Really High Level Post MDG Engagement

There is no bigger international development policy making process, debate and decision over the coming 3 to 5 years than what replaces the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2015 on.

Since the MDGs were adopted in 1990 the world has gone through a personal, social, national and global media revolution of a scale that even McLuhan would fail to comprehend, let alone predict! But in outlining the strategy for deciding what would replace the MDGs, it was as though that media and communication transformation had never happened. The replacing of the MDGs will essentially be done by a "High-level Panel of Eminent Persons" chaired by 2 Presidents and a Prime Minister.

Really! This is not 1990! Now, there are billions of people wired into each other, including many people who are directly experiencing the development issues that are of most concern to them and to the UN. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a bunch of other global online social networks engage hundreds of millions on a daily basis. Terrabytes of data can be gathered, analysed and distilled in the time it takes a UN gavel to rise and fall. The news from thousands and thousands of media outlets can be reached, collated, reorganised, and key themes and issues highlighted, well before the opening para of a UN report is complete. And then there is the mobile phone, cell phone, PDA - call it whatever you want. Many countries, including a growing number of non-OECD nations, have 100% plus "penetration" - as they call it. 

There is massive capacity to engage large numbers of people, including, most importantly, the people directly experiencing the issues that so many of us just observe, support and comment upon. They can be engaged with their analysis and ideas. They can be a central part of the debate and dialogue re "what next" after the MDGs. People directly affected can be part of the organising process for this debate, dialogue and decision. 

Likewise, those involved in local, national and international development action can be engaged. If you have started and run a local NGO working on X issue in eastern Zambia, then you have a very valid and important voice that should be part of the dialogue around the "what comes after the MDGs" question. Or if you are a UN staff person knee deep in emergency issues in a conflict zone, then we can all bet that you have some very sharp and pointed inputs to that dialogue.

I doubt very much that a "High-level Panel of Eminent Persons" will go this route. Sure, there will be some lip service - a Facebook page probably, maybe a Twitter feed, a survey perhaps, and some online discussions. But that is nowhere near the richness of engagement, the tapestry of analysis, and the depth of engagement that would be possible with an approach to this crucial policy debate and decision that can now be provided by the radically different media and communication environment that we experience today as compared to 1990.                           

The UN Secretary-General could have sent a very different signal as to the nature, scale and intent of this process by announcing a broad scale social media engagement strategy as a central part of the "what follows the MDGs" process.

Or maybe he could have just added the mobile phone as a 4th chair!