2005 is a pivotal year for those interested in seeing the achievement of the MDGs not least because a review of progress will take place at the UN Summit in September 2005. This paper introduces the ODI-APGOOD Meeting Series.
Support for a set of international development targets has become universal in the development community over the 1990s. Most recently donors reaffirmed their commitment to development in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Increasing the level of aid is required to help finance progress towards these goals. But how much is needed? Would a doubling of aid volumes ensure success?
The Millennium Development Goals have been the focus of global and national efforts on poverty reduction since 2000. Until the target date of 2015, attention will quite rightly focus on how to make the most progress possible before the deadline.
But then what? The MDGs were the product of at least ten years of discussion and deliberation. The international community needs to start thinking now about what happens on 1 January 2016, if the momentum and global focus on poverty that the MDGs have encouraged are to be maintained.