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A new post-2015 international development agenda is to be decided on in September this year. The ambitious list of 17 development goals includes a call for a revitalization of the global partnership for sustainable development. The Conference on Financing for Development to be held in Addis Ababa later this month will be the first test of the degree of commitment to endow the new agenda with the means needed to meet the level of ambition.

A global partnership is definitely needed. The protracted economic stagnation and continued austerity in rich countries do not augur well. The track record of global partnership under the present MDG agenda has been rather disappointing, to say the least, even during better years before the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

The United Nations annual highlighted several shortfalls in international efforts to achieve the MDGs, providing sobering reminders of the need to substantially step up efforts to meet longstanding international commitments.

At least 0.15% of donor GNI ($70bn) should have gone to the least developed countries (LDCs). Instead, in 2014, about $40bn – or less than 0.09%, or two thirds of the share promised – actually reached the LDCs, a shortfall of $30bn. At the Gleneagles summit, the G8 leaders promised to increase annual ODA to Africa by $25 bn to $64 bn (in 2004 prices). Actual delivery has fallen short by $18 bn per year – a 72% gap between promise and delivery!

Aid effectiveness

While falling short of promises, aid has provided a relatively stable international flow, and been critical for some of the stronger growth performances in Africa in recent years, especially when used for improving infrastructure and boosting agriculture.

Only meagre progress has been made in enhancing budget support and lowering increasingly fragmented project aid. Hence, a large share of aid continues to be allocated following donor priorities, thereby limiting policy space and effective national ownership for recipients.

Debt

The main success story over the last decade probably involves debt sustainability: there was significant progress with the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative and the supplementary multilateral debt relief initiative (MDRI).

Unfortunately, however, debt relief is still not treated as additional to ODA, in effect resulting in ‘double counting’ – the first time as a concessional loan, and then, as a debt write-off. Consequently, actual resource transfers are often significantly less than reported ODA, much of which goes to servicing existing debt.

Over the past fifteen years, the spate of sovereign debt crises has also involved much better-off countries, most notably Argentina, Iceland and Greece, underscoring the need for the international community to develop an equitable and effective sovereign debt workout framework.

Trade preferences

The 2001 LDCs summit at Brussels committed the international community to ensuring 100% duty-free quota-free (DFQF) access for LDC exports. In practice, the share (excluding arms) has hovered between 85% and 90% in recent years, up from about 75% in 2000, although guaranteed access is only available for 80% of product lines. However, any target short of 100% would allow importing countries to exclude those product lines which LDCs can successfully export.

Access to technology

Affordable and equitable access to new technologies will be increasingly crucial for human progress and sustainable development in many areas, including enhancing food security, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation. The decline of public sector research and extension efforts, the strengthening of intellectual property rights claims and the correspondingly greater private control of technologies all have ominous implications for the poor who cannot afford access.

This poor track record should put some pressure on the ongoing discussion about the ‘means of implementation’ to facilitate achievement of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thus far, negotiations for Addis Ababa do not point to any great eagerness by development partners to rise to the challenge.

Yet, if agreement on the SDGs has been sincere, then it is essential to mobilize the means to achieve the promise of a more inclusive and sustainable, poverty and hunger-free world.