Opinion pieces published ahead of high-level meeting on post-2015 development agenda

Nov 2 2012

The following opinion pieces were published ahead of a high-level U.N. panel meeting taking place in London this week, where global leaders and policymakers will gather to discuss a post-2015 development agenda to address global poverty.

• Justin Byworth, Huffington Post U.K.'s "Politics" blog: "As [U.K. Prime Minister] David Cameron welcomes global leaders and policy experts from around the world to London this week (31 Oct-2 Nov) to help shape what comes after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is a good time to take stock of what has been achieved so far ... and what has not," Byworth, who has worked with World Vision for more than 20 years, writes. "The MDGs have seen progress for many living in poverty around the world, which should be celebrated, but it is the most vulnerable and most poor -- often in fragile and weak states -- who leaders gathered in London next week need to keep at front and center of their discussions," he continues (10/30).
• Claire Melamed, Guardian's "Poverty Matters" blog: "Some impressive progress has been made" toward the MDGs, "[s]o there is a lot of enthusiasm for agreeing a new plan on poverty, to take over where the MDGs leave off in 2015," Melamed, head of growth and equity program at the Overseas Development Institute, writes. The process is U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron's "chance to put Conservative thinking on development," but, "as the PM may find to his cost, agreeing a new set of numbers is a bit more difficult now than it was in 2000," she continues, adding, "A good agreement on a post-2015 development agenda will be simple (not too many issues), specific (some numbers), and symmetrical (with obligations and commitments for all countries)" (10/31).
• Matthew Frost, Huffington Post U.K.'s "Politics" blog: "The sooner we stop abdicating responsibility and expecting 'someone' to sort it all out, the better, ... [b]ecause there is no 'they' in the fight against poverty," Frost, chief executive of Tearfund, writes. "If the debate about tackling poverty were to move away from 'them' and 'us' and more intelligently reflect the scale of the challenges [U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] together face, we'd be much better able to have a sensible conversation about the future of development," he adds (10/31).