ABSTRACT
The previous chapter documented both the top-down and bottom-up epistemologies inhabiting the governance agenda in the global level discourse. It assigned the label of “dominant discourse” to the top-down and statecentric approaches, in that they were most coherently expressed and widely seen throughout the Human Development Reports. It assigned the label of minor discourses to the bottom up and more participatory approaches, in that they tended to be more weakly, vaguely expressed and easily dismissed. This chapter reprises our analysis of the global-level discourse. It examines how GDH are expressed in the Road Map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, henceforth referred to as the Millennium Road Map. This Map is meant to outline the practical strategies for implementing the Millennium Goals, and is the central document describing how global aspirations will be realized. What is explored below is the extent to which the strategies the Map advances tend to express the top-down, state-centric dominant discourse or the more participatory minor discourses. The chapter also details how coherently strategies are expressed.
The Millennium Declaration was meant to embody the central or core aspirations of the UN and related commitments made by its member states. It does not stand alone, however, but reflects and complements other global strategy documents such as the International Development Goals (IDG) and Human Development Reports. Nevertheless, the Millennium Declaration is the most recent system-wide guiding statement to which all agencies pledge commitment.1 As noted above, these global documents are not intended to
