AMCP proposals for a common set of principles for the post-2015 discussions

L’Action mondiale contre la Pauvreté (AMCP), a French coalition of the international Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) campaign, brings together approximately 40 civil society actors and representatives from French local authorities and was set up in 2005 to monitor the implementation of commitments made within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Consequently, it has acquired considerable expertise on the MDGs challenges, their monitoring and implementation, which it brings to the table today in the debates and discussions on “post-2015”. The following proposals are the result of a working seminar organised by the ACMP on the 26 October last and a complementary session on 11 December 2012.
Engaging in this discussion should not in any way exonerate the Signatory States of the Millennium Declaration from honouring the commitments made in 2000 and which will remain in force until 2015.
The “post-2015” discussion should include elements from the MDGs’ assessment process, background elements to the development of the post-2015 framework and a common set of principles as defined below.

1st part – Elements of the MDGs’ assessment process

For the AMCP, these elements are principally:

1. Progress benchmarks characterised by :
→ The definition by the international community of the objectives shared by all States from an ambitious declaration that aims to eradicate poverty and stated that: “We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. We are committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want. “ ;
→ A fall in the number of poor in world – even though this is mainly due to development in some emerging States;
→ Significant improvement in certain sectors (health, education, fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic);
→ Concrete and measurable goals which have made it possible to put pressure on States;
→ The impact of the MDGs on the definition of national policies to combat poverty and access to essential services;
→ The mobilisation of national and international funding for development;
→ Clear impact of this international calendar on the media and mobilisations by civil society.

2. Limits linked to an inadequate structural understanding of the objectives
→ A disconnection between poverty and the global socio-political context nonetheless marked by the choice of a global model of economic growth which a contrario tends to generate further inequalities;
→ An approach to poverty that is exclusively quantitative and monetary, preventing a multi-dimensional approach to poverty, which has from the beginning failed to deal with the complexities of poverty and identifying tools to combat it effectively ;
→ Truncated objectives, built on a fragmented approach to development, assessed using inappropriate indicators on account of their nature and calculation method (averages are used, this makes it impossible to raise the profile of marginalised populations, inequalities between peoples in the same country)
→ Objectives exclusively based on donors initiatives

2nd part – Background elements to the development of the post-2015 framework

→ Taking into account the severity of the current crisis, in all its forms, and what it should teach us about the changes required in the short and medium term;
→ Taking into account the structural causes of poverty, fundamentally linked to a system which promoted the establishment of:
-  a financialised and completely unregulated economy, to the point where today it dictates the commodification and financialisation conditions for all human beings,
-  a globalised development model that endangers the planet, over-exploits and wastes its resources, determines the movement of people to meet the needs of legal and illegal markets, and is only viable because of the continued existence and worsening of inequalities between peoples even within the same country,
-  concentration of wealth in the hands of a small group of economic and financial actors.
→ Taking into account the failure of multilateralism, whose latest declarations are characterised by the addition of strategies incorporating non-binding national and international undertakings.

3rd part – Proposal for a common set of “post-2015” principles

Every policy for combating poverty that does not take into account the need to reduce inequalities, that does not adopt a human-rights based approach, that continues not to consider poverty as the result of a more globalised socio-political and environmental context and the choice of a global growth model which is intrinsically unjust, is doomed to failure from the outset.
Making advances in the definition of new shared development goals that would take over from the MDGs therefore requires agreement on the principles which are likely to create a favourable political environment to combat poverty and inequalities.
For the AMCP, these principles bridge the post MDG Development Goals/ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) divide and should play a key role in all on-going international negotiations to define the future international development framework.

These principles result from:
→ The need to attack the structural causes of poverty, acting on the mechanisms that create it for its eradication;
→ Affirmation of a shared development vision, anchored in the respect for fundamental rights, European and International texts and other related texts; the need to make these fundamental human rights enforceable everywhere in the world, particularly by creating redress mechanisms, so that they become a reality for all;
→ Recognising the interdependence of people’s needs (water and sanitation, food, health, education) and the need to guarantee universal and simultaneous access to basic social sectors;
→ It is imperative to recognise that sustainable human development goes hand in hand with the development of decent work as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Consequently, it is also imperative to implement social and employment policies supported by effective fiscal policies;
→ The need for new and strengthened global governance, founded on one hand on the defence of public goods and international regulation (economic, financial, environmental etc.) and on the other, based on responsibility (individual and shared) and the accountability of States.
-  It is necessary to make advances in the implementation of legally binding international frameworks, to rationalise the architecture of global governance in view of the multiplication of parallel initiatives and to recognise the predominance of the Union Nations, the only inclusive and representative body for all countries, as opposed to processes restricted to the most powerful countries such as the G8, G20 and BRICS.
-  To achieve this, we must rethink the links between the different stakeholders (public authorities, private sector, financial actors, civil society, local groups) on the basis of a strong vision for the role of the State and the public authorities. The realisation of development goals cannot be delegated to the private sector alone and it is essential to boost the legitimacy of public action on all levels; within this framework, the ability of the States to mobilise their domestic resources and to regulate/supervise the private sector is a major challenge.
→ The need to encourage civil society participation in all stages and at all levels of the development process, from implementation, to follow up and evaluation of the development frameworks and the public policies to combat poverty; it is essential to
-  put in place conditions enabling the effective and direct participation of people who live in poverty who up until now have been excluded from the democratic debate;
-  gather the unique contribution of people who implement on a daily basis strategies to combat extreme poverty and draw on their knowledge and life experience. These people, as experts on poverty, should receive further training and their voices should be heard from within organisations where they can express themselves freely.
→ The importance of taking into account ecological balances and our diminishing natural resources in order to effectively develop paths for ecology and social transition in our societies and economies. It is a question of looking for development methods and that are socially fair and ecologically sustainable, that are in the interests of the general public rather than the vested interests of a limited few.
It is therefore necessary to move towards a new model of social, political and economic organisation founded, in particular, on satisfaction measurements other than over-consumption, based on the economic management of non-renewable resources, the development of short supply and distribution chains, solid social and territorial integration. In that sense, the multiple local initiatives that have already been developed by civil societies should be taken into account.
→ The pertinence of thinking of future objectives in a modular way, in terms of time (short-term/long-term) and space, adapted to the national, regional and local contexts. If the objectives are to be based on universal principles, they do not necessarily all have to follow the same structure “one size”, some can be transversal and destined to end harmful practices, others should be considered in the context of a longer transition period.
→ The need to define indicators that are:
-  participative : design and follow-up with input from the populations concerned, in particular the most marginalised
-  measurable : indicators that the governments commit to and are binding
-  qualitative : because averages alone hide inequalities
-  multi-disciplinary: reflecting the impact of the indivisible elements of poverty.
-  coherence : guaranteeing a policy that does not turn against the populations concerned (the environment at the expense of jobs for example)
-  effectiveness: measuring, beyond its implementation, the real impact of the project.
-  exhaustive: not just reaching the most dynamic and/or the most accessible populations, condemning the others to exclusion. The “level of severe deprivation” defined by the EU is an example of a multidisciplinary and exhaustive indicator.

Article provided by l’Action Mondiale contre la Pauvreté