Simon Maxwell on global poverty agenda: Old, yes, but still relevant

With two years to go before the Millennium Development Goals expire, vigorous discussions about a new set of targets are under way.

Should the followup set of targets resemble the MDGs or take a different approach, perhaps focusing more on governance, gender equality and universal health care?

Simon Maxwell, the well-respected economist, poverty reduction remains the main concern and should thus continue to top the global development agenda.

“Let’s continue working on poverty reduction,” Maxwell told Devex President Raj Kumar at the 2012 European Development Days. “It’s old but it’s not an irrelevant agenda.”

Stakeholders, though, should “keep an eye on the other agendas so we walk on two legs, not just one,” said Maxwell, who serves as a senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute, the U.K. think tank he once led.

Watch the conversation between Kumar and Maxwell, part of a series of interviews we video-taped with global development leaders in October in Brussels, Belgium.

Check out our complete coverage of European Development Days 2012.