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From Universal Values to Millennium Development Goals: Lost in Translation
Author(s) -
Saith Ashwani
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2006.00518.x
Subject(s) - millennium development goals , declaration , scope (computer science) , multitude , politics , political science , phenomenon , commission , function (biology) , international development , political economy , law and economics , sociology , epistemology , law , poverty , computer science , philosophy , evolutionary biology , biology , programming language
Are the Millennium Development Goals just a string of global wish lists? Are they simply a distraction or gimmick? This contribution argues that there is more to the enveloping global exercise of the MDGs than meets the eye. Despite its alarming and terminal weaknesses with regard to theory, method and scope, and notwithstanding its multitude of errors of commission and omission, the MDG phenomenon carries the potential for distorting meaningful intellectual and research agendas, and could function as the catalyst and vehicle for a fundamental realignment of the political economy of development at the global level. The question is whether this realignment will be of a benign character that reflects the emancipatory aspirations so readily evoked in the Millennium Declaration.