Gender and the Millennium Development Goals

It has now been five years since the landmark United Nations Millennium Declaration and related Development Goals (MDGs), wad adopted by Member States. The Declaration is a blueprint for action and has created a political momentum which holds great potential not only for improving the rights and empowerment of women, but more fundamentally for achieving the MDGs. The targets and indicators represent concrete benchmarks to measure progress on the eight development goals. The 2000 Millennium Declaration commits States to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger, disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable. The acknowledgement that the achievement of women’s rights and equality is central to the achievement of social and economic development is a significant achievement. This issue of Gender Dialogue, looks at gender equality and women’s empowerment and the achievement of the MDGs.

Evaluation of the technical meeting on the 2010 Caribbean Millennium Development Goals report

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean convened a two-day technical meeting to review the draft Caribbean report on the Millennium Development Goals, “Caribbean Millennium Development Goal Achievement and Prognosis: A 2010 Review” and provide guidance to the Consultant in the finalisation of the report. The technical meeting was convened within the framework of the United Nations Development Account-funded project “Strengthening the Capacity of National Statistical Offices in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals and other Internationally Agreed Development Goals”. The meeting was held at ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 24-25 June 2010. The Caribbean report was intended to provide an assessment of achievements and constraints in the countries of the subregion to accomplish the Goals 10 years after the Millennium Declaration in 2000. The report would also contribute to the ECLAC Latin America and Caribbean report.

The status of millennium development goals: monitoring and reporting in selected Caribbean countries

In spite of various initiatives, Caribbean countries continue to have difficulties in addressing demands of monitoring and measuring progress towards the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other Internationally Agreed upon Development Goals (IADGs)1. To address this gap, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has received funding for a technical assistance project, Strengthening the capacity of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals and other Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs). The main imperative of the project is to support the strengthening of national institutional capabilities for generating reliable data to meet these monitoring and reporting requirements. The project seeks to build on past and current initiatives directed towards broadening and improving statistics and indicators through the use of already available knowledge, experience and expertise at the national and regional level. In an effort to avoid duplication of present or repetition of past activities in this field, ECLAC considered it important to conduct a thorough assessment of the status and structure of MDG and IADG monitoring and reporting at the national and regional levels as well as to provide an overview of initiatives undertaken by other regional development partners and intergovernmental bodies in the subregion. This paper is composed as follows: The first chapter of the document will present an overview of the statistical infrastructure at the national level, followed by a summary of the results of a survey administered to Caribbean NSOs that gathered information on the status of and mechanisms in place in MDG and IADG monitoring and reporting at the national level. Then, an attempt will be made to provide a briefing on activities carried out by intergovernmental bodies and development partners in the region. The fourth section presents a brief summary of data sources for secondary data and introduces concepts for metadata collection and reporting. It further discusses major challenges with poverty measurements and monitoring in the subregion. The paper ends with a summary and recommendations for the way forward.

Gender equality, poverty and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Caribbean subregion

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are fundamentally a set of eight global goals for the achievement of basic economic and social rights for all, with time-bound targets to be achieved by the year 2015. In adopting the Millennium Declaration in 2000, the member States of the United Nations pledged to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.”1 The focus of this report is on the progress made by Caribbean countries towards the achievement of Goal 1: the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; and Goal 3: the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, and identifies linkages between the two goals.

Latin America and the Caribbean: looking ahead after the Millennium Development Goals: Regional monitoring report on the Millennium Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2015

Foreword by Alicia Bárcena

Organizations and the united nations millennium development goals: evidence from some of the largest companies in brazil

The objective of this study is to verify whether some of the largest companies in Brazil adopt management practices aligned with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Design/methodology/approach – Overview information obtained from the web sites of six Brazilian multinational companies listed in the Forbes Global 2000 ranking was analyzed. Findings – The major findings of this study indicate that the companies studied did not demonstrate clear knowledge of the MDGs, nor did they adopt practices aiming at meeting those goals. The evidences show that the companies adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, which are indirectly related to four MDGs. It was observed that the CSR practices tend to be developed based on a contingency perspective according to the characteristics and impacts of products offered by those companies. Therefore, there is a window of opportunity for those companies to begin developing programs in order to meet the MDGs aiming at new business opportunities, innovative CSR practices, and new ways to make CSR information evident and more organized.