The New Millenium and its goals

The new millennium began with the definition of the Millenium Goals, and a concomitant focus on alleviating poverty and a focus from development to what is sometimes termed ‘social aid’, and as Simensen (2007, 176) writes, “it can be argued that this follows logically from the predominance of the neo-liberal model in the world economy, whereby economic and technological development is left to private capital”. If anything, the neo-liberal focus of aid has strengthened in the new millennium, with a new, added emphasis, however, on that of the need for state to provide an enabling environment conducive to the development of the private sector. The importance of an 32

effective public sector, including its administrative and physical infrastructure and the development and enforcement of appropriate policies that ensure a stable economic, social and political, is now positioned as key to improving private sector development, underlining the disbelief in the state as the sole or even central actor of prosperity, and accrediting the markets with the hope that they will, hopefully, reap more fair and just returns for all on the long run. Whilst development theory and practise has long included efforts to promote private investment in and business development in poor countries, increasing emphasis has been placed on the creation of necessary foundations for successful businesses as a means of increasing financial returns. Thus, it is emphasized, there is a need to strengthen the infrastructure, take societal measures to ensure an educated and healthy labour force; push for policy and regulatory reforms that create a supportive environment for private enterprise; and establish externally funded mechanisms that directly benefit domestic private entrepreneurs by providing them with training, advice and financing. As Goldin and Reinert (2007) synthesize lessons learned: “Clearly, experience shows that the private market economy must be the engine of growth; but it shows also that a vibrant private sector depends on properly functioning state institutions to build a good investment climate and deliver services competently” (212).

Continuing the process that began in the mid-1980s and the economic development paradigm adopted at the time, which is based on policies to strengthen market forces, increase competition and refocus the role of the state, heightening the importance of private sector development, many developing countries have continued to implement structural reforms aimed at encouraging private enterprise to take root and flourish. These efforts have focused on: macroeconomic stability (fiscal and monetary reform) and creating incentives for efficient production (trade, exchange rate and price reform); promoting deregulation and competition; and improving the legal, judiciary and regulatory environment. (Golding & Reinert 2007; Simensen 2007.) The trhetoric, as reflected by the following excerpt from UNAIDS’ document AIDS is Everybody’s Business (2007, 7), is one in which multilateral and bilateral as well as national counterparts aim to position themselves as partners with the private sector: “As they bring their unique strengths to reverse this epidemic, each business also shares a partner—the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).”

Renewed efforts have taken place to strengthen the public sector, to improve the quality of its services, through a focus on targets and outputs, but also through an emphasis on poverty reduction (Golding & Reinert 2007; Simensen 2007; UNDP 2005), which is approached as a means of social development, as reflected by the conclusion that Golding and Reinert’s (ibid., 124) draw on development goals today, as follows: “In recent years, the goals of development have come to 33

embrace the elimination of poverty in all its dimensions – income poverty, illiteracy, poor health, insecurity of income, and powerlessness.”

The turn of the Millenium was marked by the endorsement of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), shifting, at the level of official discourse, the concerns articulated of development aid towards an increasingly global agenda. One means through which developing countries secure donor support, and funding, was, and is, through the development of national policies that articulate the aims and goals of various global initiatives, such as the Millenium Goals, into the national context, developing sectoral strategic plans, identifying indicators, outputs and targets, as well as tabulating costs for different activities. Policies in similar format that are closely tied in with global declarations rarely exist in the Western world, and as Easterly (2007, p. 3) writes in polemical fashion: “George Washington did not have to deal with aid partners, getting structurally adjusted by them, or preparing poverty-reduction strategy papers for them”.

The MDGs, while addressing various issues, have been suggested as a means of, in particular, addressing poverty, and its eight goals have been called “poverty reduction strategies” (UNDP 2005, xiv)⁷. Poverty is posed as a global issue, as affecting all, and as emphasized by various UN documents of the time, the turn of the Millenium was a timely moment to recognize that all countries of the world are interconnected and that the development aid response needs to be built on partnerships: “Our Project has been a microcosm of a larger truth: achieving the Millennium Development Goals will require a global partnership suitable for an interconnected world. The world truly shares a common fate” (UNDP 2005, vi).

This ideal is also incorporated into MDG 8, which is that of developing a global partnership for development. Of all the MDGs, this goal has the most related targets, six in all, two of which relate specifically to the private sector: “In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries”; “In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies” (UNDP 2005, xii). The ‘UN Millenium Project’, as it has been called, also reaffirmed the central part the private sector is seen as playing in the development context, on par with government, civil society and bi- as well as multilateral partners, as reflected, for example, by the UNDP report Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millenium Development Goals (2005):

7 Notably, about 70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas, and thus emphasis has been placed on rural development (Golding & Reinert 2005, 51).

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The UN Millennium Project has been a unique undertaking. Its 10 task forces, Secretariat, and broad array of participants from academia, government, UN agencies, international financial institutions, nongovernmental organizations, donor agencies, and the private sector created a worldwide network of development practitioners and experts across an enormous range of countries, disciplines, and organizations. (vi, emphasis added.)

Whilst the amount of official development assistance increased at the turn of the millenium, this was not reflected by more funds available on the ground due to the debt crisis. Debt financing, as Golding and Reinert (2007, 140) write, has taken place in developing countries for centuries, and since the 1950s, long-term borrowing became increasingly available to developing countries. As of the mid 1970s, developing country borrowing increased significantly, and already at the time, Reinert (2005) writes, “the IMF began to sound warning about the sustainability of developing country borrowing from the commercial banking system” (Golding & Reinert 2007, 141). Relatedly, one of the MDG 8 targets relates to debt relief: “Deal comprehensively with debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term” (UNDP 2005, xii), and as described by Severino (2008), the turn of the Millenium was a period of “massive debt write-offs”.

Continuing with the agenda of the human development paradigm, emphasis has placed on capacity building and monitoring in development aid. However, in connection to the MDGs, calls have been made for donors to scale up their financial flows to maintain and build momentum, and somewhat in contradiction to the concerns expressed for local capacity, for example a midterm report issued by the UN Millenium Project, consisting of 10 task forces and the Secretariat, hosted by UNDP, suggests that international donors should “recogniz[e] that many countries are already in a position for a massive scale-up on the basis of their good governance and absorptive capacity.” (UNDP 2005, xv). This report, with its objective of assessing the degree to which the MDGs have been reached and identifying where development aid needs to be accelerated in connection to the MDGs and their targets, identifies 10 recommendations, including the following:

The MDG-based poverty reduction strategies should anchor the scaling up of public investments, capacity building, domestic resource mobilization, and official development assistance. They should also provide a framework for strengthening governance,

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promoting human rights, engaging civil society, and promoting the private sector. (UNDP 2005, xiv).

The emphasis placed on the private sector has, thus, continued, and on par with the focus of official discourse in connection to poverty reduction, has been that of reducing economic dependency. In the excerpt below, from the same report, individuals are positioned as consumers in a global economy:

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. Tens of millions of lives can be saved. The practical solutions exist. The political framework is there. And for the first time, the cost is utterly affordable. (UNDP 2005, 1.)

The means to achieve the goals, as suggested by the report (above), are there - and they are not

‘rocket science’ - all that is needed, it is suggested, is commitment.