In the year 2000 at the historic United Nations Millennium Summit Solomon Islands, together with 188 countries, pledged to the take part in the ambitious Millennium Development Goals project, setting the roadmap for developed and developing countries to work together and agree on a set of issues centred on poverty reduction, education, health and aid to developing countries. During the Summit, eight Millennium Development Goals were identified as the major challenges for the world at the opening of the new century, and the Millennium Development Goals clearly and concisely outlined the need to establish objectives crucial to support national development plans.

The present Millennium Development Goals Report is the second produced by the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) with the support of UNDP. The report is the result of three months of work entailing extensive consultations with the SIG, the donor community in Honiara, multilateral and bilateral organizations, civil society groups, NGOs and UN bodies, and provides the basis for a periodic review to monitor and evaluate where Solomon Islands stands in relation to its mission to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015. It is also meant to provide an overview of the challenges and priorities to address enhanced commitment towards the achievement of the MDGs. Since the first Solomon Islands Millennium Development Goals Report in 2004, the country has made considerable progress in most Goals, but at the same time there is ongoing awareness amongst both the donor community and SIG that much still needs to be done to achieve the set targets within the next five years. The first Millennium Development Goals Report was a timely contribution to policy making and direction for the country in attaining the Millennium Development Goals, and this second edition should help close the gap between the actual situation and the desired one. This report will revisit, outline and analyze constraints, bottlenecks and enabling conditions to shape an accelerated strategy for progress against specific indicators.

Furthermore, the publication of a second report, following six years of post conflict renewed stability, provides a significant platform for understanding and improvement over Solomon Islands’ advancement towards its development vision. While acknowledging achievements particularly in the health and education sectors, combined with ongoing support of development partners aligning to government priorities, this report looks at the commitments that the government and the donor community will need to take from now on.

In the past six years SIG has shown exceptional dedication towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, by both incorporating targets into its National Development Plan and by outlining strategies for achieving national development objectives. This strategy has allowed development partners to work closely together and align on mutual objectives, despite a perceived lack of leadership from the SIG.

It is relevant to emphasize that even while Solomon Islands has moved away from the internal conflict, it has been affected by a series of very abnormal years throughout the past decade, a result of the food crisis followed by an increase of commodity prices and by a global financial crisis in 2008. The attainment of the Millennium Development Goals has therefore been hampered by external factors. This document has been produced with the hope to raise awareness on the Millennium Development Goals in Solomon Islands as well as to draw a roadmap for the country to address targeted policies to fulfil its Millennium Development Goals commitments.