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184 JOACHIM VON BRAUN, MARIE T. RUEL, AND STUART GILLESPIE


of at least as many different policy instruments as there are goals. Moreover, pur- suing each goal independently may result in an inefficient portfolio of policies.


2. The monitoring process is poorly defined and lacks transparency—a situation that raises questions about the measurement of progress. It is unclear whether the process is carried out independently, and discrepancies in results raise doubts about the reliability of the estimation methods and findings.


3. Monitoring also focuses on average change, which hides important information on changes in inequality and poverty gaps. The fact that the issue of inequity is not appropriately addressed in achieving and monitoring the goals also raises an ethical issue. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the proportion of ultra-poor—those who live on less than $0.50 a day—has increased in recent decades, and it is perfectly conceivable that progress may be made toward MDG1 while ultra-poverty and hunger continue to rise.


4. For many countries, the MDGs are unrealistic and unachievable. Cost assess- ments of aid needed to achieve several of the MDGs suggest that they cannot be achieved in the context of past financial assistance and likely levels of assistance in the coming years. It is also important to note that while the MDGs were for- mally established in 2000, progress in achieving some of the goals is measured using indicators calculated from the year 1990. Reducing poverty by one-half from 1990 to 2015 depends on growth over the full 25 years. Nearly half of that growth would need to have occurred in the decade before the signing of the Millennium Declaration; countries with little to no growth in that period are unlikely to achieve it in the 15 years from 2000 to 2015.


5. Finally, partners and countries are not accountable for meeting the needs of the poorest and hungry and for improving the delivery of public services in order to achieve MDG1. Accountability also tends to be defined by individual goals, not the whole set of MDGs. Different groups of stakeholders and development agencies tend to invest in one or two goals while largely ignoring the rest.


Bringing the Agriculture and Health Sectors Together Intersectoral cooperation is a mechanism for generating solutions to complex problems, not an end in itself. But promoting cooperation in research and policy between two different sectors is challenging—sectoral barriers provide disincentives to collaboration, and analyses and communications across disciplines can be dif- ficult. Cooperation requires an enabling policy environment, effective institutional


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