Millennium Villages Blog

“The Millennium Development Goals: How to step up the efforts?” was the central theme of the 3rd “States General”, which took place in Brussels on May 4, 2010. The opening session was presided by Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde, who highlighted the importance of the achievement of the MDGs, Belgium’s commitment to the Goals and her own experiences in the developing world. Belgium is expected to play an active role in the MDG summit in September this year, as it will be under Belgium’s rotating presidency of the European Union.

In his introductory remarks, Mr. Charles Michel, Minister for Development Cooperation, expressed Belgium’s commitment to the MDGs and to reach 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) for Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) by 2010. In 2008, Belgium’s ODA amounted to €1.6 billion (0.48% of GNI), increasing to an estimated €1.9 billion (0.56% of GNI) in 2009. With this increase, Belgium is the 14th largest ODA donor in absolute terms.

The “States General” is an annual forum organized by the Belgian Development Cooperation. It brings together development cooperation policy makers and actors, civil society, politicians and academia. Its aim is to raise awareness and to stimulate reflection on international trends as well as on Belgian policy orientations. This year the “States General” focused on the MDGs.

The MDGs have been a central reference point of the Belgian development cooperation for many years. This year, a healthy dialogue took place at the “States General”. At the center of this dialogue was the growing consensus that, while notable progress towards reaching the Goals has been made, it has been far too slow and too fragmented. Panelists and Belgian officials pointed out that the likelihood of reaching the MDGs is slim without a renewed commitment to considerably boosting political, financial and technical efforts between now and 2015.

The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) was featured in the second round table under the theme “Concrete measures to reach the MDGs on the ground”. After thanking the Government of Belgium for providing the MVP with an opportunity to share its experience, MVP agriculture and value chain development specialist Rafael Flor presented the MVP concept and some preliminary results of progress made so far on the ground. The panel was composed of Owen Barder from the Center for Global Development, Iris Uyttersprot from the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) and Rafael Flor. Marc Denys from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Belgium moderated a very dynamic and open dialogue between the panelists and an audience of about 150 people. Different representatives intervened, including Mrs. Amina Az-Zubair, Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on MDGs, who made a few remarks. Mrs. Az-Zubair shared with the forum the decision made by her country to scale up the MVP concept to 113 Local Government Authorities starting in 2011.

After three years of implementation across 12 African countries, the MVP is demonstrating which concrete measures work at the field level to improve living conditions in rural areas. It is also demonstrating that the MDGs can be achieved at the local level with a package of targeted investments in agriculture, health, education, rural infrastructure and governance. The MVP’s invitation to this high level event is very encouraging, as it demonstrates the interest of various development partners and policy makers in the concept, results and momentum that the project has generated.

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