The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have galvanised unprecedentedlevels of support. They represent the good will and intentions of the international community committed to the alleviation of extreme poverty and to fight its worst symptoms. However, progress has bypassed the most vulnerable countries and individuals. Such disparities and poor results are partly rooted in the incomplete vision of development implicit in the MDGs. As the 2015 deadline approaches, the debate about a successor for the MDGs has started. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to that debate by creating a concrete alternative scenario that takes into account major constraints of the current paradigm and builds on the recommendations from a selected number of organisations and researchers. A final MDG 2015-2030 list as proposed includes six agendas that accentuate the importance of reducing global and national inequalities, promoting a fairer and more strategic integration to globalisation, and increasing the commitment to environmentally sustainable growth. The key novel proposals for the period 2015-2030 are: halve poverty defined as people living on 2 US-dollars per day (PPP) rather than 1.25 US-dollars in the 2000- 2015 MDGs by increasing productive employment and implementing “Social Protection Floors” as proposed by ILO, and reduction of income inequality down to a universal Gini-target of 0.4 per country or below.

Beatriz Calzada Olvera

Published in Berlin Working Papers on Money, Finance, Trade and Development, January 2014