## Making up for Lost Time: Getting Back on Track to the Millennium Development Goals

_IMF Blog, September 20, 2010_

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**Canonical URL:** [Making up for Lost Time: Getting Back on Track to the Millennium Development Goals](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2010/09/20/making-up-for-lost-time-getting-back-on-track-to-the-millennium-development-goals)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Hugh Bredenkamp
- Published: September 20, 2010

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### Stakes and recent setback
- The global financial crisis, following the food and fuel shocks of 2007-8, delivered a severe blow to poor countries and has set back the poverty reduction agenda with only five years to go until the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline.
- Historical achievement: "the number of people living in extreme poverty fell by a staggering 400 million from 1990 to 2005."
- The piece frames the problem as global and interconnected: the fate of poor countries is increasingly tied to that of advanced economies.

### Central macroeconomic imperative
- "Everything hinges on restoring balanced, sustainable, global growth."
- Priority: advanced economies and leading emerging markets should focus "first and foremost on getting the growth engine up and running again to secure a sustainable global recovery."
- Warning: without a durable recovery in these economies, "all other efforts on the MDGs will come to naught."

### Actions for richer countries
- Aid commitments:
  - Richer countries "must keep their Gleneagles promises on aid."
  - They "have delivered only about 60 percent of the scaled-up aid they committed five years ago, and less than half of what was promised to Africa."
- Trade and market access:
  - Poorest countries account for "1 percent of global GDP, but only ½ percent of global trade," and that share "hasn’t changed in the past 15 years."
  - Proposed interim trade package:
    - Grant "full duty-free and quota-free market access to the poorest countries."
    - Streamline "the complex rules surrounding trade preference schemes so that poor countries can actually take advantage of them."
    - Tackle "the distortions in rich countries’ agricultural markets which depress prices for farmers in poor countries and inhibit trade."
  - Completing the Doha Round is noted as important, but actionable interim reforms are emphasized.

### Actions for low-income countries
- Infrastructure shortfalls:
  - Especially in Africa, countries "are badly lacking in infrastructure—notably power, but also roads and ports."
  - Existing infrastructure "is dilapidated due to years of neglect."
  - World Bank estimate: Africa will need to spend "$93 billion a year to close the 'infrastructure gap'—twice what those countries are currently spending."
  - Even if aid commitments are met, "this will not be enough to fund the needed improvements."
- Financing and investment options:
  - Mobilize other sources: "domestic tax revenues, where collections currently fall well short of potential."
  - Tap private investment, both local and foreign, which requires "a better regulatory environment, stronger property rights, and less corruption."
  - Consider more borrowing from the markets, but "this is expensive and needs to be done carefully to ensure that debt problems do not recur."
- Policy and social resilience:
  - Rebuild "policy buffers" such as "low debt, low inflation, and high reserves" that "protected countries from the worst of the crisis."
  - Strengthen social safety nets "to protect the most vulnerable."
  - IMF will publish a paper on rebuilding policy buffers "next month."

### IMF role and support
- The IMF offers assistance through "policy advice, financial support, and technical assistance."
- Specific IMF support priorities highlighted:
  - Help with "strategies to scale up investment and to 'borrow safely.'"
  - Promote "economic stability, an essential ingredient for strong, sustained growth."
- Institutional engagement: IMF Managing Director participating in the United Nations MDG summit; IMF staff prepared "a background paper on the macroeconomic foundations needed to attain the MDGs."

*Source: Making up for Lost Time: Getting Back on Track to the Millennium Development Goals (IMF blog, September 20, 2010).*

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## Content in this bundle

- **091610**
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## References

- [policy advice](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2009/INT102609A.htm)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2010/09/20/making-up-for-lost-time-getting-back-on-track-to-the-millennium-development-goals_