Editing Millennium Development Goals (section)

===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" />