¹The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations Development Programme. The usual disclaimers apply.

Abstract

Jan Vandemoortele in the face of the different views about the MDGs asks that we should not ask what we can do for the MDGs but what the MDGs can do for our cause – that is, the realization of fundamental economic and social rights. He suggests we can compensate for the slow start of the 1990s and still achieve the global targets by 2015. It is pessimism, scepticism and cynicism that are the three worst enemies of the global anti-poverty agenda. Its three best friends are the space to adapt and tailor global targets, an explicit focus on equity, and a quantum leap in imagination.