Millennium Villages Project
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The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) was a demonstration project of the
Earth Institute {{Infobox organization , name = The Earth Institute , image = Ei blue1.gif , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , map2 = , type = , tax_id ...
at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, the
United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
, and Millennium Promise aimed at proving that its integrated approach to rural development can be used to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenn ...
—eight globally endorsed targets that address the problems of poverty, health, gender equality, and disease—by 2015. Even though the website of the Millennium Village Project is still active, the project ended with final evaluation in 2015 because it was initially scaled to progress for a decade from 2005. The project was divided into two phases, from 2004-2010 for the first phase and 2011-2015 for the second phase. In the first phase, the project was focused at the following five stations: agriculture (seed and fertilizer support, farmer training and storage expansion, crop diversification, etc.), health (installation of mosquito nets, vaccine supply and pest control, etc.), education (Construction of schools, installation of water supply, etc.), infrastructure (sanitation, roads, etc.), business development (micro-credit, cooperative training, etc.). The main focus in the second phase of the MVP was to successfully enhance, strengthen, and complete the programs that started in Phase 1. By improving access to clean water, primary education, basic health care,
sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation syste ...
, and other science-based interventions such as improved seeds and fertilizer, Millennium Villages aimed to ensure that communities living in extreme poverty have a real, sustainable opportunity to lift themselves out of the
poverty trap In economics, a cycle of poverty or poverty trap is caused by self-reinforcing mechanisms that cause poverty, once it exists, to persist unless there is outside intervention. It can persist across generations, and when applied to developing count ...
. The first Millennium village was launched in 2005 in Sauri, Kenya. "This is a village that’s going to make history," is how Millennium Villages founder
Jeffrey Sachs Jeffrey David Sachs () (born 5 November 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work ...
described Sauri in ''The Diary of Angelina Jolie and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa'', a 2005 MTV documentary. "It’s a village that’s going to end extreme poverty." Millennium Villages are divided into different types. There are the original core villages which include different agro-ecological zones covering 14 sites in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including: Sauri and Dertu,
Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...
; Koraro,
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
; Mbola,
Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
; Ruhiira,
Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
; Mayange, Rwanda; Mwandama and Gumulira,
Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeas ...
; Pampaida and Ikaram,
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
; Potou,
Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
; Tiby and Toya,
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...
and Bonsaaso,
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
. There are additional Millennium Villages which are following the Millennium Village program but which are not directly supported through The Earth Institute at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. These additional villages are located in Liberia, Cambodia, Jordan, Mozambique, Haiti, Cameroon and Benin. The project was originally funded through a combination of World Bank loans and private contributions, including $50 million from
George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...
. Initially designed with a timeline of five years, the project was extended to ten years to allow more time to reach the intended goals. In her 2013 book about the project, ''The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty'', journalist
Nina Munk Nina Munk (born 1967) is a Canadian-American journalist and non-fiction author. She is a contributing editor at ''Vanity Fair'', and the author or co-author of four books, including ''The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty'' and ' ...
quotes
Sachs Sachs is a German surname, meaning "man from Saxony". Sachs is a common surname among Ashkenazi Jews from Saxony, in the United States sometimes adopted in the variant Zaks, supposedly in reference to the Hebrew phrase ''Zera Kodesh Shemo'' (ZaKS), ...
saying: "The main thing is to add another block of time to really get the income levels significantly raised."


Expansion

In 2012, the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) committed $18.1m (£11.5m) over five years to fund a new Millennium Village in Ghana. On 13 August 2013, the Islamic Development Bank and the Earth Institute at Columbia University announced the expansion of an earlier partnership to work with African nations to support their efforts to end extreme poverty. Part of that partnership involved the Islamic Development Bank providing $104 million in interest-free loans to 8 countries towards ending extreme poverty, improving public health, and achieve more sustainable development. Of that sum, $29 million was to be used to scale-ups of the Millennium Villages Project in Mali, Senegal and Uganda. In July 2013, the Ugandan government announced it would scale up the Millennium Villages Project in the original region around the Ruhiira Millennium Village through $US 9.75 million of funding from the Islamic Development Bank. However, the promised scale-up has not yet taken place. In September 2013, the Rwandan government and the Millennium Villages Project announced a partnership to scale-up certain aspects of the Millennium Village approach, as part of Rwanda's Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme which addresses poverty nationwide. The Millennium Villages Project has provided lessons and techniques for Nigeria's development programs designed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.


Guiding Principles

* Promote sustainable, scalable, community-led progress toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals through the use of scientifically validated interventions—one village at a time * Ensure African ownership of the Millennium Development Goals, and work in partnership with African governments and regional groups * Increase capacity and community empowerment in Africa through training and knowledge sharing with local African governments,
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s, and village communities. * Partner with the public and private sectors, innovative NGOs, universities and leading experts, and the international donor community throughout Africa and the world to continually improve and coordinate development strategies. * Transform rural sub-subsistence farming economies into small-scale enterprise development economies and promote diversified entrepreneurs


Financing

The Government of Japan (through its Human Security Trust Fund) and private philanthropic donors (through the Earth Institute at Columbia University) provided the financing for the first set of Millennium Villages, reaching some 60,000 people. A core aspect of the Millennium Villages is that the poverty-ending investments in agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure can be financed by donors at an incremental cost of just $60 per villager per year—$250,000 per village per year. The overhead costs of managing the project in each village is $50,000 per year. On a per-person basis, the total village cost of $120 per person includes: *$60 Donor funding through the Millennium Village program *$30 Local and national governments (this is most likely to include funding for interventions themselves and the provision of agricultural and health extension workers in the villages) *$20 Partner organizations (e.g., existing programs supported by official bilateral donors) and in-kind corporate giving (for example, Sumitomo Chemical Corporation recently agreed to donate insecticide-treated bednets for the Millennium Villages) *$10 Village members, typically through in-kind contributions of their time and expertise Critically, the external financing needs of $70 per capita are in line with the financial commitments made by the leaders of industrialized countries at the 2005 Summit in Gleneagles. G8 countries promised to raise their development assistance to Africa to the equivalent of $70 per capita by 2010.


Prospects for increasing village-based interventions

In a review of the project undertaken by the
Overseas Development Institute ODI (formerly the 'Overseas Development Institute') is a global affairs think tank, founded in 1960. Its mission is "to inspire people to act on injustice and inequality through collaborative research and ideas that matter for people and the ...
(ODI) crop yield increases of 85-350% were recorded as well as reductions in malaria incidence of over 50%. While agricultural surpluses are able to be channelled into school meals programmes, helping to increase enrolment, improvements in health status are reported to increase labour productivity. According to ODI policy conclusions, in order for wider scale, more sustainable implementation to be achieved, village projects need to identify shared goals, seeking evidence-based, cost-effective interventions by governments and implementing agencies. They will also need to focus on addressing upstream investments such as training facilities for front-line staff.


Critics

When compared to the Ekwendeni village of the Soils, Food and Healthy Communities (SFHC), the Millennium Villages obtain only similar achievements at far greater expense. This is a result of the Millennium Villages' use of artificial fertilizers and hybrids seeds (often of plants such as corn, which are not indigenous to the area). SFHC, on the other hand, uses diverse legume crops to improve
soil health Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong ...
: "The SFHC research project attempts to improve child nutritional status, household food security and soil fertility through use of different legume options which can improve the quality and quantity of food available within the household as well as provide organic inputs to improve soil fertility." According to Rachel Bezner Kerr, use of fertilizers and genetically modified seeds leads to dependence of the farmers on expensive products being marketed by large industrial companies. By contrast, the use of crop diversity to improve soil health is a low cost, and thus far more sustainable, solution. Note this comparison is only to one component of the Millennium Villages Project which works in many different sectors including agriculture, education, health, infrastructure and business development. Journalist
Nina Munk Nina Munk (born 1967) is a Canadian-American journalist and non-fiction author. She is a contributing editor at ''Vanity Fair'', and the author or co-author of four books, including ''The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty'' and ' ...
followed the progress of a group of Millennium Villages for several years, and in her 2013 book ''The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty,'' she said a basic flaw of the Millennium Villages program is that it is developed by academics living far away from the subject areas and with a poor understanding of local cultures, who do things such as promoting growing maize among people who have not historically eaten it or building a short-lived livestock market when there was no local demand. But even in Ms. Munk's book teams of experts are described who are from the countries and regions who run the Millennium Villages on the ground. In addition, many notable academics and development experts who work for the project have a long history in working and living in Africa and other developing countries. The Millennium Villages describes itself as a community-led project that works with local leaders, regional officials and national governments in the decision-making process.


Evaluations

A rigorous evaluation of the MVP is impossible due to shortcomings in the project's evaluation design which include the "subjective choice of intervention sites, the subjective choice of comparison sites, the lack of baseline data on comparison sites, the small sample size, and the short time horizon". A self-published assessment comparing villages three years into the project to how they were initially estimated large impacts on health, agricultural yield, and a variety of other measures. As some of this may have been due to regional improvements unrelated to the MVP, an independent evaluation comparing the MV to surrounding areas finds the effects are much more modest. An additional independent evaluation found that while agricultural productivity increased, final household income was not increased by the MVP. In 2012, the MVP published an assessment in the Lancet showing "reductions in poverty, food insecurity, stunting, and malaria parasitaemia". Objections were raised to some of the conclusions in the assessment, and the authors were forced to correct them subsequently: calculations of the under-5 child mortality rate were flawed and withdrawn as the rate appears to have improved less in the MVP sites than in the surrounding regions.


See also

* Millennium Communities Programme *
Jeffrey Sachs Jeffrey David Sachs () (born 5 November 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work ...
* Pedro Sanchez


Footnotes


References

* *
Nina Munk Nina Munk (born 1967) is a Canadian-American journalist and non-fiction author. She is a contributing editor at ''Vanity Fair'', and the author or co-author of four books, including ''The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty'' and ' ...
. ''The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty''. ( Doubleday, 2013. )


External links


Official WebsiteOfficial UN WebsiteOfficial Columbia University WebsiteReview of the Millennium Villages Project
carried out by the
Overseas Development Institute ODI (formerly the 'Overseas Development Institute') is a global affairs think tank, founded in 1960. Its mission is "to inspire people to act on injustice and inequality through collaborative research and ideas that matter for people and the ...
(ODI), 2008 {{Use dmy dates, date=March 2018 Columbia University Sustainability organizations Millennium Development Goals