Proceedings of the DFID-DSA-EADI-actionaid policy forum

The main conclusions from the plenary sessions of the Policy Forum can be summarised as follows:

• focus must still remain on achieving the MDGs;
• developing country ownership of the new framework is essential and the approach must therefore be Southern-led;
• the obligations of the developed countries towards the achievement of the MDGs need clarification;
• international income and wealth redistribution should be a ‘right’ (‘automatic’ rather than discretionary), including international redistributive taxes and international inequality and its reduction should be given more emphasis;
• ethical and moral perspectives need emphasising within a global social justice, rather than a purely Indicator-driven, approach;
• ‘fragile’ states and global uncertainty need special treatment;
• the ‘quality’ of MDG achievements, rather than ‘quantity’, needs emphasising;
• the science and technology capacity of developing countries is critically important;
• processes which deliver the quantitative Indicators (MDGs) require more emphasis.

Serious research is needed to ensure the debate is well informed.