For Environment and Governance, More of the Same

Despite the innovative aspects of the MDG approach, the treatment of the environment and governance in the MDGs harkens back to old, outmoded ways of thinking. The environment is seen as an add-on rather than the essential foundation of all human well-being and economic production. From an operational perspective, environmental sustainability is more of an afterthought than a cross-cutting concept that provides a point of orientation for all of the MDGs.

The seventh of the eight MDGs commits nations to “ensure environmental sustainability,” but this vaguely worded goal does little to focus the attention of the world on the central role of the environment in supporting pro-poor economic growth. As currently stated, Millennium Development Goal 7 (MDG-7) may actually be doing more harm than good by making it difficult for nations to perceive, much less act on, crucially important links between poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. Many believe that environmental issues have in fact lost ground in international development circles in the past decade or so, precisely because of the difficulty in pinning down the concept of environmental sustainability in a way that governments can understand and put to use in decision-making. In its current construction, MDG-7 only exacerbates this dilemma.