The MDG Africa Steering Group

The MDG Africa Steering Group was convened in September 2007 and brings together the leaders of multilateral development organizations to identify the practical steps needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals in Africa. The Group is chaired by the United Nations Secretary-General and comprises the President of the African Development Bank Group, the Chairperson of the African Union Com­mission, the President of the European Commission, the Managing Director of the Interna­tional Monetary Fund, the President of the Islamic Development Bank Group, the Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the President of the World Bank Group.

The MDG Africa Steering Group objectives are to

1. strengthen international mechanisms for implementation in the five areas of health, education, agriculture and food security, infrastructure and statistical systems;
2. improve aid predictability; and
3. enhance coordination at the country level.

The MDG Africa Steering Group has identified a list of concrete opportunities to implement and scale-up interventions in support of the MDGs.

The evidence surveyed by the Steering Group shows that — if fully implemented — the recommendations will produce verifiable development results that can serve to monitor progress and ensure the effective use of domestic and external resources. In combination with sound economic policies to promote private sector development and increased participation in trade, these results will reduce barriers to progress, take countries closer to achieving the MDGs and lay the foundation for robust economic growth.

Full text of the recommendations:

The MDG Africa Steering Group now calls on its institutional members, through the MDG Africa Working Group, to support a strong push to implement MDG activities in support of the Recommendations, including by leveraging partnerships, financial resources, and results-based management.
Further institutional and programmatic details that build on existing mechanisms and allow for country-level specificities have also been developed in the form of an Operational Note. The Note was prepared by a task team composed of interested institutional members and the Secretariat. The Operational Note develops the programmatic and institutional requirements for implementing the action points contained in the Framework. It also provides guidelines and methods for translating the Implementation Framework into concrete actions and results at the regional and country levels.

Key actions guiding the objectives and design of the implementation framework include:

1. focusing on the country level by supporting existing MDG Action Plans through available tools, such as the UNDG MDG Acceleration Framework.
2. mobilizing concessional financing for African countries, including through global awareness-raising about the ability of developing countries to absorb and effectively use concessional resources, which builds on the work by the MDG Africa Working Group in this area. The Steering Group will also continue to advocate for scaled-up development support to low-income African countries through the various existing global financing mechanisms (e.g., the EFA-FTI, Global Fund, GAVI and GAFSP), and for proper levels of domestic resource mobilization for the MDGs.
3. monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the Recommendations with a focus on identifying and overcoming bottlenecks to MDG achievement.

Full text of the Implementation Framework