79.     As shown in this chapter, the UN system has made significant progress in concerting its support to countries to meet the poverty eradication and development goals of the Millennium Declaration. The challenge remains, however, of shaping comprehensive strategies that fully reflect the interlinkages among the MDGs and that effectively integrate the wealth of policy inputs generated by the global conferences.

80.     The UN system must, in turn, translate these strategies into policy advice that is concerted, but not monolithic. This means advice that brings to bear the totality of the system’s knowledge and experience to advance holistic, socially conscious approaches to sustainable growth and development; that flows from individual country realities and priorities; and that preserves policy space for developing countries to chart their own integration into the global economy. Beyond that, the UN system must strive to match progress in enhancing policy coherence with an adequate capacity to optimize the sequencing of UN interventions in a given country. The system also needs to continue to strengthen its capacity to mount prompt responses. The UN system’s effective handling of the SARS outbreak and its response to the HIV/AIDs crisis provide good examples of the response capacity that needs to be further developed and applied system-wide.

81.     Across organizations and programme areas, the UN system confronts the persistent challenge of linking global, regional and national efforts in ways that maximize their mutual reinforcement and their total contribution to meeting the MDGs. Global goals will ultimately have a real impact on the lives of peoples only to the extent that they translate into country-level and region-wide policies and priorities. By the same token, regional and country-level experiences and requirements must consistently inform global policy development.

82.     The potential for such integration represents a powerful comparative advantage of the UN system, one which could yield significant increases in effectiveness and real impact if fully exploited. Building on country- and regional-level conditions and requirements, the UN system must endeavour to achieve a closer integration of its operational activities with its conceptual and analytical work.

83.     At the country level itself, the UN system must continue to work to apply approaches to supporting the implementation of the MDGs that are genuinely demand-driven; to ensure that monitoring and evaluation policies and practices lead to systematic accumulation and application of lessons learned to be shared system-wide; to broaden partnerships with key development actors; and to harmonize its efforts with those of the donor community, civil society and the private sector. In all of these areas, true country ownership of development cooperation in meeting the objectives of the Millennium Declaration is key to progress. The UN system must go beyond simply adhering to perceived country priorities and, instead, work purposefully to help strengthen national capacities for setting those priorities and effectively lead the development cooperation effort. The system should come to perceive this task as a way to exploit one of its unique comparative advantages in relation to other development actors and as an important responsibility for which it is uniquely equipped.

84.     Promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women is another major, and in many ways, unique responsibility for the UN system as a whole. In this area, the primary focus must be on education: the UN system must take bold steps to address the challenges impeding access to education for girls and to ensure that good quality, gender-sensitive education and equal opportunities are made available to all. Beyond education, the empowerment of women must become an integral component of efforts to advance each of the MDGs and of policies and activities across all dimensions of the Millennium Declaration.

85.     Although not covered by a specific MDG, promoting employment is fundamental to eradicating poverty. As stressed in the Secretary-General’s report for the High-Level segment of the forthcoming ECOSOC session (E/2005/56), the power of the poor to extricate themselves from poverty, disease and misery lies in productive employment and decent work. The UN system must strive to ensure that global, regional and national policies are re-directed to and refocused on productivity-enhancing investments and policies designed to generate employment for unskilled and semi-skilled labour, in both rural and urban areas. Poverty reduction strategies, such as the PRSPs, should recognize the critical role of employment and the need to enhance the human capital of the poor, particularly by increasing access to education (especially primary and secondary), skills and healthcare; improving physical infrastructure; easing access to credit; and creating social safety nets.

86.     Another major challenge for the UN system is to mobilize and integrate more fully its scientific and technological capacities into its support to countries for achieving the MDGs. This relates, in turn, to the challenge of bringing more fully to bear on the pursuit of the MDGs the policy guidance generated by the World Summit for Sustainable Development and the World Summit on the Information Society. Both have stressed the key importance of applying science and technology and innovation in achieving a sustainable development process.

87.     The impact of trans-boundary issues on the pursuit of the MDGs also requires greater system-wide attention. Particularly relevant in this regard are the development of transport networks in land-locked and poor regions; the integrated management of international rivers, basins and lakes aimed to achieve environmental sustainability; the fight against air pollution; and the rational use of energy. The nature and urgency of these objectives underscore the need further to reinforce inter-agency cooperation not only at the global level, but also at the regional and sub-regional levels.

88.     Current trends indicate that many parts of Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, lag significantly behind in achieving the MDGs. Many encouraging signs exist, however, at the regional level and at the international level, which have seen new and potentially major initiatives. Taken together, they suggest that the development scenario in the region may be poised towards significant change. Building on its historic engagement in African development, the UN system should situate itself as Africa’s main partner in helping national and regional institutions to take full advantage of these new opportunities for significant progress. The UN system’s capacity to do so should be rooted in: stronger interagency collaboration, so as to minimize duplication and better optimize the use of resources; enhanced policy coherence and operational coordination, focusing on capacity and institution-building; and a continuing system-wide effort to mobilize resources to support national progress and the initiatives, programmes and institutions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

89.     In his report to the 2005 World Summit, In Larger freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All (A/59/2005), the Secretary-General presents various proposals to surmount challenges in implementing the development aspects of the Millennium Declaration—to secure “freedom from want.” The decisions taken by Member States at the Summit in response will guide the ongoing efforts of CEB to drive inter-agency coordination and collaboration in this area.