The report highlights the importance of social protection measures in the Millennium Development Goals agenda. It also stresses that social protection measures designed, implemented and evaluated within the framework of a rights-based approach are more likely to ensure the achievement of the Goals and to result in long-term improvements. In addition, the report argues that the use of a rights-based approach to social protection can maximize synergies across the Millennium Development Goals and have greater effect in terms of reducing extreme poverty and inequality. The UN independent expert outlines the main features of a rights-based approach to social protection. She pays particular attention to gender related concerns as one of the core components of such an approach. The report calls on States to devote increased attention to the issue of gender equality while designing, implementing and evaluating social protection programmes within a human rights framework.

This publication sets out a human rights approach to the MDGs,... primarily to outline a clean analysis for the development sector, indentifying entry points at the policy level as well as for country-level programming and advocacy." -- P. vii.

The present report addresses the impact of the current global financial crisis on people living in extreme poverty and the enjoyment of their human rights. It stresses that the crisis offers an opportunity to move beyond the restructuring of the global financial and monetary systems and to place people at the centre of policy measures by enhancing social protection systems from a human rights-based approach. The report describes how human rights standards provide a normative framework for the adoption of social protection measures and provide guidance for their design, implementation and evaluation. Beyond reaffirming political will to rescue economies, the report urges the international community to take action and mobilize support in order to ensure that those who continue to suffer the most acute consequences of economic crises are protected and supported through the adoption and strengthening of social protection systems.

The aim of this report is to present an overview of the 17 Goals using data currently available to highlight the most significant gaps and challenges.

This book is devoted to the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development. It contains a collection of analytical studies of various aspects of the right to development, which include the rule of law and good governance, aid, trade, debt, technology transfer, intellectual property, access to medicines and climate change in the context of an enabling environment at the local, regional and international levels. It also explores the issues of poverty, women and indigenous peoples within the theme of social justice and equity. The book considers the strides that have been made over the years in measuring progress in implementing the right to development and possible ways forward to make the right to development a reality for all in an increasingly fragile, interdependent and ever-changing world.

Builds upon two earlier reports on extreme poverty as well as a mission report on extreme poverty conditions in the United States and takes into account observations of the Expert Seminar on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in Geneva in 2007.