A wasted exercise or the most successful global anti-poverty push in history?
Just ask a Syrian refugee, a sex worker in India’s slums or a Rwandan small-holder farmer about the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. You will find that, despite some notable successes, the international community will fall far, far short of achieving these eight objectives by 2015.
MDG enthusiasts may blame the international community’s halfhearted financial commitment. Others believe that aid flooding into the developing world has undermined accountability and economic growth. But we’ve heard these criticisms before. They have been debated throughout the nonprofit sector since the 189 U.N. member states and 21 international organizations launched the MDGs initiative back in 2000. If we want to answer this question — why did we fail to realize these eight targets — we’re going to have to abandon these taglines and stump speeches. We’re going to have to be honest with ourselves.
About the author
Jacob Lief
Jacob Lief is the Founder and CEO of Ubuntu Education Fund, a non-profit organization that takes vulnerable children in the townships of Port Elizabeth, South Africa from cradle to career. Ubuntu's child-centred approach highlights the difference between merely touching a child's life versus fundamentally changing it. In 2009, Jacob was selected as an Aspen Institute Global Fellow and, in 2010, he was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.
