THE MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGNSTRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP

Final Report 20 November 2002

Workshop context

‘The United Nations Millennium Declaration is a landmark document for a new century …….(we are) initiating a Millennium Campaign to make the commitments better known throughout the world….

As part of this, the United Nations system will work with national governments, civil society, the international financial institutions and other partners to produce a series of regular national reports…to measure and monitor progress towards achieving the MDGs on a country by country basis. Our hope is that, in this age of democracy, annual reporting will force action. …..

It is not at the United Nations, or by the work of the organization's officials,that the goals could be achieved. They have to be achieved in each of its Member States, by the efforts of their Governments and peoples.’

Secretary General Kofi Annan

This document……….

• Reports on the workshop convened in London on 29/30 October to help develop a common understanding of, and begin to put a shape on, the Millennium Campaign.

• This workshop involved a broadly drawn group of 19 participants from 13 UN organisations, plus Social Watch. Their responsibilities covered policy and partnerships as well as communications and campaigning.

• It was hosted, facilitated, and reported on, by Chris Baker and Wendie Stone from TBWA\London.

• They also conducted a number of interviews (as well analysis of what has been said in public and the media) – a synthesis of this formed an important input to the workshop and is covered in this report.

An excellent example of the power and practical value of working together……….• Because of the new challenges presented by the Millennium Campaign,

this workshop necessarily involved a disparate group of people, representing a broad range of organisations, most of whom did not know most others at the start of the workshop, with little or no experience of working together.

• There was genuine concern that the group would not gel and that the workshop could end up focusing more on the differing perspectives and roles of the different organisations represented, rather than make genuine progress on mapping out a way forward.

• These fears were not realised and participants’ own words about the workshop (see next page), as well as the collaborative output summarised in this document, are a testament to the power of working together.

• Just as important as the hard output was that this workshop made an important contribution to developing the personal relationships and shared ownership of a task that successful partnerships are based upon.

What participants said about the workshop……….

‘Better focus of what the campaign is all about and work-streams of the campaign unit’‘ I’m impressed by the daringness of people; we have come together, without inter-agency posturing, to believe we could make a difference’‘We came up with a daring mission statement’‘Genuine search to get to an understanding as a collective not a group of individuals’‘Reinforced my enthusiasm’‘Open discussions about partners, work streams and practical things to do’‘Cleared some of the fog’‘Found a way to link goals and think of the campaign as a whole’‘We can be more effective partners now we understand each other‘‘Group openness and frankness’‘We can now mainstream and internalise in our own organisations and as a part of the whole’

Contents

1. Workshop objectives

2. Synthesis of themes emerging from the pre-workshop process

3. Millennium Campaign vision

4. Millennium Campaign – initial ‘work-streams’

5. Campaigning, at the country level and global level – early thinking from the workshop

1. Annex I. Agenda and list of participants2. Annex II. Pre-workshop headlines*

* Fuller extracts from pre-workshop analysis and interviews are provided as a separate document

1. Workshop Objectives

Workshop Objectives

• To develop a common understanding of the Millennium Campaign and key constraints and opportunities affecting its success

• To develop the strategic framework for approaching the Millennium Campaign across the UN system

– key campaign themes and mechanisms

– the role of each stakeholder (including UN agencies, individually and collectively, building on the core expertise and existing plans of each)

• To recommend the key short-term focuses for the campaign – the substantive issues to be focused on over the next 12-18 months, and up to 2005

• Develop a consensus on how we can communicate consistently and effectively about progress (or the lack of it) in terms of achieving the goals

• Begin to identify ways, via focus provided by the Millennium Campaign, we can work together more collaboratively and effectively, both within the UN system and in our external connections

2. Synthesis of themes emerging from the pre- workshop process

Synthesis based on……..

• Some of the things people have said, in public and in the media

• Some direct extracts from interviews with Michael Doyle, Eveline Herfkens, Carol Bellamy, Mark Malloch Brown, and Thoraya Obaid

• These included as an appendix, we focus here on our synthesis of the key themes emerging from these– The positive difference(s) the Millennium Campaign can build

on– Challenges and obstacles to overcome– ‘Campaign planning - operating principles’ – Campaign planning - key audience focuses/inter-relationships

The positive difference(s) the campaign can build on

• Clear, measurable, time bound, comprehensive goals

• Unprecedented level of government endorsement (if not yet real buy in/ action)

• One set of inter-related goals, one framework, agreed by all UN member states

• ‘Hits the international mood’ – no more summits, a framework for action

• Common framework for action and partnership – new way of working

• People-centred – strong social and political as well as economic dimensions

• Powerful tool for both mobilization and accountability (Bono and O’Neil)

• Goals/ accountability for North as well as South (basis for a Global Deal)

• The power of data and new thinking – strong analytic foundations

Challenges and obstacles to overcome

• Cynicism and scepticism – culture of failure and looking back not ahead

• ‘What’s new? – much about the individual goals is familiar

• Creating local ownership, commitment, and political will -- not deliverable if the MDGs are seen as a centralized UN owned initiative

• Unavoidable political dimension/risk (and how to manage it)

• Silo mentality – demands a new working model (UN and beyond)

• Not yet internalized by UN agencies

• Remaining trapped in the old North/South ODA/debt relief/trade haggle

• Fragmentation – 8 goals, myriad individual agendas

• Lack of clarity – ‘Campaigning for MDGs’ vs.‘the MDGs are the campaign’

Campaign planning - ‘operating principles’

• ‘Bottom up’, decentralized, locally owned (UN supported, not UN controlled)

• Stimulate debate, non prescriptive – foster home grown solutions

• Encourage society to ‘talk to itself’ – ‘people speak’ not ‘UN speak’

• Maintain MDG as a package – need multi-goal campaigning themes

• Underpinned by a unifying big idea (more likely to reside in the Declaration than the MDGs)

• Pooling of resources/use existing networks to ‘scale up’ intervention

• Be realistic but positive – ‘motivate, inspire, and give courage’.

• Develop a shared campaign framework which is simple, clear, flexible

Campaign planning – need for a ‘bottom up’ mindset

Global underpinning/campaigningShared vision, global dimension/big idea, UN system

MDG targets and indicators(outcomes more than inputs)

Country level campaigning and actions

Campaign themes/

mechanisms and (mainly) local actors

Campaign planning – key audiences/inter-relationships

National government(esp. finance and other

relevant ministers

UN agencies

Opinion formersMedia/academics

General public

Parliamentarians

Corporates

CSOs, faith-based, and informal issue-based networks

Millennium Campaign

3. Millennium Campaign Vision

Let’s not forget our hopes and fears (from the start of the workshop)

Hopes

• Clearer idea of campaign at global and country level – what launching/ who to/what should we tell them

• Articulate a vision that brings people/ other actors/partners in

• Articulate a vision that crosses sectors

• Forge belief that we can become a mobilising force for political action

• Build on opportunity provided by MDG’s to do something different

• Be inspired

Fears

• Come up with answers that lose sight of importance of working at country level

• Forget that we are a small part of this and that we need others

• The Millennium / MDG Campaign is too complicated, too overwhelming to find a way to express it

• Become bogged down in UN-ese, rhetoric and bureaucracy

• Lose sight of 8 goals

• Becomes a UN project, not an inspiring way to change the world

An emerging consensus through the workshop…..

• The Millennium Declaration is broader, more inclusive, and more inspiring than the MDGs

• The MDGs are outcomes (and a focus for mutual accountability) not inputs

• The campaign should be rooted in the Declaration, the MDGs are the means of keeping the score (as well as a way of focusing both the resulting actions of the Campaign and the hard outcomes it is working to achieve).

The MDG’s – outputs to the Millennium Campaign

By 2015 all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Achieve universal primary education

Promote gender equality and empower women Reduce child mortality

Improve maternal health

Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases Ensure environmental sustainability

Develop a global partnership for development

48 indicators

18 targets

The MDG’s 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators

provide themes for programme action and

programme measurement at a

country level

The MDGs relate to inextricably

interwoven social and economic

effects

Environmental sustainability Sanitation,

clean drinking water

Health, maternal

health, child health

Child mortality

Promote gender equality

Universal primary

education

HIV/Aids, malaria, disease

GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP

Poverty

Hunger

Vision is the glue needed to inspire and unite actors around the diverse (but inter-related) factors confronted by the Millennium Declaration and its MDGs

Themes/mechanisms for advocacy, engagement and enrolment with different audiences and actors in specific and varying national contexts

How can the Millennium Campaign bridge boundaries and engage many different actors and audiences? How can we talk about the MDG’s in way that is compelling?

UN agencies

NGO’s andCivil Societies

GovernmentMediaCorporate GeneralPublic

Academia

MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN

Multiple MDG related actions and outcomes

A view from outside the UN system…..

‘The power of ‘the obvious’ is enormous. The Declaration is obvious -- you make commitments and keep the score…it’s about time…

They (the Declaration and MDGs) have the potential to capture the imagination and mobilize people…but people have to be allowed to own them, the UN must not treat them as their own property. Coalitions are already forming around them. They add value, because there is added value in being part of something bigger. The UN underestimates the power of the world…The Declaration is very empowering and encouraging for people ……it lends support and weight to what people are already struggling for…..that another world is possible.’ Roberto Bissio

The vision to inspire and unite actors

How can we talk about the MDG’s in a way that is compelling?

A new global partnership (the Global Deal)

Put in broad context of human rights (re. Millennium

Declaration)• All partners act with

equal commitment• New deal between

countries and within countries

• Fundamental human rights

• Good governance• Democracy

MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN

‘ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE’

The bigger picture/broader aspirationThe bigger picture/broader aspiration The ‘new news’/ The ‘new news’/ reason whyreason why

Another world…….Another world……. ……is possible is possible

The UN’s role in achieving this vision

UN Reporting

• Data/Monitoring/Analysis

• Reporting who / how• What needed to

achieve goals• Who falling short• Who needs to be

involvedMake situation transparent so people of the world can

rise up/be aware at the local level

Provide choices at analytical level of what

can be done

UN Human Rights

• Conventions and treaties

• Reporting back• Children’s/Women’s/

Worker’s … rights • Do we have a choice?

Country level strategy

‘People Power’

‘Fuel the row’ at a country level

To tell the story of unreasonable

disparity/trade regimesCSO’s to proclaim things

have to change / partnerships for programming Mobilize international community

UN Partnerships

• Networking• Partnering civil

societies• Networks at country

and regional level• New actors at local

level

Millennium Campaign Vision

Workshop Provisional Workshop Provisional (high consensus)(high consensus)

We are the force for change which will make the Millennium Declaration a reality.

We stand for a (new) deal between and within nations founded on mutual accountability

We aim to energise people and governments to make the world a better place

Suggested RefinementSuggested Refinement

We are the force for change which will make the Millennium Declaration a reality

– by championing the deal , founded on mutual accountability between and within

nations, we will energise people and governments to make the world a better place.

Some comments on the Vision….

• Represents a strategic underpinning consistent with the global theme of ‘Another world is possible’ which emerged during the workshop.

• First draft began ‘we are a catalyst…’ but strong feeling that we must take a much more proactive, campaigning stance to overcome scepticism and inertias – thus ‘ we are the force for change…’ was endorsed by the group

• ‘and within nations….’ plus avoidance of the word ‘global’ reflects need to drive local ownership of the campaign.

• Some discussion (unresolved) about whether we refer to ‘the new deal’ or simply ‘the deal’ – on reflection we favour the latter as it represents something which is more ‘final’, permanent, and committed.

• Deliberately framed in context of the Millennium Declaration rather than MDGs, but the MDGs have a clear role within this vision – helping to make the Declaration and the changes sought more concrete, as well as guiding specific action and the parameters for accountability.

Millennium Declaration ‘Values and Principles’ set the tone for the Millennium Campaign

Millennium Campaign VisionMillennium Campaign Vision

We are the force for change which will make the Millennium Declaration a reality

– by championing the deal , founded on mutual accountability between and within

nations, we will energise people and governments to make the world a better place.

Values and Principles underpinning this VisionValues and Principles underpinning this Vision

Primary values: Justice, Equality, Dignity, Solidarity Secondary values: Freedom, Equity, Tolerance, Shared

responsibility/partnership, Respect for nature,

This Vision will help guide and organise both campaigning and working together, both within the UN system and beyond….

• There were many excellent ideas and insights on both local and global campaigning which emerged, albeit in a fairly unstructured way – we have aimed to organise these (in the context of the vision) in this report.

• In terms of ‘working together’ it became clear that the first step was to have a focus to engage around – participants were very positive about this vision and could immediately see how this (plus starting to flesh out the campaign work-streams – captured in the next section) would facilitate both collaborative working and ‘independent progress towards a common aim’.

• Although primarily a UN system group it is worth noting that the initial ‘springboard’ for the vision --- the message that ‘Another world is possible’– came from the one non UN participant, Roberto Bissio.

4. Millennium Campaign -- initial ‘work-streams’

Workstreams – 1. Providing information and infrastructure

• Guardian of the overall Millennium Campaign Vision and focus for generation of globally relevant messages to underpin global and local campaigning

• MDG (and/or Millennium Campaign) branding / identity, plus core MDG communication materials / collateral

• ‘Connector’ role – knowing what the ‘UN’ (and other global) agencies know about campaigning, specifically what they are doing around the MDG’s, and pooling / sharing this knowledge

• ‘Listening Post’ role – what does society in each country think is important (‘social issue footprint’ for each country, based on feedback from local UN reps, CSO’s , public polling etc), including monitoring ongoing public/ political debate

• ‘Resource Centre’ – source of existing and emerging (Millennium Project) knowledge and information relevant to achieving MDG outcomes (website, help desk, ‘clearing house’) for both civil society and governments

Workstreams – 2. Active campaigning

• ‘Networking’ – identify, link, support key issue – based CSO/NGO networks (pan-national plus key locals)

• ‘Pump priming’ input / communications to ensure national reports realise their potential to stimulate national debate around the MDG’s (help generate best practice cases by assisting in selected countries)

• Encourage (via third parties) analysis of, and reports on, national accounts from an MDG perspective

• Develop ongoing campaigning around annual global reports and relevant global and regional events and forums.

• Global and local campaigning around key Millennium Project outputs

• Focus for global awareness / media events ( eg.Live Aid, MTV type events)

• Supporting resource generation from donor countries (incl. Foundations and public) and Corporates – develop targeted fundraising ‘hooks’ linked to MDG outcomes

5. Campaigning : at a country level and a global level, and to different audiences – early thinking from the workshop

Campaigning – early thinking from the workshop

• Campaigning principles, themes, and hierarchy -- global and local

• Campaign tactics -- different routes to engagement for local audiences

• Audiences, priorities and messaging

How far to go? There are questions others will have to answer….

• The level of political risk the UN system is prepared to accept for itself and its partners?

• Data standards for MDG reporting (response to national government manipulation / spin)?

• How far can we go in terms of ‘naming and shaming’ (or even encouraging third parties to do so)?

Campaigning Principles

• Primary focus is to encourage / facilitate local campaigning

• ‘Listen’ / understand what is important in each country

• Think of the MDG’s as outcomes not inputs

• Campaign around inputs (whatever is necessary to deliver MDG outcomes in a given country), using MDG’s as the rationale for these inputs

• Don’t campaign for the MDG’s, but ensure they are always there as the rationale and measurement tool / target outcomes

• Promote partnerships – globally and locally

• Our role is providing the data and stimulating, rather than controlling, debate -- any attempt to adopt a ‘top down’, linear approach focused on UN channels would be destined for failure.

There are many ‘routes to engagement’ which need to be pursued inparallel, held together by a common vision rather than rigid process.

Key Campaign Themes

Global Deal• Goal 8

Commitment and keeping

promises

Mutual advantage• Changing the rules of the

game• Not donor/developing

language• Not generosity driven

Global CentredGlobal Centred

Country in worldCountry in world

Enlightened leaders

Social responsibility• Unreasonable

disparities• Exclusion vs

inclusion

Driving social engagement

• Freedom from … death, illiteracy

• Jobs, education, houses

Local Local EngagementEngagement

Ours / my societyOurs / my society

Another

World is

Possib

le

Campaign Hierarchy

Outcomes (MDG’s as a focus for measurement)

Achievability – sense of plan + inputs tailored to relevant MDG outcomes

Campaign themes (global and local)

Broader human aspirations

New Global Partnership+

Underpinning vision: Another world is possibleAnother world is possible

Campaign Hierarchy

(Monitor and report on) Outcomes (MDG’s)

Campaign themes (global and local)

Broader human aspirations

New Global Partnership+

‘‘Another world is possible’Another world is possible’

Commitments and promises

Mutual advantage

Advocates

Social responsibility

Enlightened leaders

Global deal Goal 8

ReportsResource centre

Resource centre: analysis and data proves issue key to future outcome

Engage CSO’s / constituencies to tell story

Resource generation hooks

Driving social engagement

Equality

Disparities

Jobs

Homes

Education

ConnectorNetworkerListening post

Pump priming

Reports

Achievability – sense of plan + inputs tailored to MDG outcomes

Campaigning tactics

• Many ‘routes to engagement’ to be pursued in parallel.

• Our primary role is providing data and analysis, and stimulating debate through doing this.

• We can’t, and don’t want to, control debate – any attempt to do so via a top down, linear approach via UN channels would be destined to failure.

• Three main types of engagement:-

1. Reaching local audiences at the global level (e.g. via global events).

2. External stimulus at the local level (e.g. visits).

3. 3. Stimulus originating from within a country (the most important but hardest task for us).

Tactics -- reaching local audiences at the global level

• Prominent presence / campaigning around the ‘global events calendar’ (incl. Major regional events).

• UN Agency Exec. Boards / Governing Councils – each agency to ensure that MDGs are a standard agenda item.

• Global media events (e.g. Live Aid).

Tactics -- external stimulus at the local level

• Profile raising visits / missions – from MC leaders,UN Agency Heads, ‘ambassadors’.

• Encourage Foreign Ministries of key countries to brief Embassies to promote / use MDGs in local dialogue (e.g. Donor country embassies in developing countries).

• Regional / sub-regional reports – materials to help stimulate media coverage and debate about how a given country is performing versus its peer group.

• Use global CSO networks (e.g. Society for International Development) to leverage local networks e.g. via local MDG focused CSO conferences.

• Leverage existing relationships between Millennium Campaign personnel (and from other UN Agencies) and local CSOs / Issue-based networks.

Tactics -- within country campaigning

• Potential offered by local UN (and IFI) teams will vary considerably by country – need to be involved/informed but should not be regarded as the only (or even main) focus for engagement at the local level.

• Core role of the local UN team should revolve around the national reports – ‘putting the data and analysis out there and letting nature take its course’ (i.e. leave social mobilization to others).

• Leave most local campaigning, analysis and editorializing (e.g. analysis of national accounts from an MDG perspective) to local civil society.

• Treat local civil society as partners not proxies.

• Infant Breast Milk campaign a good model.

• Treat MDGs as the ‘scorecard’ not the campaign.

Tactics -- within country campaigning (cont’d)

• Local civil society (including local authorities, labour organisations, faith groups), the key group to engage – important gateway to Parliamentarians, media, other opinion formers, and the general public.

• Acknowledged area of weakness for the UN system (better contracts with government than with CSOs) -- key role for the Millennium Campaign Unit in terms of ‘networking’ (implications for the profile of people employed).

• Often CSOs are already ‘socially mobilized’ – our role is not mobilization, rather to ensure that existing social mobilization campaigns have the information and technical support to take the Millennium Declaration / MDGs on board and actively use them as part of their campaigning.

Tactics -- within country campaigning (cont’d)

• National reports provide a key focus for local campaigning and debate – unlikely, in themselves, to be vehicle for social mobilization, but they should be ‘food and drink’ for those who are already mobilized.

• WHO experience is not to underestimate the value of ‘substantive papers’, to stimulate engagement (including commissions set up by Government) – Millennium Project outputs may often fit the purpose, and represent important campaign collateral.

• Remember -- nothing stimulates government action more than comparison with close neighbours/ countries they see as being in their peer group.

Local Campaigning – Audiences

Civil Society Groups/ NGO’s

Trade unions

Farmers

Rural community

Professionals

Religious groups

Foundations

Governments

Donor Nation

al

Local

Enlightened leaders

Developing

Recipient

Housing Educati

onSocial sectorsHousingEducationSocial

sectors

Uniformed servicesParliamentaria

nsAudiences

UN Internal

Audiences

Indigenous groups

MediaThought leadersEnlightened

leadersOpinion leadersGoodwill

ambassadors

General

public

Young people

Women Local

Men Urban

Private sector

Corporate sector

Financial institutions

Academia (donor

countries)ActivistsScienti

stsIssues based groups

Enlightened

leaders

Single issue based groups

Women’s groups

Aids groups Children’

s groups

Social revolutiona

ries

Local Campaigning – Priorities

Civil Society Groups/ NGO’s

Trade unions

Farmers

Rural community

Professionals

Religious groups

Foundations

Governments

Donor Nation

alLocal

Enlightened leaders

Developing

Recipient

Housing Educati

onSocial sectorsHousingEducationSocial

sectors

Uniformed servicesParliamentaria

nsAudiences

UN Internal

Audiences

Indigenous groups

MediaThought leadersEnlightened

leadersOpinion leadersGoodwill

ambassadors

General

public

Young people

Women Local

Men Urban

Private sector

Corporate sector

Financial institutions

Academia (donor

countries)ActivistsScienti

stsIssues based groups

Enlightened

leaders

Single issue based groups

Women’s groups

Aids groups Children’

s groups

Social revolutiona

ries

Local Campaigning – Priorities

Civil Society Groups/ NGO’s

Trade unions

Farmers

Rural community

Professionals

Religious groups

Foundations

Governments

Donor Nation

alLocal

Enlightened leaders

Developing

Recipient

Housing Educati

onSocial sectorsHousingEducationSocial

sectors

Uniformed servicesParliamentaria

nsAudiences

UN Internal

Audiences

Indigenous groups

MediaThought leadersEnlightened

leadersOpinion leadersGoodwill

ambassadors

General

public

Young people

Women Local

Men Urban

Private sector

Corporate sector

Financial institutions

Academia (donor

countries)ActivistsScienti

stsIssues based groups

Enlightened

leaders

Single issue based groups

Women’s groups

Aids groups Children’

s groups

Social revolutiona

ries

TOP PRIORITY

FIRST AUDIENCE

LIKELY SUPPORTERS / ADVOCATES

Messaging to Governments

Objective: campaign to convince donor governments to act

• You are part of the deal• You are responsible fort he future development of our children / the world• Urgency: MDG’s – we have to act now• Another world is possible if you maintain your commitment and keep

your promises• Messages that demonstrate commitments are being kept north and

south – towards a common goal• Give the MDG’s a framework with the widest possible legitimacy: MDG’s

are the biggest thing going• This is not your Dad’s campaign – it’s not the old argument – it’s different• All local failures need to be shaped communicated in failure to reach the

global MDG’s• There is no such thing as a local problems – they are global problems

Messaging to Media

Objective: campaign to drive awareness and help capture all people’s imagination

• A promise has been made• You are part of the deal • Take sides. The world has struck a new deal, what can you

do?• Freedom

– From poverty– From gender inequality

Messaging to CSO’s / NGO’s

Objective: campaign to galvanize our closest advocates to frame their arguments in this broader context; to enrage activists and social revolutionaries

• Campaigns to legislators linking MDG’s to their cause• Reframing the country reports

Annex I. Agenda and List of Participants

Outline Agenda

Day OneThe ‘What’ of the Millennium Campaign• Introductions• Operating principles, shared visions, short-term goals• Key campaign themes and mechanisms

Day TwoThe ‘How’ of the Millennium Campaign• At the country level • The role of the UN, individual agencies and other partnerships• Campaign Vision

Participants

William Ryan -- UNFPA

Kemal Mustafa -- UNFPA

Gerardus van den Akker -- UNDGO

Anne Trebilcock -- ILO

Axumite Gebre-Egziabher – UNHabitat

Dianne Spearman -- WFP

Turhan Saleh -- UNDP

Mark Suzman -- UNDP

Abby Spring -- UNDP

Marjorie Newman-Williams -- UNICEF

Gareth Jones -- UNICEF

Sue Markham – UN/DPI

Loretta Sonn -- FAO

Andrew Cassels -- WHO

Jon Liden -- WHO

Robert Bissio – Social Watch

Hans d’Orville -- UNESCO

Zazie Schafer -- UNIFEM

Marika Fahlen – UNAIDS

Chris Baker – TBWA

Wendie Stone -- TBWA

Annex II. Pre-Workshop Headlines

Pre-workshop ‘headlines’ and synthesis

(Based on some of the things people have said, in public and in the media, plus interviews with Michael Doyle, Eveline Herfkens, Carol Bellamy, Mark Malloch Brown, and Thoraya Obaid – fuller extracts are included as an appendix to this document)

These were an input to the first morning of the workshop, and minor refinements have been made to the synthesis as a result of discussion and feedback when presented.)

Pre-workshop headlines

‘What is emerging is a new consensus that demands that we match mutual commitments and mutual accountability: a political bargain being built around a partnership of self interest between the countries of North and South…’ mmb

‘More about politics than economics…(using) the power of data (to) drive political action…. ……..A recognition that the old solutions for achieving growth and production are not good enough,…….it’s time to think out of the box……. Put out the figures as a means of generating a debate rather than using it to lay out prescriptive solutions’ mmb

‘The motif of Johannesburg was ‘enough summits, now we want to get on with things’. The MDGs, with their focus on implementation, action, and measurement very much hit the international mood….’

mmb

Pre-workshop headlines/cont’d

‘The goals themselves aren’t new…The difference is that this is the UN agenda…a common agenda across agencies…..’

cb

‘The goals themselves are not different, they are the culmination and summary of recommendations emerging over a long period … (the opportunity) is to have everyone working in the same direction, pooling our resources, not operating in our own compartmentalized boxes’ to

‘The UN system itself is a major barrier (with) a chronic desire to work in the old ways and a silo mentality’ mmb

Pre-workshop headlines/ cont’d

‘….The real work to be done is at the country level, making the MDGs central to life in each country’ to

‘…… it’s crucial that the UN don’t own the MDGs…they need to be owned by the people, the governments, non-governmental organisations….. ….the home grown element is vital’

eh

‘Ministers of Finance haven’t got it yet…budgetary commitments have to be made, which is why it has to be a country driven process….If it is received as a top down UN driven process then you won’t get buy in.… They have to see them as their goals not the UN’s goals……We need local pressure… currently it’s very, very, very centralized, it has to get decentralized’ cb

Pre-workshop headlines/ cont’d

‘...We must find ways of letting each society talk to itself, not talk at them from outside… must be totally locally owned, the community itself saying ‘this is good for us, so let’s get together and implement it’ to

‘….we need messages that are not UN or development speak…that my mother could understand……’

cb

Pre-workshop headlines/ cont’d

‘Important to keep the goals as a ‘package’ . There is commitment to the package as a whole, all are important, and there are synergies between them…..their strength is that if you achieve one you are closer to achieving others’ md

‘Campaign messages have to cut across goals…we can’t be selective about goals, they are all part of one message of making life better in developing countries…’ to

We need a number of campaigns under an overall campaign umbrella ….it’s important to work at keeping the UN system together, and (also) leverage existing external networks (health, hunger, environment)…..To do this we need multi-goal themes’ mmb

Pre-workshop headlines/ cont’d

‘(Also) sell the big concept, the new Global Deal…central to all of us, about the future of our world -- redefine all of our individual responsibilities as citizens’

mmb

‘….. Our intention is to have a political row about what is needed in country after country, year after year. Because out of these debates will come the energy and the demands and ultimately the results; and, only if the people engage will we achieve the goals.’

mmb

‘Always giving bad news is de-motivating, it drives fatigue. We need to find ways to give good news, the story isn’t that bad….we need to find good reasons to say ‘great’……… We need to motivate, inspire, and give courage…’ eh