Publication: Transforming Our World--Aiming for Sustainable Development: Using Independent Evaluation to Transform Aspirations to Achievements
Date
2015
ISSN
Published
2015
Author(s)
Independent Evaluation Group
Abstract
The year 2015 is pivotal in
international development. In the lead-up to 2000, the
global community came together at various conferences to
agree on, for the first time in known history, shared
development goals. The eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) set 18 targets that were aimed at significantly
reducing disease, illiteracy, gender inequality, hunger, and
poverty, and improving access to water and sanitation by
2015. Leading up to this point where the era of the MDGs
concludes, progress has been monitored and discussions
started well ahead of this momentous year to define and meet
the more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
building on and bringing to fruition what has been started
under the MDG agenda. Much progress has been made toward
achieving the MDGs. The world reached the poverty reduction
target five years ahead of schedule, and progress has been
reported in a number of other areas. However, considerable
challenges remain: even while declaring success on MDG1,
roughly a billion people remained in poverty. A large number
of MDG targets will not be met by the end of 2015, and
progress remains uneven among the different countries.
Moreover, new challenges to progress are emerging deriving
from natural and manmade calamities. To deliver on the twin
goals and the post-2015 agenda, the Bank Group would benefit
from a clearly articulated role, approach, and expected
contribution to the SDGs, both externally for enhancing
partnerships and internally to facilitate prioritization and
synergies. As this paper has shown, the World Bank Group
works actively in many areas relevant to the SDGs, actually
many more than covered here, but various evaluations have
pointed to the importance of multi-sector integrated
approaches that challenge countries and their partners to
find new ways of working. The challenges that the SDGs aim
to address, and the SDGs themselves, are complex, and
solutions will have to be tailored to context, bring
together multiple actors, and benefit from dynamic,
constantly adjusted planning and execution that is informed
by ongoing monitoring and evaluation.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Independent Evaluation Group. 2015. Transforming Our World--Aiming for Sustainable Development: Using Independent Evaluation to Transform Aspirations to Achievements. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22781 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”