This blog is part of a series on tackling COVID-19 in developing countries. Visit the OECD dedicated page to access the OECD’s data, analysis and recommendations on the health, economic, financial and societal impacts of COVID-19 worldwide.
In the context of international development, the year 2015 marked the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the much broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the much more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It signalled an emerging paradigm shift in the international development agenda, a collectively agreed set of universal goals for an inclusive and sustainable global development process.
At the outset, I want to point out that, without the MDGs, we could not have arrived at the SDGs. Although progress on achieving the MDGs has been uneven across regions, significant achievements have been made on the many MDG targets worldwide. Above all, extreme poverty has been reduced by half and access to schools, health services and clean water has increased. It was the MDGs that laid the foundations for what we now call the SDGs.