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Abstract

The 2007 Global Monitoring Report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) assesses the contributions of developing countries, developed countries, and international financial institutions toward meeting universally agreed development commitments. Fourth in a series of annual reports leading up to 2015, this year's report reviews key developments of the past year, emerging priorities, and provides a detailed region-by-region picture of performance in the developing regions of the world, drawing on indicators for poverty, education, gender equality, health, and other goals. Subtitled "Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States", this year's report highlights two key thematic areas-gender equality and empowerment of women (the third MDG) and the special problems of fragile states, where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated. The report, which is jointly issued by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, argues that gender equality and the empowerment of women are central to the development agenda. This is because gender equality makes good economic sense and because it helps advance the other development goals-including education, nutrition, and reducing child mortality. Rapid progress has been made in some areas, such as achieving educational parity for girls in primary and secondary school in most countries. But in many other dimensions-including political representation and participation in nonagricultural employment-performance still falls short. Better monitoring and efforts at mainstreaming gender equality requires realistic goals, strong leadership, technical expertise, and financing.

© 2007 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank

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This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent.

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ISBN-10: 0-8213-6975-X

ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6975-3

eISBN-10: 0-8213-6976-8

eISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6976-0

DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-6975-3

Cover art: “Three Faces,” 2004, acrylic on paper, 4 1/8″ × 11 5/8 ″, by Eria Solomon Nsubuga, Uganda; World Bank Art Program PN: 646517. Courtesy of the artist and the World Bank Art Program.

Cover design: Quantum Think, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Typesetting: Precision Graphics, Champaign, Illinois, United States

Contents

  • Foreword

  • Acknowledgments

  • Abbreviations

  • Millennium Development Goals

    • Report Overview

    • Millennium Development Goals—Charting Progress

    • 1 Growth, Poverty Reduction, and Environmental Sustainability

    • 2 The Role of Quality in MDG Progress

    • 3 Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

    • 4 Aid, Debt Relief, and Trade: Making Commitments Work

    • 5 Monitoring the Performance of International Financial Institutions

  • References

  • Statistical Appendix

  • Boxes

  • 1 Global Monitoring Report 2007: Five key messages

  • 1.1 Definition of fragile states

  • 1.2 Current issues in the environment debate

  • 1.3 Gender and the environment

  • 1.4 Adjusting saving rates to reflect a wider range of assets

  • 2.1 Early evidence that the EFA Fast Track Initiative is making a difference

  • 2.2 Fast progress on child mortality in Eritrea

  • 2.3 Preventing maternal mortality: Findings from three countries

  • 2.4 Measuring health progress

  • 2.5 Innovative new financing mechanisms for health are getting off the ground

  • 2.6 Managing aid for health in Rwanda

  • 2.7 Rebuilding health services after conflict: Strategies from Timor-Leste and Afghanistan

  • 2.8 Contracting for health services in Cambodia

  • 3.1 “Good” parity levels may hide huge enrollment challenges

  • 3.2 Sex ratios at birth and removing unwanted daughters in East Asia and South Asia

  • 3.3 Beyond participation: Self-employment, informality, and household work

  • 3.4 How Cambodia’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs addresses the MDG3 challenges

  • 3.5 Gender-informed public finance management

  • 4.1 Accounting for debt forgiveness in ODA statistics

  • 4.2 Country-based scaling up: The case of Ghana

  • 4.3 Predictability of budget aid: Experience in eight African countries

  • 4.4 Debt service savings and social expenditures: Is there a link?

  • 4.5 Developing-country clothing exports in a postquota world

  • 4.6 Economic Partnership Agreements

  • 5.1 The IMF’s medium-term strategy

  • 5.2 The World Bank’s Africa Action Plan

  • 5.3 The World Bank’s framework on clean energy

  • 5.4 How well does the World Bank contribute to development effectiveness?

  • 5.5 Lending by the IMF

  • 5.6 The Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics and the Accelerated Data Program

  • 5.7 Are the MDBs focusing on results?

  • Figures

  • 1 Learning levels of primary school–aged children

  • 2 Pathways from increased gender equality to poverty reduction and growth

  • 3 Progress in official indicators of gender equality and women’s empowerment, by region, 1990–2005

  • 1.1 Progress toward the poverty MDG target 1990–2004, and a forecast for 2015

  • 1.2 Rates of extreme poverty

  • 1.3 Regulatory reforms can increase efficiency and reduce corruption

  • 1.4 Trajectories of Governance Improvements

  • 1.5 Adjusted net saving rates by region

  • 1.6 Environment and overall CPIA score by region and income group

  • 2.1 Most out-of-school girls are “doubly disadvantaged”: Female and from minority groups

  • 2.2 Global HIV/AIDS epidemic, 1990–2006

  • 2.3 Development assistance for education and health, 2000–05

  • 2.4 Developing countries are devoting more national resources to education and health

  • 2.5 Child mortality is higher and showing less progress in fragile states

  • 2.6 Primary completion rates are lower in fragile states, but improving

  • 2.7 Measles immunization in fragile states remains lower

  • 2.8 A growing gap in access to improved water

  • 2.9 Child mortality progress

  • 2.10 Measles vaccines are reaching the poor in many countries

  • 2.11 Primary completion progress is benefiting the poor in many countries, but not all

  • 2.12 Reading and math performance on the OECD PISA Exams, 2000 and 2003

  • 2.13 Many children do not attain minimum learning levels

  • 2.14 The quality of health care is not just a function of doctors’ training

  • 3.1 Gender equality, domains of choice, and economic performance: A framework

  • 3.2 Women’s earnings, children’s well-being, and aggregate poverty reduction and economic growth—The pathways

  • 3.3 Progress in girls’ enrollment rates between 1990 and 2005

  • 3.4 Trends in gender parity in enrollment and literacy rates, 1990 and 2005

  • 3.5 Average youth literacy rates in Africa conceal rural-urban disparities

  • 3.6 Bolivia has a gender gap in schooling among indigenous children

  • 3.7 Progress in share of women in nonagricultural wage employment and proportion of seats in parliament held by women, by region

  • 3.8 Share of women in nonagricultural wage work by ethnicity

  • 3.9 Female under-five mortality rate and female-to-male ratio, 2004

  • 3.10 Trend in adolescent motherhood

  • 3.11 Female and male labor force participation rates by region, 1990–2005

  • 3.12 Comparison of country scores on official and expanded MDG3 indicators

  • 3.13 Changes in official MDG3 indicators for countries in the bottom and top quintiles, 1990–2005

  • 3.14 Changes in two proposed indicators for countries in the bottom and top quintiles, 1990–2005

  • 4.1 Evolution of aid: 1990–2006 and prospects

  • 4.2 Expansion in ODA is concentrated in a few countries

  • 4.3 Evolution of Net ODA to SSA, 1990–2005

  • 4.4 Gender equality focus of bilateral ODA by sector (2001–05)

  • 4.5 Quality of policy matters: Distribution of 2004–05 DAC bilateral ODA

  • 4.6 Sharper donor focus on policy and need

  • 4.7 Fragile states receive more of their aid in the form of debt relief and humanitarian assistance

  • 4.8 Aid per capita to fragile states

  • 4.9 Quality of country public financial system and use of PFM system for aid to government sectors

  • 4.10 DAC members’ and EC’s ODA commitments for GPGs

  • 4.11 Reduction of debt stock (NPV terms) for the 30 decision-point countries

  • 4.12 Overall trade restrictiveness has declined (2000–06)

  • 4.13 Aid for trade is rising

  • 5.1 Net private capital flows to developing countries

  • 5.2 Concessional and nonconcessional lending by MDBs, 1999–2006

  • 5.3 Nonconcessional lending by MDBs to different regions (gross disbursements), 1999–2006

  • 5.4 Gross disbursements of concessional lending by MDBs, 1999–2006

  • 5.5 Donor financing commitments to IDA under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, as of December 31, 2006

  • 5.6 Policy and poverty selectivity of concessional assistance by MDBs

  • 5.7 Grants and loans as shares of MBD concessional disbursements in 2006

  • Tables

  • 1 Recommended additional indicators for MDG3

  • 2 Fragile states face the largest deficit in most MDGs

  • 1.1 Impact of growth of GDP per capita on poverty

  • 1.2 Per capita GDP growth for high-, middle- and low-income countries

  • 1.3 Real per capita growth and investment and savings rates of fragile and nonfragile states

  • 1.4 Macroeconomic indicators for low-income countries

  • 1.5 Quality of macroeconomic policies in low-income countries, 2006

  • 1.6 Status of “finalized” PEFA assessments (as of February 23, 2007)

  • 1.7 Key indicators of environmental sustainability

  • 1A.1 Share of people living on less than $1.08 a day

  • 1A.2 Share of people living on less than $2.15 a day

  • 1A.3 Number of people living on less than $1.08 a day

  • 1A.4 Number of people living on less than $2.15 a day

  • 2.1 Several low-income countries are making strong progress on universal primary completion

  • 2.2 Progress on child mortality in a few countries

  • 2.3 Progress in assisted births

  • 2.4 Use of insecticide-treated bednets by children under five

  • 2.5 TB incidence trends by region

  • 2.6 Changes in TB incidence, 1990–2004

  • 2.7 Access to improved water is growing

  • 2.8 Access to improved sanitation is growing

  • 2.9 Fragile states lag most on MDGs

  • 3.1 Official indicators for MDG3

  • 3.2 Regional performance in attaining the primary and secondary enrollment target by 2005

  • 3.3 Recommended additional indicators for MDG3

  • 3.4 Girls lag behind boys in primary school completion rates in most regions

  • 3.5 Sources of death and disability with largest gender differentials in disease burden for 15- to 29-year-olds, low- and middle-income countries

  • 3.6 Trends in modern contraceptive use, selected countries

  • 3.7 Prospective indicators for which data are not currently available

  • 3.8 Countries in the top and bottom quintiles, according to scores on official MDG3 indicators

  • 3.9 Countries in the top and bottom quintiles, according to primary completion rates and under-5 mortality

  • 3.10 Countries in the top and bottom quintiles, according to labor force participation rates and disability-adjusted life years

  • 4.1 Indicators pertaining to bilateral donors’ implementation of the Paris Declaration

  • 4.2 Trade restrictiveness and its impact on welfare and trade flows, by country income group, 2004

  • 4.3 Market access (OTRI)

  • 5.1 Indicators pertaining to MDB implementation of the Paris Declaration

  • 5.2 IFI reforms to strengthen response in fragile states

Foreword

The 2007 Global Monitoring Report takes stock of progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals and assesses the contributions of developing countries, donor nations, and the international financial institutions as they work toward meeting commitments under the 2002 Monterrey consensus. This fourth annual GMR finds both areas of progress and gaps where far greater effort is required. This year’s special topics—achieving gender equality and addressing the problems of fragile states—highlight two particular areas where serious challenges confront the international community.

The GMR presents striking evidence of real progress on the MDG agenda in several areas. Globally, rapid growth is translating into falling levels of extreme poverty: in the five years between 1999 and 2004 global poverty fell by nearly 4 percentage points, lifting an estimated 135 million people out of destitution. Sub-Saharan Africa’s performance has also been encouraging over this period; the share of extreme poor fell by nearly 5 percentage points, although the absolute number of poor has not fallen: Sub-Saharan Africa remains the poorest developing region in the world with about two-fifths of its people living on less than US$1 a day.

Significant gains are occurring in human development: globally the primary school completion rate has increased from 78 percent in 2000 to 83 percent in 2005 and the pace of increase has accelerated in all regions (except Latin America and the Caribbean, where levels were already high).

Aid quality and effectiveness are improving: signatories to the 2005 Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness are monitoring progress on harmonization, alignment, and managing for development results. Still, many challenges remain in accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agenda.

Strengthening future performance will require greater attention in two important areas. The first relates to gender equality and the empowerment of women. Second is the condition of fragile states, where nearly 500 million people, or nearly one-fifth of all people in low-income countries, reside.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women are important for basic reasons—fairness, equality of opportunity, and economic well-being. Increasing efficiency and achieving the full potential of men and women alike is a precursor to prosperity. Gender equality is also vital to advancing the other millennium goals—halving poverty, achieving primary education for all, and lowering the under-five mortality rate. Achieving equal opportunity for women will require greater accountability among donors, developing countries, and international institutions such as our own. It will entail moving beyond a general institutional call for attention, toward a concrete strengthening of programs and project implementation. This would in turn allow a focus on outcomes as well as on a longer-term agenda. Such a shift requires improving monitoring systems for tracking progress in gender equality, and evaluating the impact of interventions aimed at attaining equality of opportunity.

Fragile states, with their limited capacity to secure a better life for their citizens, merit special attention because of the enormity of the problems they face. These countries by definition have weak governments and are hard put to deliver basic services to their people. Over one-fourth of extremely poor people in developing countries live in fragile states. These nations face enormous challenges, regarding both how to take action to meet human development needs, and how to stave off a potential downward spiral of conflict, human abuse, and refugee flight. New instruments should be considered to help countries that have turned the corner to quickly stabilize, restore both security and basic services, and bring greater accountability into public service. This will require better coordination and more effective intervention by the international community.

To move both of these crucial agendas forward and to secure faster progress toward meeting the MDGs, international efforts to scale up aid for deserving country programs are vital. We have not made sufficient progress in delivering on the promises of the Monterrey Summit in 2002, or the 2005 Gleneagles commitments to scale up aid to Africa. Current examples of countries that have received significantly scaled-up aid to help finance sound programs to meet the MDGs are few and far between. This is not for lack of opportunity, which abounds at the project-, sector-, and country-levels. Rather, the dearth of successful scaling-up efforts points to the need for the greater “mutual accountability” called for under the Monterrey consensus. First, we need to identify and fund existing opportunities for scaling up based on current knowledge and capacity, such as in the country and sector areas that the World Bank and the UN have identified. Second, we must work together to develop a dynamic strategy for country-based opportunities to sequentially scale up, including with sufficient technical assistance from our two organizations, working together with other development partners. This will require that donor countries fulfill their pledges to strengthen their development strategies and that they put real resources to work to enact these programs.

Deadlines to deliver on promises in 2010, 2015, and 2030 are looming large and, collectively, we need to speed up investments in projects and reform programs that will save lives, create jobs, and promote growth. The responsibility for this lies with donors, our own and other institutions, and recipients alike.

Paul Wolfowitz

President

World Bank

Rodrigo de Rato

Managing Director

International Monetary Fund

Acknowledgments

This report has been prepared jointly by the staff of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. There was also consultation and collaboration with other partner institutions including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and its Development Assistance Committee, several United Nations agencies, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank. The cooperation and support of staff of these institutions are gratefully acknowledged.

Mark Sundberg was the lead author and manager of the report. The work was carried out under the general guidance of François Bourguignon, Senior Vice-President, and the overall supervision of Alan Gelb, Director, World Bank.

The core team for the report included Peter Fallon (chapter 1); Barbara Bruns (chapter 2); Mayra Buvinic, Elizabeth King, Andrew Morrison, and Nistha Sinha (chapter 3); Punam Chuhan (chapter 4); and Stefano Curto (chapter 5). The Bank core team also included Brendan Fitzpatrick, Julien Gourdon, and Sachin Shahria, who provided research, written inputs, and coordination to the overall report. Other significant contributions were made by Amar Bhattacharya, Carlos Primo Braga, Kirk Hamilton, Julia Nielson, Bernard Hoekman, Sarah Cliffe, Sima Kanaan, Adam Ross, Giovanni Ruta, and Juan Carlos Guzman.

Many others have made valuable contributions, including the following from the World Bank:

Aban Daruwala, Ajay Chhibber, Akihiko Nishio, Alessandro Nicita, Amie Batson, Ana Cristina Torres, Anand Rajaram, Arthur Karlin, Arunima Dhar, Bee Ean Gooi, Bonaventure Mbida-Essama, Brian Levy, Brice Quesnel, Christopher Hall, Claudia Paz Sepulveda, Desmond Bermingham, Dhushyanth Raju, Dianne Garama, Dorte Domeland-Narvaez, Doug Hostland, Eduard Bos, Elizabeth White, Emi Suzuki, Eric Swanson, Robert Francis Rowe, Gauresh Rajadhyaksha, Gary Milante, Gilles Bauche, Gisela Garcia, Hiau Looi Kee, Jessica Lynn Ebbeler, Joseph Naimoli, Joy De Beyer, Kavita Watsa, Louise Cord, Luc-Charles Gacougnolle, Lucia Fort, Martin Ravillion, Mary Hallward-Driemeier, Maureen Lewis, Meera Shekhar, Michael Koch, Monica Das Gupta, Nevin Fahmy, Nina Todorova Budina, Olusoji Adeyi, Pablo Gottret, Patrick Grasso, Prem Sangrula, Rekha Mehra, Rene Bonnel, Reynaldo Martorell, Rifat Hasan, Robert Watson, Robin Horn, Roula Yazigi, Shahrokh Fardoust, Shaohua Chen, Shunalini Sarkar, Soe Lin, Sulekha Patel, Susan Stout, and Waafas Ofosu-Amaah.

Contributors from the International Monetary Fund included:

Alun Thomas, Ben Umansky, Carlo Sdralevich, Emmanuel Hife, Marie-Helen Le Manchec, Mark Plant, and Scott Brown.

Contributors from other institutions included:

Kazu Sakai, Christopher MacCormac, Manju Senapaty, Patrick Safran (ADB), Philibert Afrika, Ferdinand Bakoup, Maurice Mubila, Penthesilea Lartey (AfDB), Ernesto Castagnino, Marco Ferroni, Max Pulgar-Vidal, Afredo Garcia (IADB), Samuel Fankhauser, James Earwicker (EBRD), Brian Hammond, Patricia O’Neill (OECD-DAC), and Chandrika Bahadur (UNDP).

Guidance received from the Executive Directors of the World Bank and their staff, and the International Monetary Fund during discussions of the draft report is gratefully acknowledged. The report has also benefited from many useful comments and suggestions received from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund management and staff in the course of the preparation and review of the report.

The World Bank’s Office of the Publisher managed the editorial services, design, production, and printing of the book—in particular Susan Graham, Denise Bergeron, Aziz Gökdemir, Nancy Lammers, Stephen McGroarty, Randi Park, Santiago Pombo-Bejarano, and Janice Tuten, along with Kirsten Dennison and associates at Precision Graphics, Candace Roberts and associates at Quantum Think, Gerry Quinn, Bruce Ross-Larson, and Michael Treadway, provided excellent help with publishing this book on a very tight schedule.

Finally, acknowledgments are due to Matthew Burke and Maria Del Carmen Cosu of the World Bank Art Program, who helped us find the artwork for the cover.

Abbreviations

AAP

Africa Action Plan
ACP

African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries
ADB

Asian Development Bank
AfDF

African Development Fund
AsDF

Asian Development Fund
AIDS

acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
AMC

Advance Market Commitment
ART

antiretroviral treatment
COMPAS

Common Performance Assessment System
CPIA

Country Policy and Institutional Assessment
DAC

Development Assistance Committee (of the OECD)
DALY

disability-adjusted life year
DB

Doing Business (surveys)
DHS

Demographic and Health Survey
EBRD

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
EC

European Commission
EFA-FTI

Education for All-Fast Track Initiative
EPA

Economic Partnership Agreement
ES

Enterprise Survey
FAO

Food and Agriculture Organization (of the UN)
G-8

Group of Eight
GII

Global Integrity Index
GMR

Global Monitoring Report

GNI

gross national income
HIPC

heavily indebted poor country/countries
HIV

human immunodeficiency virus
IADB

Inter-American Development Bank
IBRD

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
ICS

Investment Climate Surveys
IDA

International Development Association (of the World Bank Group)
IFAD

International Fund for Agricultural Development
IFC

International Finance Corporation (of the World Bank Group)
IFFIm

International Finance Facility for Immunization
IFI

international financial institution
IMCI

integrated management of childhood illness
IMF

International Monetary Fund
LIC

low-income country
LICUS

low-income countries under stress
MDB

multilateral development bank
MDG

Millennium Development Goal
MDRI

Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative
NGO

nongovernmental organization
NTM

nontariff measure
ODA

official development assistance
OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OOF

other official flow
OTRI

overall trade restrictiveness index
PEFA

Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability
PFM

public financial management
PIU

project implementation unit
PRSP

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
R&R

results and resources
SDR

special drawing right
STD

sexually transmitted disease
SWAp

sectorwide approach
TB

tuberculosis
TRI

trade restrictiveness index
UNDP

United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNFPA

United Nations Population Fund
UNICEF

United Nations Children’s Fund
USAID

United States Agency for International Development
WHO

World Health Organization
WSS

water supply and sanitation
WTO

World Trade Organization

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Goals and Targets from the Millennium Declaration

article image
Source: United Nations. 2000 (September 18). Millennium Declaration. A/RES/55/2. New York. United Nations. 2001 (September 6). Road Map towards the Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. Report of the Secretary General. New York. Note: The Millennium Development Goals and targets come from the Millennium Declaration signed by 189 countries, including 147 heads of state, in September 2000. The goals and targets are related and should be seen as a whole. They represent a partnership of countries determined, as the Declaration states, “to create an environment—at the national and global levels alike—which is conducive to development and the elimination of poverty.”
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Cover Global Monitoring Report, 2007
Global Monitoring Report, 2007
Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States
ISBN:
9780821369753
ISSN:
0258-7440
Publication Date:
18 Apr 2007
Publisher:
The World Bank
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9780821369753.083
Pages:
274