19 September 2013: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) released a report highlighting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Acceleration Framework (MAF). ‘Accelerating Progress, Sustaining Results: The MDGs to 2015 and Beyond’ describes how over 50 countries have used the MAF to identify and analyze bottlenecks in MDG progress and develop action plans to target MDGs priorities.

The report uses examples of national action plans to address economic disparities, health and hunger to illustrates how the MAF works. The MAF is a flexible, systematic, four-step process that: identifies interventions to achieve MDG targets; identifies and prioritizes bottlenecks that hinder interventions; identifies high-impact, transformational solutions; and formulates action plans involving all development partners and stakeholders. Although each MAF focuses on one lagging MDG, countries can reapply the MAF to tackle additional off-track goals. For instance, Togo first used the MAF to address poverty, and then used it to address water and sanitation.

Action plans from Armenia, Cambodia, Colombia and Costa Rica focus on reducing economic disparities across regions and population groups through collaboration with the private sector during formulation and implementation. To address hunger, many African countries developed MAF plans that comprehensively address access, availability, stability and utilization dimensions, and integrate short and long-term measures. Maternal mortality plans identify poor service quality and cultural factors that prohibit women from seeking care as frequent bottlenecks. Countries also have used the MAF to address national priorities that go beyond the MDG themes, such as access to energy in Tajikistan and education quality in Tuvalu.

The report is aimed at helping to accelerate MDG progress and complete the unfinished business of the MDGs while facilitating smooth national transitions to the post-2015 development agenda. Proposed steps to hasten implementation of the post-2015 agenda include: securing political leadership and appropriate institutional ownership; learning from countries already advancing beyond the MDG agenda; building on MDG acceleration plans to simultaneously achieve sustainable development; and piloting and strengthening the use of data to guide implementation. [Publication: Accelerating Progress, Sustaining Results] [MAF Webpage]