Working to Achieve
the Millennium Development Goals
in the Lao PDR
In September 2000, 147 heads of State and Government, and 191 nations in total, adopted the Millennium Declaration. The Declaration outlines peace, security and development concerns, including in the areas of environment, human rights, and governance. The Declaration also contains a number of goals beyond those linked to poverty, e.g. peace and security, environmental protection, human rights, democracy and good governance. These are known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Read more about the background of
MDGs.
Global progress towards the MDGs has been documented in the Millennium Development Goals Report 2009. With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve
the MDGs, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling, in his
recent report
Keeping the Promise, for the adoption of a global action
agenda for accelerating progress towards the Goals, when worlds
leaders meet at a UN Summit in New York in September 2010.
Although Laos has experienced advances in social development in recent years, and significant progress has been made towards achieving the MDGs, the country faces many development challenges. Laos has shown consistent improvement in the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI), being ranked 141st out of 173 countries in 1993, and climbing to 133rd by 2009. There is strong commitment by the government and UN partners towards achieving the MDGs with the process being led by the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
With an eye
towards the General Assembly's high-level review of advances
towards the MDGs in September 2010, UNDP prepared a
forward-looking report Beyond
the Midpoint: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, to
assess what it will take to accelerate progress towards the
goals around the world. Thirty country-level assessments were
undertaken to discern the factors which influence MDG progress
in a country, and to understand what has worked, what has not,
and why. Lao PDR was one of the countries assessed. The report
found that there are generally four key areas which shape MDG
achievement at the country level: policy choices and their
coherence; governance and capacity deficits; fiscal constraints;
and political will.
While Lao PDR has
made improvements in several areas and is on track to achieve
some MDGs, there is concern about the sustainability of MDG
gains given the country's reliance on ODA. To address this, the
government has sought support from UNDP to help identify
alternative options to ensure the continuity of MDG progress
beyond 2015.
The achievement
of the MDGs is one of the critical strategic areas of the
forthcoming Seventh National Socio Economic Development Plan
(NSEDP) 2011-2015. The 7th NSEDP provides a major opportunity
for further poverty reduction, achieving the other MDGs as well
as making substantial progress towards promoting equitable
sustainable growth, ultimately helping the country graduate from
the LDC status.
Read more about MDG progress.
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