Post MDGs

MDGs have shaped the way that most actors, both at the international level and nationally in Kenya and Tanzania, view the ongoing discussions related to a new global development agenda. In Kenya and Tanza-nia, the MDGs have influenced national policies and governance approaches. Social sector development is monitored in a more systematic and results-based manner. Also in both countries the MDGs have been in-tegrated to key national policies, but the mainstreaming seems to present different challenges for both Kenya and Tanzania. Although the MDG framework has increased budgetary allocations and donor support to the social sector, high resource deficits remain especially in the health sector, and poverty alleviation remains elusive.
The desire of citizens and governments to design their own priority goals for development and post-2015 has been strongly articulated in both countries. In Tanzania the formal consultations imply a prefer-ence towards the continuation of the MDG framework, albeit in a modified form. A key message from the MDG experience and the national post-2015 discussions in both countries is the need to address the overt focus of the MDG framework on purely quantitative targets for development, and a better definition of what is meant by the achievement of certain goals.
In Kenya and Tanzania, the merging of the MDG and SDG agendas raises certain concerns over a pos-sible diversion of resource flows away from local development priorities. Despite an appreciation of global environmental goals, environmental concerns locally are mainly related to the sustainable management of natural resources, and social concerns stem from the tensions related to the equitable distribution of the derived benefits.
Another major issue to rethink is the role of the Global North. In the previous MDG framework the role of the North was narrowed to providing financing for the MDGs in developing countries. Simultane-ously, various dimensions of a global partnership have not been addressed. Currently especially civil society actors are highlighting the responsibilities of the North in addressing impoverishing illicit flows and other unequal global resource flows, trade relations, and ecological debt by industrial countries.
Despite a more consultative post-2015 process than perhaps ever before (including selected national consultations and international online consultations), it seems that there still remains the possibility that the future development agenda is interpreted as an externally driven process that reaches only chosen local, re-gional or national groups. Therefore, new action-oriented messages should be developed and, new mediums for communication established closer to social platforms. The local political processes, such as Kenya’s 2010 constitution and the consequent devolution process and Tanzania’s constitutional review process (draft due in 2014, are the key arenas for local debate as well as political and civic engagement in national development. High expectations are placed on these political processes. Especially in Kenya, the messages of post-2015 discussions could be better embedded in the deliberations driven by the devolved local governments.

Perché tornare a pensare lo sviluppo? Perché impegnarsi nel ridefinire, qui e ora, il profilo del cambiamento che vorremmo, le caratteristiche della socie-tà migliore cui aspiriamo? Da tale domanda è scaturita la riflessione raccolta nelle pagine di questo volume. L’augurio è che il lettore condivida l’impor-tanza e l’urgenza che a tale tematica attribuiamo.