By David Loyn BBC Developing World Correspondent

For the first time the poorest countries in the world, like his, can call on a commitment made by the richest to deliver improvement.

Decade of reversal

The Millennium Declaration in September 2000 came at a difficult time. The 1990s were a rare decade of reversal in development in too many places. More than 50 countries in the world are poorer now than they were in 1990.

The failure of government, and conflict and disease, are the main reasons for this bad state of affairs, with the dreadful effects of HIV/AIDS cutting a swathe through key parts of society.

Northern Chad: Grils who have enrolled in school

Schools and hospitals have lost key staff, and the epidemic reduced the ability of families to feed themselves as young men died on a scale never before seen outside a major war.

Pressures of globalisation have made some poorer too. The restless pursuit by global capital of the cheapest deal has left some casualties along the way.

Key targets

Tackling HIV/AIDS, as well as other health issues, improving education, and reducing poverty and hunger are the key targets set by the MDGs. They also try to address the potentially catastrophic effect of climate change, demanding that growth should be sustainable.

Almost as soon as the process had begun, just one year after the MDGs were agreed, the world was plunged into a new era in the wake of the attacks of 9/11. It did not derail the process though.

President Bush drew a direct connection between poverty and terrorism while announcing a major increase in US development aid at the Monterrey summit in Mexico six months later. ‘We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror… We will challenge the poverty and hopelessness …that too often allow conditions that terrorists can seize and try to turn to their advantage.’

And the UNDP’s most recent Human Development Report says ‘Eradicating poverty should contribute to a safer world.’

Concerns

The MDGs are not without their critics. Some oppose the whole idea of targets, because they might distort the flow of development assistance. There is also some concern that a small number of countries could benefit, leaving others worse off. Furthermore, just because the developing world has a ‘contract’, that does not necessarily mean that things will change.

It is more than 30 years since the developed world made a promise to transfer 0.7% of GDP in development assistance, and only a small handful of nations have ever achieved that target. On present trends the commitment promised in the optimism of the Millennium has not been realised, and the MDGs will fail.

But the MDGs do acknowledge that we are all in this together. The only real test of the success of the project will be seen if the lives of millions of individuals do change.

All figures in this report are taken from the 2003 Human Development Report of the UNDP.