For me, the most important of these is "Track development outcomes, not just dollars" - hopefully we'll get leaders talking about change in people's lives, not just how much money they're spending.

I find the focus on innovation and technology interesting, but I haven't yet read it in detail.

As I skimmed the 28 pages last night the things that stood out to me included:

* the four verbs used in the imperative strategy...
LEVERAGE,
INVEST,
TRACK,
ENHANCE
Each of these verbs were connected to inspiring, communitarian-oriented nouns...
INNOVATION,
SUSTAINABILITY,
OUTCOMES NOT JUST DOLLARS,
PRINCIPLE/PRACTICE OF MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY.

* I am impressed with the "feeling" of transparency and global cooperation the document has. It left me with a sense of newness.

* The emphasis on the fact that the "road ahead will likely be more difficult thant the road already traveled." (p. 7) This includes the document's emphasis on readying the world's poorest to meet not only current, but future "shocks."

* Realistic acknowledgement of the role and importance of our emphasis on girls/women worldwide.

* Exciting mention and emphasis on sustainability and mutual accountability. This is not just ANY document of political mumbo-jumbo. This is a document that accepts one nation's integral role in addressing a truly global issue.

Agree with Simon, better monitoring and evaluation is a must. While I'm all for leveraging innovation...(I admittedly had a skim of the document) ...I'd like to see more effort put into these programmes being on community vision and leadership as opposed to a prescriptive approach.

In terms of investing in sustainability, it would be good to see more investment into social enterprises that address MDGs.

Another brilliant example of a top-down plan that will have little or no impact 'on the ground'. Perhaps if we spent more time and money on effective programs that the communities ASK for, rather than high-level UN meetings and policy creation : we'd give ourselves a better chance at tackling the many challenges that poverty entails.

I'd question how 'holding leaders to account' is going to make a measurable difference in the lives of people who live in extreme poverty. How will this impact the thousands of women in Sierra Leone who die during childbirth?

A high-level UN meeting and seems to be a far cry from a third world hospital in West Africa.

I doubt Obama's plan to achieve the MDGs will work any better than the countless of top down plans that have come before it.

Time to cut the utopian crap and get real - let's focus on programs with specific measurable results. I want to see the REAL impact on the ground - not another policy that talks about it.

Hi Chantelle – thanks for your comments.
You’re right that all too often, these promises from leaders don’t lead to real changes in the lives of the world’s poorest.
But, real and lasting change is only possible if we see a change to the system that keeps people poor.
That means that we need to work from the top-down – as we’ve noted in this post, and from the bottom-up, as we’re regularly posting about.
Because when we get top-down interventions right, they can be absolutely transformative.
To give three examples:
1) PEPFAR was heralded across Africa because it funded grass-roots agencies to effectively scale up their programs and reach more people. We have seen countless examples of NGOs and community groups who say this funding approach as vitally needed and were encouraging of the PEPFAR program planners.
2) The Global Fund. The idea started at a G8 meeting, and with a huge amount of public support to hold leaders to account for their promises to the Global Fund, we’ve seen millions get onto live-saving HIV/AIDS drugs, and countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia halve their malaria count in the last five years.
3) Jubilee Debt Campaign. The Jubilee movement – which started in churches in the UK, and became a worldwide phenomenon has resulted in more than $100,000,000,000 in debt relief for the HIPC nations. Mozambique for example used this debt relief to build and electrify schools as well as provide essential vaccinations.
And, on the specific area you raised of maternal health, “holding leaders to account” in India through the White Ribbon Alliance has seen the provision of free maternal heath care for women in child-birth across multiple provinces.
Your proposed solution of “effective programs that the community ask for” is an important piece of the solution, but without the policy to tackle systemic challenges then long term development outcomes can be stifled. For example, if communities call for malaria bed nets, without a coordinated policy approach to tackling the disease then it will persist.
At the Global Poverty Project, we tell both sides of the story, and campaign actively to enable both bottom-up and top-down interventions to work better.