A new dynamic stage has been reached in the debate on social protection and cash transfer programs, both internationally and on the African scene.

These issues are likely to figure more prominently in connection with the on-going discussions about the new multilateral development goals beyond 2015.

In Africa the debate has also been influenced by the current dilemma: high economic growth rates in many African countries, but persistent poverty and widening income gaps.

Stronger African action at the political leadership levels is needed with increased willingness to embark on concrete programs in cooperation with civil society.

Aid agencies need to take a stronger interest in cash transfers as a means to fight poverty. Sweden has a legacy of being in the forefront regarding social protection systems.

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The DAC has been at the forefront of ‌development for decades, setting important standards and providing essential co-ordination of development assistance.

In this new, multi-polar world, there are many nations beyond the DAC that provide important development assistance – and the DAC must engage with them.

The DAC must intensify work with the rest of the OECD system, in particular on three key areas: 1) Taxation/domestic resource mobilisation, 2) Education – PISA; and 3) Environment, with a focus on green growth.

I want to ensure that the DAC fulfils its obligation to the poor in the new and challenging, but also fascinating and promising world of the 21st century.

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If protecting human rights could be translated into a single political action, the creation of comprehensive social protection schemes would be it. Yet many of the world’s poorer states have not adopted anything like a comprehensive social safety net.

States can no longer claim to believe in human rights protection while failing to invest in social protection, for the two are intimately linked. There are many ways and means of funding a decent social safety net – now we need the political will.

One obvious problem with the global proposal is the lack of discussion on how it could be funded. You would probably need to put together all the proposals for international taxation to pull it off.

What kind of political coalition is going to do that? Politically, doing an Alaska at national level looks a lot more realistic.

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As 2015 approaches, the results of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are being analysed. But many are already looking further, beyond the magic date of 2015.

Just over a week ago, the Pan-African Parliament hosted an African thematic consultation on Governance and the post-2015 Development Agenda in South Africa. It was a lively African driven debate, highlighting key African concerns and expectations for a new and more inclusive and sustainable global development framework.

Clearly, the African continent does not any longer want to undergo agendas that are designed elsewhere. Many Africans seem to be committed more than ever to reduce aid dependency and to build alliances for change with all types of new partners on their own terms.

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This January, two years away from the expiry of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the post 2015 agenda has already created a buzz in Monrovia and Johannesburg.

Last week ONE Africa launched a new post-2015 SMS and social media campaign called “You Choose”, which aims to engage Africans from all walks of life on what the new MDGs should focus on.

Unlike when the 2000 MDGs were created, the post-2015 MDGs process is seeking advice this time from citizens on what future MDGs should address when the current ones expire in 2015.

You Choose participants will have an option to join ONE so as to have opportunities to join the current campaigns ONE is running on improving health and agriculture investments in Africa.

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The European Report on Development 2013 aims at feeding into the debate about what development framework should replace the Millennium Development Goals after their expiry date in 2015.

The ERD team conducted case studies in Côte d’Ivoire and other countries to ensure that the report reflects various developing country experiences and perspectives with regard to the MDGs and beyond.

International support for the present government gives it external legitimacy, but can it gain full domestic legitimacy and will this lead them to promote economic development?

The recent history in Côte d’Ivoire underlines that commitments to MDG-like frameworks are not enough to encourage countries onto a developmental path, considering the political nature of the problem.

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The ‘absolute poverty line’ calculated by the World Bank from the mean of the national poverty lines for the poorest 15 countries is $1.25/day. A slightly higher line, $2/day, is the average of the national poverty lines for all developing countries.

To date, these lines have been accepted as the universal poverty metric, underpinning global goals such as the MDGs and discussions on how the world is doing in reducing poverty. But that is increasingly coming into question.

So what difference would it make if we instead counted the number of poor people in the world based on how poverty is defined in their own countries?

In Africa, poverty rates based on international lines are often much higher than national measures. Nationally-defined poverty would be more relevant for national policy-makers, for the involvement of other national actors, and for recognition that poverty exists everywhere and thus is a universal issue.

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When the international community now convenes again in Rio, they have to deal with a harsher reality than twenty and forty years ago. While global GDP has grown by 75% since 1992, the planet has never been under such massive pressure. Humanity is now facing its biggest threat so far, global warming.

In just 15 years’ time, global demand for natural resources has doubled, with the regeneration of renewable resources that humans consume in a year now taking 1.5 years. The UN report “A Future Worth Choosing” estimates that in 2030, the world will need at least 50% more food, 45% more energy, and 30% more water.

It is against this background of increasingly greater challenges in almost every environmental respect, that the Conference, popularly known as Rio +20, takes place. The prospect of achieving adequate and legally binding commitments to address environmental degradation is unlikely to be better today than on previous occasions.

World governments should now establish global sustainability goals on the model of the Millennium Development Goals (2000) for poverty reduction and development. An institutional condition is to upgrade the UN Environment Programme to a full UN body to ensure that commitments are fulfilled. The world has never needed it as much as today.

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There is a tremendous success story in Sub-Saharan Africa that has only barely been recognized. Infant and under-5 mortality has plummeted in many countries in the region in recent years.

One of the Millennium Development Goals is a two-thirds decline in U5MR between 1990 and 2015, which would require an annual decline of 4.4 percent per year.

In the 20 countries for which recent data is available, 12 show rates of decline above this ‘MDG rate’. In particular, Senegal, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana have experienced extremely large drops at a rate of more than 6 percent per year.

This does not necessarily indicate that any particular country will meet the MDG. But it does tell us that the African Renaissance is bringing tangible benefits to the continent’s citizens. Because of this miracle, hundreds of thousands of parents will be spared the agony of the loss of a child.

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The first Africa Human Development Report, was launched on May 15 in Nairobi. It was about time, especially given recent famine in the Horn and repeated threats of humanitarian food crises in the Sahel. The report focuses on food security – for a large number of Africans (some 220 million), hunger is a daily threat – and often one with permanent consequences.

The premise of the Africa HDR is simple: food security, through better nutrition, can improve education, health, productivity, and other important social and economic factors that allow people to have a good life.

Sub-Saharan Africa has not been able to turn improvements in human development into better nutrition indicators – especially compared to Asia’s progress in the last two decades. In sub-Saharan Africa the number of malnourished children increased by 55 million in the last 10 years.

The power structures that keep certain groups from accessing land or that bias public investment towards leaders’ constituencies must be clearly identified – and African governments, civil society, and other stakeholders will need to alter these power relations and give everyone a fair chance to avoid the perils of hunger and its negative consequences for human development.

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