Our Perspective

• Will the Post-2015 report make a difference? Depends what happens next | Duncan Green

  14 Jun 2013

  
  Climate change is causing unique challenges for countries such as Bangladesh, pictured above. The environment must be considered "if we are to sustain progress in tackling poverty," Green writes. (Photo: Munir Uz Zaman/FAO)

  Reading the report of the High Level Panel induces a sense of giddy optimism. It is a manifesto for a (much) better world, taking the best of the Millennium Development Goals, and adding what we have learned in the intervening years – the importance of social protection, sustainability, ending conflict, tackling the deepest pockets of poverty, even obesity (rapidly rising in many poor countries). The ambition and optimism is all the more welcome for its contrast with the daily grind of austerity, recession and international paralysis (Syria, climate change, the torments of the European Union). But then the doubts start to creep in. What’s missing is always harder to spot than what is in the text, but three gaps are already clear: The emerging global concern over inequality is relegated to national politics. The concept of poverty is pretty old school – income, health, education, and fails to recognize the considerable progress made in measuring "well-being" – the level of life satisfaction people feel. Finally there is too little recognition that the earth is a finite ecosystem, and that we need to make a reality of the concept of planetary boundaries if we are to sustain progress in tackling poverty. But Read More

• Sustainability must combine environmental concerns with poverty reduction | George Bouma

  12 Jun 2013

  
  Addressing poverty-environment issues is essential for achieving sustainable development. Above, children in Rwanda. (Photo: PEI)

  With 2015 around the corner, one question dominates the global development agenda: what will replace the Millennium Development Goals? Twelve years on from the historic Millennium Declaration, indicators show that our failure to protect our environmental systems is undermining much of the progress that has been made in helping the world’s poorest communities. The stories from around the globe are all too familiar. Small-holder farmers in Tanzania have been suffering smaller yields as a result of soil degradation; communities in Bangladesh are struggling to cope with increasingly erratic weather conditions as a result of climate change; indigenous peoples in Latin America and South-East Asia are searching for alternative livelihoods where high levels of deforestation have robbed them of their principal economic assets. It is now clear that the post-2015 agenda must tackle the relationship between poverty and sustainability if it is to bring about long-lasting change. Efforts to bring the three strands of sustainable development (social, environmental and economic) into a single policy lens have a long history, dating back to the 1980s and ranging up to more recent Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. Despite progress in many areas, such plans have struggled to bring about enduring and institutional change. Often, international Read More

• Gearing up to support national transformation in Myanmar | Toily Kurbanov

  07 Jun 2013

  
  Micro-financed projects in Bangan Townships, Myanmar. (Photo: Mark Garten/UN Photo)

  After two decades of restricted operations and 18 months of unprecedented and ongoing national reform, UNDP — along with our partners and other international organizations such as the World Bank — is now poised to help Myanmar lift itself out of widespread poverty and isolation following 18 months of unprecedented opening and reform.   The road ahead is long and filled with challenges, but the promise and potential—given Myanmar’s large, young population, vast natural resources, strategic position next to emerging economies of China, India and South East Asia, and strong commitment to reform—are encouraging.   UNDP has worked in Myanmar since the 1960s, but in 1993 our mandate was restricted to interventions at the grassroots level, sidestepping the regime. We helped communities directly with livelihood support and infrastructure projects, such as building hurricane-resistant housing.   Now we’re engaging the government to help sustain the momentum behind its political and socio-economic reforms.   Our new country programme includes a major focus on responsive, transparent, democratic governance—a central component of UNDP’s work worldwide—in three priority areas.   The first supports institutional strengthening of local governments and civil society, while providing livelihood support and poverty reduction in border and ceasefire areas.   The second comprises Read More

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