Obama’s speech at the Summit 2010 on MDGs

1. First, we’re changing how we define development. For too long, we’ve measured our efforts by the dollars we spent and the food and medicines that we delivered. But aid alone is not development. Development is helping nations to actually develop — moving from poverty to prosperity.

2. Second, we are changing how we view the ultimate goal of development. Our focus on assistance has saved lives in the short term, but it hasn’t always improved those societies over the long term. Consider the millions of people who have relied on food assistance for decades. That’s not development, that’s dependence, and it’s a cycle we need to break. Instead of just managing poverty, we have to offer nations and peoples a path out of poverty. But the purpose of development — what’s needed most right now — is creating the conditions where assistance is no longer needed. So we will seek partners who want to build their own capacity to provide for their people. We will seek development that is sustainable.
3. The third pillar is demanding greater responsibility — from ourselves and from others. We insist on mutual accountability.Development rooted in shared responsibility, mutual accountability and, most of all, concrete results that pull communities and countries from poverty to prosperity. Guided by the evidence, we will invest in programs that work; we’ll end those that don’t. We need to be big-hearted but also hard-headed in our approach to development.
Let’s move beyond the old, narrow debate over how much money we’re spending, and instead let’s focus on results — whether we’re actually making improvements in people’s lives.

These are the elements of America’s new approach. This is the work that we can do together. And this can be our plan — not simply for meeting our Millennium Development Goals, but for exceeding them, and then sustaining them for generations to come.

Read the Obama’s speech

Read other opinions, how National Governments can contribute to MDGs expressed at the same Summit of New York

by Vrinda Dar