Editing Millennium Development Goals (section)

==Criticism==
===General===
General criticisms included a perceived lack of analytical power and justification behind the chosen objectives.<ref name="idrc.ca" /> Some of the indicator definitions, baselines and targets were changed after their first adoption, to suggest that progress had been better than was really the case.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Hikel |first=Jason |date=2014-08-21 |title=Exposing the great 'poverty reduction' lie |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/8/21/exposing-the-great-poverty-reduction-lie |access-date=2021-05-13 |work=Al Jazeera}}</ref>

Further criticism included their "money-metric and donor-centric view", their "unidirectional dimension and narrow focus on developing countries, with industrialized countries being deployed almost as their tutors", the "lack of stakeholder engagement in formulating the MDGs" and the "weak review mechanisms to measure performance".<ref name=":3" />

[[David Hulme (geographer)|David Hulme]] and James Scott noted that the process of creating the MDGs was diffuse, having no single architect and "no clear start or end". They also commented that the process was driven by rich states rather than the countries that would be more the subject of MDG interventions.<ref name=":0" /> The entire MDG process has been accused of lacking [[legitimacy (political)|legitimacy]] as a result of failure to include, often, the voices of the very participants that the MDGs seek to assist. 

The MDGs lacked strong objectives and indicators for within-country equality, despite significant disparities in many developing nations.<ref name="idrc.ca" /><ref name="ReferenceA">Can the MDGs provide a pathway to social justice?: The challenge of intersecting inequalities. 2010. Naila Kabeer for Institute of Development Studies.</ref>

The MDGs were attacked for insufficient emphasis on environmental [[sustainability]].<ref name="idrc.ca" /> Thus, they did not capture all elements needed to achieve the ideals set out in the Millennium Declaration.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

===Human rights===
The MDGs may under-emphasize local participation and empowerment (other than women's empowerment).<ref name="idrc.ca" /> FIAN International, a human rights organization focusing on the right to adequate food, contributed to the Post 2015 process by pointing out a lack of: "primacy of human rights; qualifying policy coherence; and of human rights based monitoring and [[accountability]]. Without such accountability, no substantial change in national and international policies can be expected."<ref>{{cite web |last=FIAN International |title=Post 2015 Thematic Consultation |url=http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/post2015/comments/2?page=1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102165506/http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/post2015/comments/2?page=1 |archive-date=2 November 2013 |access-date=7 October 2013}}</ref>

===Measurement difficulties===
A publication from 2005 argued that goals related to [[maternal mortality]], [[malaria]] and [[tuberculosis]] are impossible to measure and that current UN estimates lack scientific validity or are missing.<ref name="Amir Attaran 2005">{{cite journal |last=Attaran |first=Amir |author-link=Amir Attaran |date=October 2005 |title=An Immeasurable Crisis? A Criticism of the Millennium Development Goals and Why They Cannot Be Measured |journal=[[PLOS Medicine]] |volume=2 |issue=10 |page=318 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020318 |pmc=1201695 |pmid=16156696 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Household surveys are the primary measure for the health MDGs but may be poor and duplicative measurements that consume limited resources. Furthermore, countries with the highest levels of these conditions typically have the least reliable data collection. The study also argued that without accurate measures, it is impossible to determine the amount of progress, leaving MDGs as little more than a rhetorical call to arms.<ref name="Amir Attaran 2005" />

MDG proponents such as McArthur and Sachs countered that setting goals is still valid despite measurement difficulties, as they provide a political and operational framework to efforts. With an increase in the quantity and quality of healthcare systems in developing countries, more data could be collected.<ref name="McArthur JW 2005">{{Cite journal |last1=McArthur |first1=J. W. |last2=Sachs |first2=J. D. |last3=Schmidt-Traub |first3=G. |year=2005 |title=Response to Amir Attaran |journal=PLOS Medicine |volume=2 |issue=11 |pages=e379 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020379 |pmc=1297542 |pmid=16288557 |doi-access=free}}</ref> They asserted that non-health related MDGs were often well measured, and that not all MDGs were made moot by lack of data.

===Equity===
Further developments in rethinking strategies and approaches to achieving the MDGs include research by the [[Overseas Development Institute]] into the role of [[equity (economics)|equity]].<ref name="ODI2">MDGs Targets for 2005 and 2015 [https://www.iied.org/achieving-millennium-development-goals Achieving the Millennium Development Goals], ''IIED''</ref> Researchers at the ODI argued that progress could be accelerated due to recent breakthroughs in the role equity plays in creating a [[virtuous circle and vicious circle|virtuous circle]] where rising equity ensures the poor participate in their country's development and creates reductions in poverty and financial stability.<ref name="ODI2" /> Yet equity should not be understood purely as economic, but also as [[equity (legal concept)|political]]. Examples abound, including Brazil's [[cash transfers]], [[Uganda]]'s eliminations of user fees and the subsequent huge increase in visits from the very poorest or else [[Mauritius]]'s dual-track approach to liberalization (inclusive growth and inclusive development) aiding it on its road into the [[World Trade Organization]].<ref name="ODI2" /> Researchers at the [[Overseas Development Institute|ODI]] thus propose equity be measured in league tables in order to provide a clearer insight into how MDGs can be achieved more quickly; the ODI is working with partners to put forward league tables at the 2010 MDG review meeting.<ref name="ODI2" />