Heralded as a success that mobilized support for development, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ushered in an era of setting development agendas by setting global goals. This book critically evaluates the MDG experience from the capabilities and human rights perspectives, and questions the use of quantitative targets as an instrument of global governance. It provides an account of their origins, trajectory and influence in shaping the policy agenda, and ideas about international development during the first 15 years of the 21st century. The chapters explore: • whether the goals are adequate as benchmarks for the transformative vision of the Millennium Declaration; • how the goals came to be formulated the way they were, drawing on interviews with key actors who were involved in the process; • how the goals exercised influence through framing to shape policy agendas on the part of both developing countries and the international community; • the political economy that drove the formulation of the goals and their consequences on the agendas of the South and the North; • the effects of quantification and indicators on ideas and action; and • the lessons to be drawn for using numeric goals to promote global priorities. Representing a significant body of work on the MDGs in its multiple dimensions, compiled here for the first time as a single collection that tells the whole definitive story, this book provides a comprehensive resource. It will be of great interest to students, researchers and policymakers in the fields of development, human rights, international political economy, and governance by numeric indicators.

Development Economics: Theory and Practice provides students and practitioners with the perspectives and the tools they need to think analytically and critically about the current major economic development issues in the world. Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet identify seven key dimensions of development; growth, poverty, vulnerability, inequality, basic needs, sustainability, and quality of life, and use them to structure the contents of the text. This book gives a historical perspective on the evolution of thought in development. It uses theory and empirical analysis to present readers with a full picture of how development works, how its successes and failures can be assessed, and how alternatives can be introduced. The authors demonstrate how diagnostics, design of programs and policies, and impact evaluation can be used to seek new solutions to the suffering and violence caused by development failures. This text is fully engaged with the most cutting edge research in the field, and equips readers with analytical tools for the impact evaluation of development programs and policies, illustrated with numerous examples. It is underpinned throughout by a wealth of student-friendly features including case studies, quantitative problem sets, end-of-chapter questions, and extensive references. This unique text aims at helping readers learn about development, think analytically about achievements and alternative options, and be prepared to compete on the development job market.

Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2013 provides an annual assessment of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and addresses this year's theme of rural-urban dynamics and the MDGs.

This report analyses data, 2000-2010, from 46 small island developing states (SIDS) to provide a comprehensive assessment of progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from a small states perspective. It shows a 'big divide' separates these countries across the range of MDG economic, social and environmental indicators.

This Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper highlights that Togo’s Strategy for Boosting Growth and Promoting Employment offers a medium-term development framework for implementing the Government’s General Policy Statement, the Millennium Development Goals, and the Government’s vision for making Togo an emerging economy in 15 to 20 years, as well as making it a country that respects human rights and promotes the rule of law. The return of political stability and peace to the country created a favorable environment for better governance, resumption of international assistance, and significant reduction in exterior public debt. The Government’s medium-term economic policy for 2013–2017 will essentially be used to build and consolidate the foundations for Togo’s future economic emergence. The focus will be on new priorities: boosting growth; employment and inclusion; strengthening governance; and reducing regional disparities and promoting grassroots development. Designing a national land-use plan will territorialize development by creating a more balanced national economic space. The new land-use scheme will be based on dynamic, competitive, regional economies in which the urbanization of regional capitals and secondary towns is sufficiently controlled to allow true development hubs to emerge.

Abstract: This paper summarizes the policy lessons from applications of the Maquette for MDG Simulations (MAMS) model to two low income countries: Ghana and Honduras. Results show that costs of MDGs achievement could reach 10-13 percent of GDP by 2015, although, given the observed low productivity in the provision of social services, significant savings may be realized by improving efficiency. Sources of financing also matter: foreign aid inflows can reduce international competitiveness through real exchange appreciation, while domestic financing can crowd out the private sector and slow poverty reduction. Spending a large share of a fixed budget on growth-enhancing infrastructure may mean sacrificing some human development, even if higher growth is usually associated with lower costs of social services. The pursuit of MDGs increases demand for skills: while this encourages higher educational attainments, in the short term this could lead to increased income inequality and a lower poverty elasticity of growth.

Understanding Development offers a comprehensive introduction to the multidimensional and evolving nature of international development in the contemporary world. This new edition has been fully revised and expanded to incorporate the key events, trends and debates that are shaping development today, such as humanitarianism and the global refugee crisis, the growing number of fragile states, and the contested nature of trade and trade deals. Building on the book's original framework, the second edition also includes three new chapters which explore development in relation to global policy formation, focusing on the end of the UN Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and the start of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which will run until 2030. Designed to offer something different to the standard introductions to the topic, this issues-driven text examines the debates that have generated the most interest and passion among practitioners and non-practitioners alike. Always attentive to the contested and plural nature of the field, it makes the case for a genuinely interdisciplinary approach which takes full account of the impact of globalization. Both wide-ranging and critical, Understanding Development is the essential student guide to one of the most challenging subjects of our age.