Global development goals (GDGs) and the international HIV response: a chance for renewal
As the deadline to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, it is apparent that many of the objectives set out in the year 2000 will not be met. It took ten years of political bargaining to devise and agree to the MDG framework and this consideration alone provides a distinct sense of urgency if any post-2015 agreement is to be achieved. In much of Southern and East Africa, the AIDS epidemic has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks to achieving the MDGs. Partly, this is because of the well-documented interconnectedness of the goals: our failure to achieve MDG 6 (to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) has limited the progress on most other objectives, and vice versa. In addition, these linkages have brought into question both the effectiveness of the AIDS response, and the issue of “AIDS exceptionalism”. As we look ahead, these are the sorts of questions that policy-makers will have to grapple with as they develop a new set of Global Development Goals. This book chapter explores the following areas: 1) negotiating a new set of goals; 2) linking the global HIV response to the post-2015 development agenda; 3) reforming the current MDG framework; 4) creating a role for successful interventions and policies; 5) adopting a “life cycle” approach; 6) key considerations for moving forward; 7) building a framework from the bottom up; 8) generating synergies between different objectives; 9) developing a holistic rather than a reductionist development framework; 10) updating the framework to better reflect reality; and finally, 11) maintaining the parsimony of the current framework. Although some fear that discussing post-2015 arrangement may derail the momentum to meet current goals, such conversations are both pressing and necessary. This chapter highlighted some of the critical areas to consider when developing a new set of GDGs.