Millennium Development Goals and Post-2015 Agenda: Perspectives from Bangladesh

Abstract

The world is approaching the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in little more than a year. In Bangladesh, remarkable progress has been made across many of the MDGs, particularly in the areas of poverty reduction, gender parity in education, child mortality, maternal mortality and combating HIV/AIDS and other major diseases. However, the present global economic and political climate is vastly different from the one during which the MDGs were formulated and adopted in 2000. A number of critics have made by academicians and researchers on different aspects of the current MDGs. As they argue, despite generalized improvements, trends have been uneven within and across countries and regions. The UN has already taken initiative to set new goals and strategies to ensure sustainable development across the globe beyond MDG period. Based on available information, this paper attempts to focus on existing status of MDGs in Bangladesh and then tries to shed some light on the Country's initiative for setting post-2015 development agenda.