The Millennium Declaration provided considerable impetus to refocus the efforts of development agents around the world on the major ethical challenge of eradicating global poverty. The MDGs that followed have become an important mechanism for pursuing the agenda of the Millennium Declaration. We are now, however, at a point where reflection on the MDG framework is called for. This article explores what the contribution of a concept of (3-dimensional) wellbeing might bring to a revived MDG momentum.

The recent global crises of food, fuel and finance, which developing countries have been bearing the brunt of, are making it all the more difficult for some countries to achieve their MDG Targets. These factors conspire to generate concern for the political momentum of the Millennium Declaration agenda. It is possible that the perceived failure of the MDG process will cause the dissipation of the international political and policy focus on poverty reduction that has been a major benefit of the Millennium Declaration.