact between the North (financial support) and South (policy change) as a basis for implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and institutional and financing arrangements. It looks at the role of the G8 and in particular the Gleneagles Summit and Commission for Africa.

The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the next millennium was characterized by an extraordinary burst of international cooperation on development. At the core of this cooperation was the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 and the related agreement to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The U4 played a role both in the run-up to the MDG agreement and in linking the achievement of the MDG objective of ending poverty to collaborative efforts between donor and recipient, with partners in the driver’s seat setting their own priorities. This chapter starts with a discussion of the agreement to establish the MDGs at the UN and its implications for development. Then it turns to the perennial question of how much aid developed countries should commit to provide to developing countries, and what donors and recipients must do to make aid more effective, two central issues of the Monterrey Conference on Finance for Development in 2002. The last part discusses the special U4 and international community efforts to achieve universal primary education and to battle HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Discussing human development issues at the national level, without being mindful of the global architecture that can enable or hinder the same, is an exercise in futility. In recognition, this chapter reflects on the broader engagement of global policy-making in influencing pathways to human progress. The chapter puts forth the argument that the ‘unequal world’ today is gearing towards fostering notions of equity and justice, which are key to the human development paradigm. The rejuvenation of the global architecture is imperative as the onslaught of economic crisis, environmental fragility, and worsening of social inequities are cutting across economies in both the developed as well as the developing world. In such a milieu, it may be worthwhile to revive the dialogue process beyond the SDG mandate to encompass economic and political issues—a la the North–South Roundtables platform of yore.

Multilateral development objectives and targets need to be recognized as universal in nature—and, thus “de-colonized” in that they should not focus exclusively on developing countries. As an integrated framework, Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development must embrace economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. This agenda places equality at the center as an ethical principle and the ultimate goal of development. This means adopting a rights-based approach, which recognizes that all individuals are equal in rights—civil and political, as well as economic and social—and that they should have autonomy, recognition and dignity. Finally, regional cooperation should play a central role in its implementing the Agenda as it is best place to ensure inclusion and protection of weaker players.

Over the last two decades, the development cooperation system has been subject to several changes that have affected the aid doctrine, the spectrum of actors involved, and the range of instruments put into play. But if the cooperation system has changed, international reality has evolved even more intensively. We are now facing a highly integrated but insecure world, with less absolute poverty but more inequality, with new global powers emerging from an increasingly heterogeneous developing world and a world that face demanding environmental challenges. All these factors force to reshape the development cooperation system, reviewing its purposes, perimeter and governance mechanisms. The chapter analyses these issues and discusses alternative scenarios for the foreseeable future in the context of the new Post-2015 Development Agenda.

This chapter focusses on the development of the concept of Sustainable development. It discusses the efforts of UNDP to achieve the MDGs in the past years and the challenge to achieve the new goals rightly called as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The chapter throws light on the same aspects with a better elucidation. The quantum of implementation of millennium development goals (MDGs) in India can be an immense learning lesson that can be incorporated into the design and implementation of the SDGs to build upon the unfinished MDG agenda. It stresses upon the urgent need to strengthen the economic policies with people having focused plan and to eliminate inequalities in the distribution of economic resources. After Rio+20, there is a remarkable convergence of vision underlying the priorities for the proposed SDGs and those of the new Government in India. SDGs propose to end poverty and deprivation in all forms, leaving no one behind, while making development economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.