Introduction: meeting future challenges with past lessons
This book examines the progress, challenges and lessons of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were adopted during the 2000 Millennium Summit of the United Nations to address the various dimensions of poverty such as hunger, disease, and exclusion while promoting gender equality, education and environmental sustainability. The book considers whether the MDGs were effective in transforming the narrative around poverty and its many dimensions through multilateral organisations, identifying what worked and what needs to change in the context of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. It also discusses the changing nature of poverty and inequality as well as the role of state and increasingly non-state actors, including civil society groups, in shaping the debate around accountability, progress and inclusiveness. This chapter provides an overview of the impact of globalisation on the MDGs, criticisms of the MDGs, and the Post-2015 Development Agenda. It also explains the purpose and plan for the book.