The MDG's: Global targets, local ingenuity

In the past ten years the living conditions for the world's poor have been improving, but not necessarily due to the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDG's). This article discusses how even though many of the MDG's seem to be within reach, it is difficult to give credit to the goals themselves. There are several economic problems with the MDG's. For example, "the goals are [often] reduced to working out how much money is needed to meet a particular target and berating governments for not spending enough". The article points out that countries who have made the most progress in cutting poverty in half do so by encouraging faster economic growth rather than public spending. Also, it is very important how money is spent and what it is used to buy. For example, they suggest that in order to improve primary education money would be best spent on solving the problem of teacher absenteeism with incentives such as performance pay. In one rural area of India this is three times more effective at raising students test scores than "the equivalent amount spent on school supplies". Other problems that need to be addressed include "leakage" of funds, when funds disappear before reaching their intended recipients. Hopefully some of the problems of the MDG's will be addressed and fixed in the coming years however, for many there is a long and hard road a head in order to meeting these lofty goals.