Millennium development goals: whose goals and for whom?

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7468.742-b

BMJ 2004;329:742 (25 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7468.742-b

Letter

Millennium development goals: whose goals and for whom?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Millennium development goals are the most recentstatement of commitment towards narrowing gaps between the developedand developing regions of the world.¹ But how realistic arethese goals?

Although goals help in making assessments of progress, theyshould not be blind to existing potentials for progress, whichis conditioned by the existing status as well as the motivationof nations and states towards realising them. Unfortunately,millennium development goals are considered to be a tool forassessing accountability and highlight a need for urgency thatcould violate the autonomy of nations and states. This raisesthe question of whose goals they are.

Often such initiatives are seen as global priorities, overridinglocal concerns. The best example is the vaccination initiative,which has consistently reflected failures by countries withoutthe required infrastructure. In other circumstances, such externallyaided initiatives are never integrated into the local healthsystem to make . . . [Full text of this article]

Udaya S Mishra, Takemi fellow

Department of Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 665, Huntington Avenue, Boston MA 02115, USA umishra@hsph.harvard.edu