This book describes the importance of the millennium development goals and gives an explanation of the progress toward the goals. It provides recommendations to be implemented at the country level and presents a guide for the international system's support for the country-level processes.

Preface -- Contributors -- Task force reports -- Abbreviations -- Millennium Development Goals -- Ten key recommendations -- Part 1 Why the MDGs are important, where we stand, and why we’re falling short -- 1 The Millennium Development Goals and why they matter -- 2 Where we stand with only a decade to go -- 3 Why the world is falling short of the Goals -- Part 2 Country-level processes to achieve the Millennium Development Goals -- 4 MDG-basedpoverty reduction strategies -- 5 Public investments to empower poor people -- 6 Key elements for rapid scale-up -- 7 Governance to achieve the Millennium Development Goals -- 8 Civil society's contribution to the Millennium Development Goals -- 9 Contributions of the private sector -- 10 Africans special needs -- 11 Investment priorities for reaching the Millennium Development Goals in other regions -- 12 Strategies for countries affected by conflict -- Part 3 Recommendations for the international system to support country-level processes -- 13 Fixing the aid system -- 14 A global breakthrough in trade -- 15 Regional and global goods -- 16 Getting started in 2005: launching a decade of bold ambition -- Part 4 The costs and benefits of achieving the Millennium Development Goals -- 17 Resources required to finance the Millennium Development Goals -- 18 The benefits: the case for a decade of bold ambition -- Appendix 1 Millennium Development Goals interventions by area -- Appendix 2 Millennium Development Goals interventions by target -- Appendix 3 Assumptions underlying the resource estimates in chapter -- Appendix 4 Methodology and data sources for projecting progress toward the Goals in table 18.1 -- Notes -- References -- Acknowledgments.