The Millennium Development Goals in Africa: Progress and Challenges

"The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are measurable targets attached to a timeframe for making a difference in the lives of billions of people. Governments in developing and developed countries have jointly committed themselves to provide the resources and the policies to implement these Goals. African leaders have adopted the MDGs as a tool within their wider development planning framework, in order to end the tragic conditions in which so many Africans are deprived of their basic human rights, such as health, education, shelter and security. By making the Goals work as tools for coordinating development policy, within broader development priorities, African leaders can tackle the extreme poverty that is hobbling their people, make their countries more productive and reduce the risk of conflict."

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has looked closely at African efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS). While the overall message is that Africa is falling behind and urgently needs to find new and effective strategies to move forward, ECA believes that there are important successes to report and they must be celebrated and shared as best practices for others to emulate, this is according to this report.

This report documents findings and draws on other relevant research to offer practical policy advice on how Africans in government, business, civil society and other sectors can work together to accelerate progress. Along the way the ECA has contributed to the African Union’s Common African Position on the MDG's and has collaborated with The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) whose framework incorporates the Goals. At the ECA’s annual Conference of Africa Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Abuja, ministers took the opportunity, as key policy makers, to look at the reasons for the slow progress and recommitted themselves to meeting the Goals by 2015. Their statement appears as an annex to this report.

This document is a status report on progress towards each Goal in Africa and offers a review of the challenges impeding progress and details proposals for member states and their citizens to adopt.