Targeting Development

The Millennium Development Goals accepted by the UN in 2000 are, along with the targets set by the OECD in 1996 the subject of this expertly written book.
A global consensus has emerged that stresses that the objective of development is to end global poverty. This consensus is accompanied by a bold set of targets - global poverty to be halved by 2015, along with universal primary education, the removal of gender disparities in schooling, universal access to reproductive healthcare, specific reductions in infant, child and maternal mortality rates, and a reversal in the loss of environmental resources. These "International Development Targets" were first adopted by the OECD in 1996, and have been succeeded by the yet more widely endorsed "Millennium Development Goals" following from the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. The aim of this book is to provide a critical appraisal of these targets and the progress so far towards meeting them. The book consists of six introductory chapters on how and why the International Development Targets and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have become incorporated into development policy and what their overall value is. Each chapter in the second part analyses whether trends suggest the target can be reached. Contributors assess the main constraints that exist to achieving each of these target