The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the expression of the strong commitment to universal development and poverty eradication made by the International Community in the UN Millennium Declaration in September 2000. They offer a set of concrete targets that can be used to assess the integrity of the political commitment made through the Declaration. Their coverage is quite wide and includes halving world poverty and hunger by 2015, as well as reaching universal primary education, reducing under-5 and maternal mortality by two thirds, and halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water (see Box 1). At the same time, the Declaration called for a new partnership between the developed and the developing countries, determined “to create an environment – at the national and global levels alike – which is conducive to development and the elimination of poverty.” It entailed clear obligations for the developed countries as they were expected to ease market access, lessen the debt burden, channel financial resources and provide development assistance to the developing world, which, in turn, had to improve governance and conduct effective development policies.

 Keywords : POVERTY