In November 2008, the Overseas Development Institute published its final report of an independent review of the Millennium Villages project (MVP). The report, Sustaining and Scaling-up the Millennium Villages: Moving from Rural Investments to National Development Plans to Reach the MDGs, highlights the opportunities, challenges and possible pathways to ensure the sustainability of Millennium Village interventions and the scaling-up of similar investments across Africa.

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Commissioned by the Open Society Institute, a major supporter of the MVP, the review was conducted in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda to represent different regions and agro-ecological zones in Africa. Highlights from the report include:

• There is considerable evidence of significant improvements at household and village levels in the health and agriculture sectors, as well as in a number of crosscutting domains.
• MVP-type interventions in rural economies in Africa are patently and urgently needed to achieve the MDGs and the efforts of the MVP are to be highly commended.
• As a testament to its early achievements, a number of governments have requested support to replicate such rural investments outside the present MVs. Moreover, additional countries have requested support to launch their own MVs.
• The interventions are valued highly by communities, and a number of low-cost interventions are being adopted and scaled up by districts.
• Increased yields, thanks to the use of subsidized fertilizers and improved seeds, an intensified agricultural extension system and improvements in natural resource management are particularly visible and spectacular. A more diverse range of crops are grown, contributing to improvements in nutrition and income.
• When governments want to emulate the MVP by making increased investments in basic development interventions at the village level, donors should support them.

The report concludes by stating that the MVP has achieved remarkable results and has demonstrated the impact of greater investment in evidence-based, low-cost interventions at the village level to make progress on the Millennium Development Goals.