Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals

As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) pass their 2015 deadline and the international community begins to discuss the future of UN development policy, Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals brings together leading economists from both the global North and South to provide a much needed critique of the prevailing development agenda. By examining current development efforts, goals and policies, it exposes the structurally flawed and misleading measurements of poverty and hunger on which these efforts have been based, and which have led official sources to routinely underestimate the scale of world poverty even as the global distribution of wealth becomes ever more imbalanced.

Thomas Pogge is director of the Global Justice Program and Leitner professor of philosophy and international affairs at Yale University. He is well known in academic circles for his work on poverty statistics analysis and on ethics. 

Alberto Cimadamore is CROP scientific director, and professor of theory of international relations at the University of Buenos Aires and researcher of the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research of Argentina.

Gabriele Koehler is development economist, and a visiting fellow at UNRISD. 

'Offers a refreshing and much-needed critical perspective on the Millennium Development Goals – a must-read for anyone hungry to move beyond a failing model.'
LSE Review of Books

‘Essential reading for anyone trying to understand how global governance might live up to its promise to eradicate poverty and achieve social justice.’
David Hulme, University of Manchester

‘A thorough analytical assessment of the impact of the Millennium Development Goals in substantially reducing poverty around the world. It should be read by scholars, policy makers and civil society.’
Alberto Martinelli, University of Milan

‘A rich collection of contributions from multiple disciplines and perspectives, this book offers diverse views on whether the MDGs made a meaningful change. It is a welcome antidote to the triumphalism of those who proclaim the MDG’s success.’
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, The New School