The Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG’s) self-imposed deadline runs out next year in 2015. There has never been a bigger collective global initiative for solving global poverty. We had 15 years to get it right. Progress has been patchy at best and would have been dreadful by most measures, were it not for significant progress being made by the welcome stand-outs of China and India. So what might the less successful countries learn from the more successful, in this respect? Einstein is credited with suggesting: ‘One definition of insanity is endlessly repeating the same process and expecting a different result’. By that definition, are we collectively planning to go insane after 2015?
The issue with the Millennium Development Goals was not the bold ambition, nor even the necessarily concise articulation, but ultimately the practical execution. We have produced a separate Research Paper looking in detail at latest global expert views on what actually causes poverty (contributory causes versus root cause) and what are its many and variously proposed solutions. Plus we compare and contrast our own unique integrated model view alongside them. Against that intellectual context (which has the benefit of hindsight) the MDG’s only ever sought to be a focused and partial solution to the wider backdrop of poverty challenges, but they are so high-profile, and so resource-hungry, that as solutions go (even partial ones), we will all benefit from understanding what went wrong – and what could do with going ‘righter’ next time. Assuming of course, something actually follows the MDG’s.
To increase our collective chances of getting it more right next time, it pays to understand poverty causes and poverty solutions at a more analytical level, a little better than we appeared to do last time around. That is where the 7 Layer Poverty Model and Systems Thinking come in. To that end, we have produced a paper in which we dissect the evidently complex subjects of poverty causes and solutions, using the analytical tool of Systems Thinking. It is an essential read for anyone considering what will replace the Millennium Development Goals after 2015. To download it, click on the link below.
A SYSTEMS THINKING APPROACH TO ANY MDG SUCCESSOR