1. What is the Millennium Village Project?
The Millennium Villages concept was developed by scientists at the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the United Nations Millennium Project, under the leadership of Dr. Jeffrey Sachs. It is an integrated, community-level development strategy to end extreme rural poverty based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs – see below).
The Millennium Village Project works directly with communities, non-governmental organizations, and national governments. It utilizes targeted and comprehensive investments to address each of the MDGs using proven methodologies. The Millennium Village Project aims to establish a “proof of concept” for broad-based, community-led development strategies, and to show how rural African communities can lift themselves out of poverty and achieve the Goals, in a way that is sustainable and scalable.
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2. What are the Millennium Villages, and where are they?
The Millennium Villages started with12 research villages, supported by the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The initial 12 villages are located in 10 African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda), each in a distinct agro-ecological zone—arid or humid, highland or lowland, grain-producing or pastoral—to reflect the range of farming, water, and disease challenges facing the continent and to show how tailored strategies can overcome each of them. Furthermore, these villages are:
- Located in hunger “hotspots” where chronic hunger is widespread, often accompanied by a high prevalence of disease, lack of access to medical care, and a severe lack of infrastructure.
- Located in a reasonably peaceful nation governed by an accountable government
- Located in districts where NGOs or international donor organizations have been able to work successfully
Millennium Promise has coordinated efforts to scale up to a total of 78 villages, established in clusters around each of the initial 12 villages. The strategy behind this is to enable participating communities to benefit exponentially from a natural exchange of knowledge, benefits of trade, shared infrastructure, and hospitals; thus lowering costs and sharing investments when appropriate.
*Source: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/who/index.htm
*Source: http://www.millenniumpromise.org/site/PageServer?pagename=mv_building#02
*Source: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7098/full/442022a.html
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3. What are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of 8 goals and 18 targets agreed upon by all 191 member states of the United Nations in the UN Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000. These Goals include commitments to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; universal access to primary education; promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women; improvement in maternal and child health and reducing child mortality; environmental sustainability; halting and reversing the progression of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other major diseases; and establishing a global partnership for development.
For more information on the goals and specific targets: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/goals02.htm#goal1
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4. Where can I find information on the types of interventions used in the Millennium Villages?
The Millennium Villages model focuses on community-driven development and decision-making in the interventions that are implemented. A broad range of practical, proven, integrated, low-cost investments are provided under the scientific and technical guidance of the Millennium Promise Scientific Council, the UN Millennium Project, and The Earth Institute at Columbia University. These concepts are used in conjunction with local knowledge and needs in order to be appropriate and village-specific. Interventions are focused on eight targeted objectives related to: nutrition, agriculture, gender equality and education, gender equality and health, health, environment, water, and infrastructure. Information on specific interventions can be found at:
http://www.millenniumpromise.org/site/PageServer?pagename=mv_interventions
Examples of possible interventions:
- Develop and implement a school feeding program to provide safe, nutritious and quality meals for all children, including those in nursery schools, and provide an economic incentive for parents to send children, especially girls, to school
- Create gender-targeted extension services and training sessions, work with local women's groups to obtain women's approval for locations of all new infrastructure
- Train extension workers and farmers on crop and soil management practices that reduce soil erosion and prevent fertilizers and other agrochemicals from entering water systems
- Provide prevention and treatment interventions for malaria that include improved case management, intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for pregnant women, and providing long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLITNs) for every member of the village
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5. Is MVP another student group?
The Millennium Village Project is designed to be a campaign on campus, uniting existing student groups, students and faculty behind a common goal. Since our campuses already possess such a rich diversity of student groups that deal with issues related to poverty (international hunger groups, women’s rights groups, etc.), we hope to achieve greater solidarity for the eradication of extreme poverty through collaborative efforts.
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6. How did the UNC-Duke-Bennett MVP get started?
In a teleconference held by UNC Campus Y’s Health Focus Committee in September of 2005, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs challenged several UNC students to get their university involved in ending by extreme poverty by sponsoring a Millennium Village. Extending out from a core group of UNC students, students from Duke and Bennett have joined the partnership, creating an unprecedented alliance among three diverse institutions. Our campaign is a great demonstration of the universality of the desire to become engaged in issues related to extreme poverty.
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7. Why should universities be involved in this project?
Universities are an ideal setting for involvement in the MVP for several reasons. First of all, university communities are often springboards for discussion about extreme poverty and related issues, such as women’s rights, agriculture, public health, and environmental issues. Awareness of its underlying causes makes extreme poverty and its eradication more tangible.
Secondly, university communities offer an ideal forum for discussion and debate on addressing these causes. Drawing upon the experience and expertise of those within the university community, it is possible for us to provide innovative suggestions to improve the Millennium Village Project model, and act as a well-informed third-party to help keep the project accountable.
Finally, today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders. If today’s university students can gain a better grasp on what needs to be done to end extreme poverty, our society will be better suited to reach the goal of poverty eradication in years to come.
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8. How does UNC-Duke-Bennett plan on raising the $1.5 million to sponsor a Millennium Village? Are you expecting to raise it from just students? How long do we have to raise the money?
What students can uniquely contribute to this project is their excitement and innovation; we believe the money to fund the project will follow. It is our desire to unite students and student groups and ask them to contribute to this campaign by raising awareness about poverty eradication through creative, student-driven endeavors; hosting speakers and events on topics related to the MVPs; and making small, affordable monetary donations as possible.
It is our conviction that donors will feel compelled to complement these funds as an investment in our universities’ enthusiasm and commitment to ending extreme poverty. By empowering us to be involved in MVP now, donors are helping build a generation better suited to address international poverty issues.
Thus far we have raised $1 million in donations and stand-by guarantees, and our goal to raise the full amount by June 2008.
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9. What are the big events planned to raise money and awareness?
Please see our past events page for information on MVP Week held on the week of November 6th 2006, leading up to Jeffrey Sachs’ visit to UNC and Duke on November 10th 2006.
On March 30, 2007, an Academic Forum was held with Joel Negin.
Joining the Millennium Village Project Facebook group is another great way to stay informed of upcoming events.
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10. What village is the money going towards?
We will be sponsoring Marenyo, which is a village in the Sauri cluster in western Kenya, less than 50 miles from the border with Uganda.
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11. Can students visit the village?
One of the main goals of the MVP is to help initiate community-level development with as little outside influence as possible. As such, information in the form of videoconferences / video-lectures with people in the community, e-mails, pictures, and digital video will keep us up-to-date with the progress of the village with minimal intrusion.
An eight week student internship will be available for students from all three schools beginning Summer 2007.
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12. What steps is UNC-Duke-Bennett taking concerning accountability and transparency? What will UNC-Duke-Bennett’s role be after the money is raised?
Millennium Promise provides annual reports on the interventions taken in the village, as well as progress on each. We are currently working with Millennium Promise to get more comprehensive and frequent reporting.
Furthermore, Millennium Promise is in the process of creating the Soros Independent Advisory Group to perform third party oversight and reporting. The group will be comprised of staff from the Soros Foundation, staff from the Millennium Village Project, and staff associated with neither - these partners are scheduled to be announced mid-January.
We are also working on establishing contact via teleconferences and email with people working on the ground in Marenyo, as well developing relationships with students and faculty at Kenyan universities with whom our schools may already have partnerships. After the first five years, we hope that internet access to Marenyo will help better facilitate direct interactions with the villagers themselves.
In addition, we hope to take part in the Faculty Consortium, currently established at Columbia University, which involves faculty and students in assessing and suggesting improvements to the Millennium Village Project model, and provides opportunities for research in the Millennium Villages.
Finally, we hope to promote a greater academic dialogue on issues of extreme poverty through online and in-person forums, and perhaps an interdisciplinary course on development, connected with a travel abroad component visiting Marenyo.
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13. How can I help?
Email any of the MVP co-coordinators! Tell us what your interests are and how you would like to help, and we will make sure your information reaches the right person. If you are at UNC, email Catherine Soriano, at Duke email Emme Glenn or at Bennett email Sharrelle Barber.
Also, buying and wearing an MVP t-shirt or sweatband is a great way to spread awareness, and 100% of the proceeds go toward the $1.5 million being raised. Read through our website, attend MVP events, and, most importantly, get educated on the issues. You can read Jeff Sachs’ The End of Poverty, and a variety of other books and articles on international development, or check out the Millennium Promise, Earth Institute, and UN Millennium Project’s websites.
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14. How can my student group get involved?
If you are at UNC, please email Jaymin Patel and Mary Small. For more details on getting your group involved at Duke email Emme Glen. They will provide you several options so that your group can get as involved as it wishes, whether it be through a simple endorsement of the MVP or by putting on your own MVP-centered events. We are also more than willing to coordinate giving a presentation to your group on MVP.
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15. How can MVP get started on other campuses?
The UNC/Duke/Bennett MVP is a totally new, student-driven endeavor. We hope to create a model for other institutions to follow by the end of the year. For now, please contact any of the co-coordinators; we will help you get the appropriate contact at Millennium Promise, and proceed from there.
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16. What makes Millennium Villages unique? Hasn't this already been done before?
Millennium Villages offer a scalable model for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and fighting poverty. The approach is being expanded in stages, from the village community to the district level, to find best practices that can eventually be spread to countries across the African continent.
Importantly, the Millennium Villages approach differs from integrated rural development programs of the 1970s and 1980s, or traditional “model villages”, in several ways:
- The Millennium Village effort is explicitly linked to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It focuses on specific, measurable targets through an interconnected set of interventions covering food production, nutrition, education, health services, roads, energy, communications, water, sanitation, enterprise diversification and environmental management.
- The MVP model strongly emphasizes participatory community decision-making. For example, specific committees and community members within each village will identify and evaluate possible interventions, with support from a scientific team and local partners. Together they will create a package of village-specific interventions that are deemed most appropriate and cost-effective, and produce a community action plan for implementing and managing these interventions.
- The initiative uses scientifically proven techniques and modern technologies that have only recently become available, such as agroforestry, insecticide-treated malaria bed nets, antiretroviral drugs, internet access in rural areas, remote sensing, and geographic information systems.
- The Millennium Villages initiative is linked to authoritative bodies on the national level, to ensure accountability and that successes can be scaled-up by governments.
- Finally, the financial investment needed by each Millennium Village is in line with the commitments to global development made by wealthy countries, which make the model replicable on a global scale.
The per capita needs in each village are well within the target of 0.7% of rich countries' GNI in official development assistance, agreed at the 2002 Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development and reaffirmed at the 2005 World Summit. Similarly, the commitments made by the G8 countries at their 2005 Gleneagles Summit are consistent with the financing needs of the Millennium Villages, and EU countries have committed themselves to achieving the target of 0.16% by 2015.
*Source: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/who/index.htm
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17. How does the $1.5 million breakdown?
Exactly how the $1.5 million breaks down depends on the individual needs of the village, though Millennium Promise has provided some approximate values in order to give donors a better sense of their investment.
The interventions in each village can be financed at a total cost of $110 per person in the village, per year for five years. With support from village members, partner organizations, and governments, this total can be reached through a contribution of $50 per villager, per year from Millennium Promise donors such as UNC-Duke-Bennett MVP.
The Cost Of Saving Lives:
According to Millennium Promise, this money is then invested in interventions in the following proportions:
*Source: http://www.millenniumpromise.org/site/PageServer?pagename=mv_unlock
18. Who are the key actors involved in the Millennium Village?
The Communities:
For community members to become empowered, they themselves must give their time, skills, and resources to implementing the interventions. This, in turn, produces development that is both sustainable and self-sufficient.
Millennium Promise:
Millennium Promise is the non-profit organization that promotes the Millennium Village Project and aims to secure funding in support of its villages.
United Nations Development Programme:
The UNDP assists in coordinating efforts at the village and national levels and assists in the scalability of the project. UNDP works through policy proposals, design and implementation of the project, and on-the-ground operational support.
The Earth Institute at Columbia University:
The Earth Institute is providing scientific support and advising MVP in areas such as public health, nutrition, environment, education, energy, hydrology, environment, and agronomy. Its scientists will work with communities to tailor interventions and ensure accountability.
United Nations Millennium Project:
For smoother scalability, the UN Millennium Project will offer governmental support during the preparation and implementation of interventions, and will help spread best practices at the national level.
*Source: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/who/index.htm
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