National consultations took place between 10 December 2012 and 21 January 2013 as the second phase of the Commonwealth Perspectives project. The Commonwealth Foundation collaborated with 14 national partners to review civil society’s experiences of contributing to the Millennium Development Goals.
The Commonwealth Foundation, in partnership with the UN Millennium Campaign supported country-level research by civil society organisations to review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in 14 countries: Cameroon, Ghana, Grenada, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Pakistan, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Zambia.
The consultations validated and enhanced the findings of a series of preliminary national reports, which were then collated into a global report along with thematic articles exploring common issues emerging from the national research including possible key issues that could be considered at regional level. The global report was published in September 2013.
Where lessons can be drawn from the research, these will be captured as policy recommendations and disseminated to the wider development community for policy formulation and advocacy in the various global processes focusing on the post-MDG agenda and will be used at the country level to undertake national advocacy.
The Commonwealth Perspectives project has focused on reviewing national experiences of civil society involvement in MDG policy formulation, implementation and delivery, and monitoring. The research aimed to address four sets of questions: (1) civil society analysis on progress towards MDGs; (2) usefulness and opportunities of the MDG framework for CSOs; (3) contribution of CSOs to the MDGs attainment; and (4) key lessons learned from the MDG experience for the post-2015 development agenda.
