• In 2003, we were concerned that the First MDG was behind schedule. In order to invigorate progress, we launched a "Best Practices in Poverty Eradication" study to ask practitioners in the field what poverty eradication initiatives worked best for them, the lessons they had learned that would be of use to other NGOs, and advice they would have for policy makers. Our report, Best Practices in Poverty Eradiation: Case Studies from the Field can be found in English, Spanish and French at www.FranciscansInternational.org/resources/publications.php
• This year we surveyed our networks specifically on the MDGs, asking about recent trends in public policy, information or outreach by their governments on the MDGs, and what governments could do to promote citizen participation in accomplishing them.

With this background, I would like to give you examples of how Civil Society can partner with Governments and those who live in poverty to achieve the MDGs, sometimes using the words of the people themselves.

Goals of Study
The NGO Sub Committee for the Eradication of Poverty wanted to

• Energize the MDG of halving poverty
• Learn range of poverty reduction strategies
• Be a catalysts for creative thought and action
• Increase the efficacy of projects
• Connect service providers to policy makers, to have their ideas written into policy.

When we asked our networks for "best practices," we defined them as successful projects that improved living conditions, quality of life or the environment that were innovative, and sustainable. We also asked that they be able to serve as a catalyst for new ideas, to be replicated and to contribute to policy development.

Our respondents, equally from Asia, Africa and Latin America with a smaller number from the North, showed us that poverty is multifaceted, complex and embedded: "They provide micro loans with the thought that you merely have to put more money in the hands of a person and all is resolved." Nicaragua

"Problems of poor people do not depend on one aspect only (infrastructure, education, health care, production, etc.) but poverty is a result of a lack of all these elements at once" Bolivia

While we asked for examples of projects that targeted poverty, they addressed the other MDGs as well:

• Access to clean water
• Primary education, as well as higher education for indigenous youth
• Women's empowerment
• Job creation and youth employment
• Children orphaned by AIDS
• Improve the lives of those who live in slums
• Health care and child nutrition
• Sustainable agriculture, water harvesting, etc.
• Our project was a creative example of another MDG: "To develop strong partnerships with the private sector and with civil society organizations in pursuit of development and poverty eradication."

Time and again they stressed that cooperation is essential for effectiveness and creativity, and that people who live in conditions of poverty must be involved in program development:

"There is no place in the world where people are too poor to organize their own community development. The indispensable condition is that they themselves create their projects, adapt them to their needs, capacities, wishes and their own vision."

If they can make the dream of obtaining access to safe water a reality together, they might dare to dream of creating a cooperative for the wool products, or of installing latrines, or of any number of development efforts to improve their lives, and regain their sense of human dignity." Bolivia

They stressed that participation and inclusion must be priorities. They advised governments to identify groups in civil society who

• listen to the people, especially the voices of women and those not educated.
• Are NGOs "closer to the heartbeat of the people." Bolivia
• Understand the meaning of poverty in that specific area.

They asked us to take care to involve those traditionally excluded, being sure to Include those living in most extreme poverty from the beginning, or they will seldom be brought in later.
"Get the support of men if you would like their women to be involved in the program." Nepal A Latin American practitioner suggested, "Mandate that at least one woman be on the planning committee."

"A more important place should be given women whose essential role cannot be denied in the development and quality of family life, community life, and that of a nation and even the whole mankind." Madagascar

We were faced with the reality that poverty is by and large a women's issue. Two thirds of our survey returns came from rural areas and half of those were programs involving women. Local NGOs have invested their energy, time and resources with this social group, understanding that rural women have a great role to play in poverty eradication. Capitalizing on the collective strength of rural women would be an effective strategy for governments, as it is for NGOs.

This would mean providing rural women with the needed infrastructures for water, energy, basic health care, easy access to micro-credits, adult literacy programs, training for capacity building and transfer of useful technology—in short, the needed infrastructure for the MDGs. Rural women should be included in the planning, implementation and monitoring of every project and program governments undertake on their behalf and on behalf of their communities.

Our respondents also cautioned us that economics, politics and policy must go hand in hand. NGOs should encourage governments to

• Incorporate lessons learned from best practices and model projects into legislative policy at national and local levels.
• Recognize that poverty eradication is impossible in areas of insecurity and conflict.
• Hold dysfunctional government institutions accountable.
• Create a priority setting process for development spending based on input from local people, including women.
• Become more transparent at all levels to help build confidence in political system.
• Empower women to improve quality of life for the family, the community and the nation.

Cautions of Participants
Our participants cautioned us:

• "If the project is too small, it will fail. If it gains a market, it will have to face international competition that tries to eliminate it from the market. ...There has to be a very solid leadership team to oversee the marketing—one that is very aggressive and can successfully take on the current challenges in the world market."
• "Poverty reduction programs will become successful when there is political will among politically educated and sensitized people." India

The primacy of local community relationships and participation was stressed repeatedly. On a cautionary note, some seemed to imply that NGOs and government officials were not always cooperative partners in working toward poverty eradication: we noted mistrust, aloofness, and corruption as obstacles. Many other surveys made concrete suggestions as to how NGOs and governments could facilitate and support each other as they work to pursue their common goals.

Governments were encouraged to partner with NGOs,

• to share relevant information regarding rural development goals, projects, assets and problems with NGOs,
• to involve local NGOs in planning programs,
• to tap the expertise of NGOs and
• to include them in monitoring, evaluating and analyzing rural development projects.

The importance of education was highlighted in all its aspects: for self-respect; for job training; for sustainable development; for community empowerment; for family improvement; for capacity building;for specific knowledge; for technological literacy, etc. And NGOs provided both formal and informal education in a variety of ways, once again providing local inspiration and creativity to solve a global problem.

As one told us, "Education is the key to more justice in the world. The untapped excellence of the poor is being wasted in the need to survive."

While our survey questions focused on individual poverty eradication projects, respondents also noted how international financial institutions (IFIs) affected development initiatives.

They pointed out a lack of coherence in policies of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, Heavily Indebted Poor Country initiatives, etc. They were particularly concerned with

• pressure on developing nations to cut essential development projects or social services in order to service unsustainable debts,
• trade subsidies that protect northern agribusiness at the expense of farmers in developing nations, and
• the need for "good leadership to face the negative aspects of the actual world markets."

While macro policies, especially of the IFIs, have helped to improve the overall economies of some of the developing countries, they have not helped those who live in the poorest conditions in those countries to get out of poverty. An integrated approach to development, both at the state/national and international levels, must have macro and micro development policies that work in unison.

They noted that globalization presents particular challenge, and advised that NGOs can help create the political will to

• Provide outright foreign debt relief with social controls to poorest countries.
• Evaluate structural adjustment policies, WTO rules, free trade agreements, HIPC programs and IMF policy for internal consistency and their impacts on poverty reduction goals.
• Recognize that village life is affected by globalization, making families and communities less able to meet traditional responsibilities.

In addition to specific ways that civil society can help meet individual MDGs, our second survey on the MDGs themselves stressed

• the need to spread awareness that governments have signed on to support the MDGs,
• the importance of supporting the UN itself.

Bertrand Ramcharan, Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, "most societies have the means to eradicate extreme poverty. The issue is therefore not one of resources primarily, but of governance and of will. Every country should have an anti-poverty strategy grounded in universal human rights."

While the heads of state agreed on what needed to be done, and committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals, each country must now develop a plan of action to achieve them. And it is up to us to monitor our country's commitments and to, in UN language, help "create the political will" to ensure that they happen. We who live in the north – the developed world—must see that that governments who promised .75% of their GDP for development assistance do so, and that the US lives up to its commitments to fully fund the Millennium Challenge Account.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

On July 1, 2004, Mary Ann Glendon, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences told the U.N. Economic and Social Council's 2004 High Level Segment, "For the first time in history, we may even be within reach of setting conditions for every girl and boy to develop her or his full human potential. But, the key to the prison gates cannot be turned by one party alone." The head of the Holy See's delegation observed, "What is needed is a change of heart, that the international community may be ever bolder, more generous, more creative, more energetic in its struggle to finally end the division of the world into areas of poverty and plenty."

• In conclusion, probably our most important role is to help create that Political Will so that governments, NGOs, international financial institutions and the UN will join with individuals to do just that—to create a world in which "The untapped excellence of the poor is [no longer] being wasted in the need to survive," but working together we can make our Millennium Development Dreams a reality.