Notes from a discussion about the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals at the Hewlett Foundation

Participants

• Hewlett Foundation Global Development & Population (GD&P) Program staff
• Cari Tuna — Co-Founder, Good Ventures

Cari Tuna's notes from the discussion

• The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the “state of play” within the global development community regarding the next round of Millennium Development Goals — since the current set expires in 2015 — and determine what, if any, steps GD&P staff would take to influence it.
  • In particular, this meeting was meant to decide whether GD&P staff would look for grantmaking opportunities to advance sector-specific goals and/or influence the overall structure of the post-2015 framework.
  • GD&P staff noted that the window of opportunity to influence the post-2015 framework would be the next 12 to 18 months. Among foundations, the Gates Foundation also is likely to weigh in, staff noted.
• In late 2011, the Hewlett Foundation gave a grant to the Overseas Development Institute to prepare a background report called After 2015: Contexts, politics and processes for a post-2015 global agreement on development, now available here.
  • A timeline of key events can be found at beyond2015.org under “Events.”
  • Other public and nonpublic materials also were part of the background reading for this meeting.
• GD&P staff noted that activity around the next set of goals was ramping up quickly, and that the UN Secretary General had signaled an intent to include some “sustainable development goals” as well as “social” goals more similar to the current Millennium Development Goals.
  • GD&P staff said groups including the United Nations Foundation, Oxfam and Beyond 2015 — a consortium of civil society groups such as Save the Children and the World Wildlife Fund — were already weighing in.
• Global education program staff said they plan to support grantees’ work in promoting a “learning” goal. [“Learning” refers to improving the quality of education and outcomes such as literacy and numeracy in developing countries, rather than focusing only on access to education.]
• The primary question posed by Ruth Levine, director of the GD&P Program, was: “Given our resources, should we try to affect this massive process and the overall development framework?” Or should GD&P staff work within whatever framework emerges to promote specific goals within its focus areas (population and reproductive health, education and transparency & accountability)?
• GD&P staff discussed how to encourage “stronger Southern voices” in the development of the post-2015 framework and the content they’d want to see. They noted that the former might not lead to the latter if, for instance, Southern stakeholders cared more about economic-development goals than population-related goals.
• A transparency & accountability program officer suggested Hewlett support advocacy around accountability, including looking both at whether donors and governments live up to any funding commitments, and at measurable results. The current MDGs lacked requirements around public-sector budget transparency, making investments less trackable, the staffer noted.
• In general, GD&P staff decided against attempting to influence the broad framework for the next round of MDGs through grantmaking. But they agreed to keep an eye on the process in order to inform their sector-specific work and possibly “fend off bad stuff” at the margin.
  • GD&P discussed who might be able to generate “intelligence” for Hewlett and its grantees on the post-2015 process.
• Ruth asked: “Do we care enough to do some grantmaking around getting the right voices around the table?”
  • Population program staff said funding would be needed to ensure that advocacy groups in the population sector would be a part of the post-2015 discussions.
• GD&P staff also decided to develop a set of “talking points” about what they’d like to see in the post-2015 framework.
  • GD&P staff suggested talking points around transparency & accountability and investing in proven, cost-effective interventions.
• The conversation turned to sector specific goals. 
  • An education program staffer said that with the MDGs and “Education For All” targets set to expire in 2015 “there’s a real risk that the education sector never gets behind any coherent set of targets. [We’re] looking at grantees who are going to take on some advocacy around” a learning goal, rather than an access goal. “Our goal very much is to try and get learning to be the heart and soul of the strategy,” the staffer said. Education program staff plan to help organize a seminal conference on learning, to try to give a focal point to the education community.
  • Population program staff agreed to work with grantees to develop a position and advocacy strategy.
• GD&P staff agreed that informing grantees about the “state of play” of the development of the post-2015 framework via e-updates would encourage them to get involved (i.e. “MDG alerts”).
  • An education program staffer said sector-specific alerts would be necessary to spur action among education grantees.
  • A transparency & accountability staffer said both sector-specific alerts and alerts about the broader context would be helpful.
  • GD&P staff discussed which people and organizations might be able to produce such alerts.
• GD&P staff discussed strategies for getting Southern — and in particular African — grantees a seat at the table, including grantees in reproductive health and education and possibly the African think tanks that Hewlett supports through the Think Tank Initiative, a multi-donor collaboration to build the capacity of independent policy research organizations in the developing world.