How the Millennium Development Goals are Unfair to Africa

28 Pages Posted: 3 Jan 2008 Last revised: 16 Mar 2015

Date Written: November 2007

Abstract

Those involved in the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) campaign routinely state Africa will miss all the MDGs. This paper argues that a series of arbitrary choices made in defining success or failure as achieving numerical targets for the Millennium Development Goals made attainment of the MDGs less likely in Africa than in other regions even when its progress was in line with historical or contemporary experience of other regions. The statement that Africa will miss all the MDGs thus paints an unfairly bleak portrait of Africa.

Keywords: Africa, foreign aid, global poverty, developing countries, development, MDGs, Millennium Development Goals

Suggested Citation

Easterly, William, How the Millennium Development Goals are Unfair to Africa (November 2007). Brookings Global Economy and Development Working Paper No. 14, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1080300 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1080300

William Easterly (Contact Author)

The Brookings Institution ( email )

1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.brookings.edu/experts/easterlyw.aspx

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
264
Abstract Views
3,064
Rank
210,785
PlumX Metrics