IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde in Kigali, Rwanda
As a UN working group gathers in New York to discuss recommendations for a post-2015 development agenda, mounting evidence suggests that the legacy left by the last set of objectives – the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – is a mixed one.
Released on 2 February, a report by the London-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI) calls for a “a radical departure from the MDG approach” to development in order to reach the most disadvantaged. It also highlights how development progress under the MDGs has been uneven, and current trends reflect patterns of rising inequality.
Aid to Africa is now dwarfed by foreign direct investment (FDI) flows – which at $55bn in 2010 was five times the total amount of aid received. However the region remains the largest recipient of assistance globally, and, despite high recent growth rates, one of the least developed.
As such, the effectiveness of aid and development institutions is under scrutiny as international actors look to set the development agenda for the next fifteen years under the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework.
“For too many poor people, the question is not whether they will have access to services by 2015 or even […]