Millennium Development Goals

Adopted at a global summit in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent a global compact between rich and poor countries to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people. All 191 UN member states agreed to pursue goals that include reducing extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, and reducing infant mortality. But as member states meet to assess progress toward the goals, the U.S. is furiously back pedaling and there is growing concern that the goals’ idealism is setting the Millennium campaign up for failure. Recent CGD research provides a fresh perspective on the MDGs and the controversy that they have stirred among the richest countries:

• What’s Wrong with the MDGs (CGD Brief), by Michael Clemens and Todd Moss
• Ghost of 0.7%: Origins and Relevance of the International Aid Target, (Working Paper 68), by Todd Moss and Michael Clemens
• Reliving the '50s: The Big Push, Poverty Traps, and Takeoffs in Economic Development (Working Paper 65), by William Easterly
• The Long Walk to School: International Education Goals in Historical Perspective (Working Paper 37), By Michael Clemens

CGD and the Millennium Project

Several CGD Staff have staff have participated in the Millennium Project established by the UN Secretary-General in 2002 to develop a concrete action plan to speed progress towards the goals, including:

• CGD President Nancy Birdsall is one of three Coordinators of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality. The Coordinators led a Task Force of 26 education and gender experts in preparing reports and provided feedback on the overall report of the Millennium Project.
• CGD played a key role in the preparation of the Millennium Project's education report, Toward Universal Primary Education: Investments, Incentives, and Institutions, by Nancy Birdsall, Amina Ibrahim, and Ruth Levine.
• Steve Radelet, CGD Senior Fellow, is a member of the Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development.

Read the Development Gateway Special Report: Aid Harmonization - What Will it Take to Reach the Millennium Development Goals? for a recent analysis of the MDGs by the Development Gateway.