Oxfam Cymru Briefing Note for NRG4SD Summit, Cardiff March 2004

NRG4SD4MDGs
Make Poverty History:
The Role of the Network of Regional
Governments for Sustainable
Development (NRG4SD) in meeting the
Millennium Development Goals.

1. Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty

2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

This generation is the first to

have the power to end extreme
poverty.
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General

NRG4SD4MDGs: Millennium Development Goals Briefing Note, Oxfam Cymru, March 2004
 Five Years In: Time to Deliver
In September 2000, 189 UN member states signed the Millennium Development Declaration, pledging to
halve global poverty by 2015. To date, many governments have broken their promises by failing to take the
action needed to meet the agreed goals. With ten years to go, 2005 must see a step-change in commitments
from governments in both North and South.

Rich country governments must honour their commitments on aid, debt and trade, to mobilise the
financing and infrastructure necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Developing country governments must work alongside civil society and communities to draw up strong,
nationally owned plans for delivering the MDGs.

With the necessary political will and resources, these targets can be met. Oxfam believes that regional
governments have a critical role to play, not only in urging their national governments to honour their
commitments, but in promoting, influencing, and delivering the MDGs on the ground and in building a
global partnership for development.

The Role of Regional Governments

Economies need to grow to provide jobs and more incomes for poor people. Health and education systems
must deliver services to everyone, men and women, rich and poor. Infrastructure has to work and be
accessible to all. And policies need to empower people to participate in the development process. While
success depends on the actions of developing countries, which must direct their own development, there is
also much that rich countries must do to help.
UN Development Programme, Goal 8

National governments are too small for the big issues, and too big for the small issues thats where
regions come in. NRG4SD Delegate

Oxfam believe that sensitive devolution of power plays a key role in good governance. Government brought
closer to the people provides improved opportunities for:

The voices of those in poverty to impact on policy-making processes

Pro-poor, community led policy to be put into practice
Transparency and accountability in administration and delivery of services, such as health and education,
to those in poverty.

In our view, strong regional governance is key to the effective delivery of the Millennium Development Goals.

NRG4SD4MDGs: Millennium Development Goals Briefing Note, Oxfam Cymru, March 2004
Challenges to the NRG4SD
In taking the initiative to work together for sustainable development, we believe the NRG4SD can lead
the world by example in building a global partnership for development.

Oxfam recognises the considerable variance in legislative powers and influence between regional
governments, and the diversity of sustainability-related issues that members of the NRG4SD are
seeking to address. However, we believe that participation of developing countries and an actively pro-
poor development agenda must be viewed as key to the credibility of the network, if any meaningful
progress on global sustainable development is to be made. If members focus to excess on rich-country
consumption-led issues, the networks agenda will become less relevant to developing countries and
will fail to address real and immediate threats to global sustainability.

You cant boast about being green in your own back yard, if youre making poor people do your dirty
work - and plundering their environment instead. Youth Forum Participant

The NRG4SD must take the following steps:

Give priority to a policy agenda which gives priority to development issues with a particular focus
on MDGs.
Develop, alongside civil society, participatory policy approaches which not only give voice to those
experiencing poverty, but directly inform and influence the processes of the NRG4SD.
Actively seek to engage African regional governments in a common approach to the agenda for the
MDGs and Sustainable Development (SD).
Play an active role in promoting and disseminating best practice for integrating MDG targets into SD
schemes.

Oxfam believes that, with broad and solid foundations, the NRG4SD should seek to develop its
profile and role in promoting sustainable development, to achieve greater global impact.

We would encourage the network to consider making a collective submission on Sustainable

Development and the MDGs to the UN Heads of State Summit in Autumn 2005.

Challenges to Regional Governments

Regional governments must use their influence at every level to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals.

Sustainable development schemes must demonstrate a clear analysis of poverty and human
rights, as well as environmental issues. They must also put structures in place to check decisions at
every level against their global impact, to ensure that achievement of the MDGs is not unwittingly
hindered.
Regional governments, in both North and South, must actively promote civil-society participation
in the development, delivery, and evaluation of high-quality Poverty Reduction Strategy Plans that
are gender-sensitive and incorporate mechanisms of mutual accountability (such as budget
monitoring), between community stakeholders and government.
Regional governments (North and South) should take steps to ensure that people living in poverty
have access to basic social services Health and Education without facing prohibitive barriers
such as user fees. Regional governments can and should work together to find innovative solutions
to problems of access to formal services; but they should also develop means of engaging
communities in informal but often life-saving community education programmes, for example on HIV
/ AIDS or sanitation.

NRG4SD4MDGs: Millennium Development Goals Briefing Note, Oxfam Cymru, March 2004
 Regional governments spend a large proportion of their budgets on procurement; procurement
policies must make respect for labour rights integral to their supply-chain strategies. In the
simplest terms, good jobs for people in developing countries can enable them to work their way out
of poverty while poor jobs ensure the opposite. The codes of conduct of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) should be endorsed by regional governments, and reflected in use of public
funds for example, when awarding grant funding to private investors and corporations.
Regional governments play a major role in promoting local agricultural produce, in both domestic
and international markets, supporting sustainable livelihoods for their own farmers. But trade in
products with the Fairtrade mark provides a means by which sustainable livelihoods can be
guaranteed for farming communities in developing countries too. Sustainability schemes should
seek to tie-in promotion of Fairtrade products alongside initiatives to promote local food sources.
Developing-country regional governments should support farming communities in co-operative
trading ventures, such as Fairtrade, which facilitate access to sustainable and dependable markets.
NRG4SD members could also take the bold step of developing fair-trade schemes between each
others markets.
Regional governments in the North and South have influence over, or direct responsibility for,
decisions which can lead to proliferation or control of the Arms Trade. Support for business and
industry engaged in making arms components affects the security of communities in which freely
available guns lead to armed violence and tragedy. The arms trade fundamentally undermines
sustainable development through promoting conflict and, too often, forcing people to flee their
communities. Regional governments must scrutinise their policies to put peoples lives first, and
sustainable development schemes should seek to enforce appropriate codes of conduct.
Policies supporting Education for Sustainable Development at regional levels will help to ensure
the commitment of future generations to the eradication of poverty. This may be further bolstered
through developing educational exchange links between developed and developing countries.
Regional governments should take active steps to promote mechanisms for knowledge and
technology transfer to promote pro-poor sustainable development.

Regional governments should seek to use their influence in actively promoting the Millennium
Development Goals within their national contexts. In particular, they should use whatever power
and influence they have to achieve the following in rich countries:

National commitments on pro-poor trade reform (in particular, to end the dumping of subsidised
agricultural produce from rich countries).
Full cancellation of the debts of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) that are committed to
poverty reduction.
Achievement of the UNs target of 0.7% of GDP to be devoted to aid, which is required to deliver the
Millennium Development Goals.

Within developing countries, Oxfam urges regional governments:

To work alongside civil society in developing effective Poverty Reduction Strategy Plans that will
contribute to delivering the MDGs where it matters: ending poverty at the community level.

Oxfam Cymru, March 2004. Oxfam Cymru and Oxfam GB are members of Oxfam International. Registered charity
no. 202918. This paper was written by Craig Owen with assistance from Jon Townley and Owain James. The text may
be freely used for the purposes of campaigning, education, and research, provided that the source is acknowledged in
full.

Further copies of this paper, supporting materials and references can be obtained in English, Welsh, French and
Spanish by e-mailing [email protected], or write to: Oxfam Cymru, Market Buildings, 5-7 St. Mary St, Cardiff,
CF10 1AT, Wales, UK.
www.oxfam.org.uk/cymru

NRG4SD4MDGs: Millennium Development Goals Briefing Note, Oxfam Cymru, March 2004

Published by Oxfam International March 2004

Published by Oxfam GB for Oxfam International under ISBN 978-1-84814-484-2