This assessment of progress towards the MDGs in Grenada is meant to provide information on country progress on MDG achievement. The consultant was required to work closely with the Ministry of Finance in Grenada, the Millennium Development Goals National Committee (MDGNC) and the UNDP Barbados and the OECS SRO.
The research considered:
1.Review existing documents and policies in Grenada that will contribute to the production of this status report highlighting achievements, including good practices, and identify key bottlenecks and gaps as well as recommendations for specific responses to bottlenecks and gaps.
2.Conduct an assessment of the data availability concerning their suitability for MDG Monitoring quality, timeliness, coverage) and make recommendations in this respect. Where data is available, in addition to the standard MDG targets, the Caribbean-specific targets should be assessed.
3.Analyse progress towards the MDGs in light of the SIDS-specific context.
4. Incorporate a specific section for the 5-year review of the Mauritius Strategy for the Implementation of the Barbados Plan of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island States in September 2010.
Despite suffering a combination of setbacks from seemingly unrelenting environmental and economic shocks during the past decade, Grenada has achieved MDG 2 (education), is well on the way to achieving at least two additional MDGs-4 (child mortality) and 5 (maternal mortality), and is on track regarding Goal 7 (environmental sustainability).
Progress has been made on a number of targets for Goals 1 (hunger and poverty), 3 (gender equality and empowerment of women) and 6 (HIV and other major diseases).
However, the overall Goals are not likely to be achieved within the next 5 years due to a number of factors including the economic crisis with implications for spending in areas including social assistance and antiretrovirals (Goals 1 and 6). In addition, there are some underlying behavioural shifts required which usually occur over time to reduce gender inequality and stigma and discrimination (MDG 3 and 6).
On MDG 8 - some progress has been made at the country level however this will require significant effort within Grenada as well as from developed countries for broader success to be registered.