By Polly Ghazi Freelance writer and former environment correspondent of The Observer, based in Washington, DC.

In newsrooms, where cynicism runs rife, the MDGs and development issues in general tend to elicit a dismissive shrug. Cancer rates versus malaria deaths? No contest. Melting icebergs versus drinking water crisis in Africa? Climate change wins hands down.

Reporting on development issues

During seven years as The Observer’s environment (and development) reporter, I would estimate about 95% of my articles covered environmental subjects, only 5% development. And The Observer is more development-friendly than most British newspapers.

Why is this? One problem is the “we’ve heard it all before” syndrome. Awful as it may seem, living with poverty in Africa is as accepted a part of daily life in Britain as living with high house prices.

Then there is the self-interested nature of the news agenda: malaria and dirty drinking water affect people far across the world; cancer and climate change affects us all.

Finally, there is the off-putting way development can be presented in the media – as a series of numbing facts – 1bn people without clean water, 1.2bn living on $1 a day - too difficult to digest and act upon.

The MDGs can be achieved

The Millennium Development Goals are achievable. Europe spends more on ice-cream a year than the $100 billion (£55m) needed to halve poverty levels and meet all the other goals piously signed up to by world leaders. What is lacking is political will. And, in Western democracies, public clamour can generate political will – and new money - remarkably quickly.

What the MDGs need is a global groundswell of vocal public support, mirroring the Jubilee debt relief campaign. If the media could engage their readers in this effort, by devoting more thorough and creative coverage to the fight to end poverty and giving space to celebrity advocates such as Bono and Bob Geldof, they could provide the spark that lights the bonfire.

Development on the political agenda

Development will be reasonably high on the political agenda for the next 18 months, providing fertile ground for news stories, features and media-led public campaigns.

In 2005, Britain will preside over a G8 “development presidency” and Chancellor Gordon Brown will press the world’s wealthiest nations to double aid. In September 2005, the UN secretary-general will preside over a heads of state summit in New York to assess MDG progress five years on.

If the media plays its part and the global citizenry responds, who knows? Kofi Annan may yet have some real progress to celebrate.