Global Development Plans

Abstract

This chapter explores the Pacific region’s engagement with the UN’s global development initiatives—principally the Human Development Index (from 1990), the Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015–2030). These initiatives received a mixture of resistance and acceptance from Pacific governments. For some, the MDGs epitomized the imposition of global (western?) values on the particularity of Pacific cultures and traditions. However, reflections on that experience shaped a more positive and consultative approach to the subsequent SDG program, which allows countries to prioritize its seventeen goals in accordance with their specific policy environment. Overall, the UN’s global development initiatives have provided major stimulus to Pacific member countries’ governance capabilities—notably in policy formulation, implementation, and assessment, as well as such essential sub-components of the policy process as data collection and analysis; multi-party policy dialogue—including with non-state actors; and development communications, which is most essential to the meaningful reporting of results.