We have past the half way stage to the Millennium Development Goals earlier this year. The MDGs were set by Heads of State meeting at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. The goals deal with environment, development, poverty, health, maternal health, education, gender and equality.

The Goals in part were a recognition of failure by governments to deliver on the broader agenda outlined by the outcomes from the UN Conferences and Summits of the 1990s. By focusing down the hope was that they would be delivered.  So how are we doing in developing them? It doesn’t look good as far as delivering on any of them. This has been exacerbated by the recent food and energy crisis which is particularly impacting on the poor.