Assessing the UN Millennium Development Summit, which took place in New York in mid-September, recalls the proverbially half-full or half-empty glass: it's all in the eye of the beholder.

Anybody looking for new pledges would be disappointed by the Summit’s lengthy outcome document, especially on aid and trade where current commitments ended this year. On the other hand, it lists on one page the practices that have proven to work over the past decade and provides new impetus for governments and other partners to accelerate progress in the run up to 2015, when the MDGs are set to expire.

The IPU had lobbied governments to include a strong reference in the outcome document to the role of parliaments. However, in the final flurry of negotiations a well crafted proposal on the oversight and accountability role of parliaments was whittled down to a diminutive paragraph in which member states merely “acknowledge the role of national parliaments in furthering the achievement of the MDGs by 2015.”

Still, it is never a small accomplishment to get governments, including many which would normally prefer to do their business unchecked by the legislative branch, to admit that parliaments have a clear responsibility and must be seen as partners in the whole enterprise. The outcome document also contains several other references relevant to parliaments, such as the need for broadly owned national development strategies, which in most places must be vetted by the legislature. The fact of the matter is that in many countries government-drafted MDG reports are not tabled in parliament.

The point that parliaments have a key role in development was brought home by the number of MPs who attended the Summit as part of their national delegations, totalling over 100 by one estimate.  70 of them attended a briefing that the IPU organized together with the UN Millennium Campaign.

The centrepiece of that event was the launch of a new Analytical Study of Parliamentary Mechanisms for the MDGs, which looks carefully at how the MDGs are being integrated in the work of seven parliaments in Africa, Asia and Europe. The report sheds light on a question that has never been considered before, namely: is creating a specialized committee or caucus the best solution for a parliament that is serious about the MDGs? The answer is more nuanced than many might have thought. It depends on the specific institutional set-up, the political context, and available resources. The findings of the report will help inform the IPU’s own approach in its technical assistance to parliament in the next five years.

In addition to the briefing, the IPU’s presence at the Summit was marked by a statement by Secretary General Johnsson on behalf of the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament. The IPU was one of a handful of observer entities to be invited to address the Summit.