Africa has a long way to go on the MDGS.

Credits: Caritas

Caritas believes that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be an important first step towards the eradication of poverty. They are a useful tool to hold world leaders to account on their promises on development and  they are also achievable with the necessary political will.

However, the MDGs have some limitations.

The MDGs can overshadow other causes of inequality and injustice and they do not put enough stress on the active participation of the communities that they are aimed at.

With financial aid there also needs to be reform of commercial and political systems at both national and international levels to avoid the poor becoming dependent on the economic policies of the international financial institutions.

One concern is if the MDGs address the systemic causes of poverty, can the goal to reduce extreme poverty and hunger be reached if the policies that generate poverty are not analyzed, denounced and changed. 

It is essential that we continue to monitor and evaluate the progress of the MDGs, to do all we can to hold governments and major financial institutions of the world accountable for achieving the goals, and to continue to find ways to go beyond the work of the MDGs to respond fully to the urgent cries for justice in our time.