Too many left behind in the race to meet the MDGs

Today heads of state gathered at the UN headquarters in New York to agree next steps for achieving the Millennium Development Goals before they expire, and the process for deciding what should replace the MDGs. The MDGs, agreed to by UN member states in 2000, are set to end in 2015. Negotiations to decide the “Post 2015 Development Agenda” are yet to take meaningful shape.

The General Assembly has now agreed an ‘outcome document’ which sets out a road map for crafting a new set of goals, which will be adopted by a special meeting of Heads of State in September 2015.

Executive Director of Oxfam International Winnie Byanyima said:

“The MDGs have been an important force for development progress, and the fact of so many people lifted out of extreme poverty in such a short time is an achievement to celebrate.

“Yet too many people have been left behind in the race to meet the MDGs. The outcome document agreed today exposes the unevenness and gaps in achieving the MDGs between and within countries. This is more evidence of the need to target income inequality as part of the Post 2015 Development Agenda.

“Right now every government should be redoubling their efforts to meet the existing goals, but funding commitments made in New York this week have been inadequate. A renewed focus on meeting the poverty goals is needed by every country, supported by additional and innovative sources of finance. There also needs to be a clampdown on the corporate tax dodging draining billions out of poor countries. Without these measures, there’s no prospect of meeting the MDGs by the 2015 deadline.”