Community-Based Approach to Achieving the
Millennium Development Goals
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From International Goals to Local Results
The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is a community-based approach to achieving the MDGs informed by the recommended priorities of the United Nations Millennium Project (UNMP). These recommendations include specific MDG-based, costed, and science-based sectoral interventions that are underscored by investments in strengthened governance, human resources and capacity development. Many past rural development programs hindered their potential for success when local stakeholders did not participate adequately in the development process. A community-based approach is therefore essential for the success and sustainability of the MV project. This chapter outlines key concepts underpinning the MVP’s approach to these issues, drawing upon the project’s early lessons of implementation.
 

A community-based approach is embodied in the established and known principles of participation, social and gender inclusion, equity, and local stakeholders’ ownership of the decision-making and development process. These principles of participation and local ownership guide the implementation of UNMP recommendations. Because many UNMP recommendations are aligned with national scale achievement of
the MDGs, achieving the MDGs on a local level requires a community-based approach that "localizes" the MDGs. As UNDP has outlined, this entails targeted action at the local level that accounts for local needs and priorities, garners political commitment and local ownership, and strategically utilizes the most appropriate level of government in order to achieve the goals nationally and globally. Within the MVP community-based framework, the recommended UNMP policies are adapted to community level action within each country's institutional contexts from subvillage up to district levels.
 

This process of localizing the MDGs refers not only to making the goals relevant according to local realities, but also encompasses a partnership approach to achieving MDG-based strategies that enhances the capacity of communities to plan, act, participate in, monitor, and effectively manage the development process. The cross-cutting processes of capacity development, participation, and strengthening governance support these community level MDG-based strategies.