Have been attending the meeting of the World Economic Forum at Abu Dhabi. One issue under discussion is what should replace the MDGs after 2015. There are many facets to the issue but one that I find curious is about how to set goals that can be applied universally given the different positions of countries in the development ladder and the different social and political systems in existence. For example holding credible elections in Equatorial Guinea may be a desired target for its people, not so for Sweden where elections are held routinely. A simple solution is to replace Goals with Results Areas. So, the new MDGs would consist of Results Areas within which goals or targets can be set.
EG Individual targets can be set per country or group of countries, and these can be measured to determine whether mankind is moving along a positive path to improving, say, governance. Governance then becomes a Results Area and differentiated targets can then be set for each group of countries. The challenge then is to identify and agree on the differentiated targets.
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