The United Nations Millennium Declaration embodies an agreement that developing countries will work to maintain sound economies, to ensure their own development and to address human and social needs. Developed countries, in turn, agree to support poorer countries through aid, trade and debt relief. A meaningful partnership between rich and poor countries must also address developing countries’ need for technology, medicines and jobs for their populations, particularly for the growing ranks of young people.

The MDG financing gap for all low-income countries will amount to $73 billion in 2006 and rise to $135 billion by 2015. Thanks to rising domestic resource mobilisation, the share of official development assistance in financing incremental investments (that is, the MDG financing gap) will fall from 59 percent in 2006 to 32 percent by 2015. Many countries—particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa—will require sustained budget support of more than 10 percent of GDP through 2015. The map underscores that because of rising incomes several countries, Bolivia, India, and Indonesia among them, will graduate from the need for official development assistance before 2015.

The aid delivery mechanism need to be improved for reforming the multistakeholder partnership goal.

Recommendations for reforming development partnerships

Shortcoming	Recommendation
Purpose and process Aid processes are not MDG-based	Development partners should affirm the MDGs as the operational objective of the development system, with country-level MDG-based poverty reduction strategies as the anchoring process for development support, based on needs.
Support strategies are inadequately differentiated by country need	Development partners should differentiate support by country needs, whether for budget support, emergency assistance, or simply technical support.
Development is a longterm process, but short-run processes dominate	Development partners should support countries to put forward 3- to 5-year MDG-based poverty reduction strategies that are anchored in a 10-year needsbased framework through 2015. In confict countries, a shorter time frame may be more appropriate.
Technical support Technical support is not adequate for scaling up to the MDGs	Technical support should focus on supporting governments to develop and implement nationally owned MDG-based poverty reduction strategies.
Multilateral agencies are inadequately coordinated	The UN Resident Coordinator system should be dramatically strengthened to coordinate agencies’ technical contributions to the MDG-based poverty reduction strategies.
Development finance Development finance is not needs-based or set to meet the MDGs	ODA should be set by the MDG .nancing gaps outlined in the MDG-based poverty reduction strategies. For many well governed low-income countries, this will imply a substantial increase in ODA and funding of recurrent costs.
Debt relief is not aligned with the MDGs	“Debt sustainability,” particularly Paris Club debt, should be evaluated as the debt level consistent with countries achieving the MDGs.
Development finance is of very poor quality	This will imply a dramatic acceleration of debt relief for many heavily indebted countries.
System issues Major MDG priorities are systematically overlooked	For well governed countries, a much larger share of ODA should take the form of budget support. For all developing countries, donor agencies should also follow through on their commitments outlined in the Rome harmonisation agenda.
Donor countries show a persistent lack of coherence in their policies	Within the needs-based approach to development assistance, development partners should increase attention to issues like long-term scienti.c capacities, environmental conservation, regional integration, sexual and reproductive health, and cross-border infrastructure. Donors should evaluate their development, finance, foreign, and trade policies for coherence with respect to supporting the MDGs. Donors should subject themselves to at least the same standards of transparency as they expect of developing countries, with independent technical reviews.