Reconnecting the MDGs to the development agenda:A four-pronged approach

The MDGs have succeeded in including measures of poverty and human development in the international cooperation agenda and making a strong case for increased development assistance. However, the accompanying policy approach has been framed in terms of “human deprivation”, leaving the development challenge to be fashioned by more conventional economic thinking. The fundamental problem with this division of labour is not so much the lack of economic goals in the MDG framework as the lack of a more inclusive strategy of economic development that could integrate and support its “human development” ambitions. This policy brief highlights some key issues around which a more inclusive strategy needs to build in the run-up to 2015 and beyond.