The Millennium Development Goals Beyond 2015: Old Frameworks and New Constructs

This paper seeks to analyse Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in prospect rather than retrospect. In doing so, it begins with a critical evaluation of their conception and design to focus on limitations that must be addressed. In contemplating the future of MDGs beyond 2015, it suggests that such a framework is necessary but should not be more of the same. Thus, it explores possible options, such as structural flexibility at the national level and cognition of inequality in outcomes, which could provide the foundations of a modified framework or alternative construct. The paper argues that developing countries also need to reformulate policies, redesign strategies and rethink development in their respective national contexts for attainment of the MDGs. In the international context, where the focus has been narrow and the progress has so far been slow in the MDGs, there is need for cooperation among developing countries, through better bargaining and collective action, which provides an opportunity to reshape unfair rules in the world economy that encroach upon policy space so essential for development.