If the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a person, they would be the teenager who complains that no one understands her.  The latest example of people not getting what the MDGs are about is Bunker Roy’s article in the American.  Don’t get me wrong- Roy makes very good points, and if the MDGs are as he understands them, he would be right to criticize them.  The problem is that lots of people seem to think the MDGs equal a big gush of aid and Millennium Villages.

I think it’s great that Roy is focused on community empowerment, rural development, practical solutions coming from the poor themselves.  He’s appropriately skeptical of so-called experts parachuting in to tell people the solutions to their problems. 

To me, the beauty of the MDGs is in their framework- that every country, every person has a role to play.  Poor countries have to fight corruption, put the needs of the poor first, give voice to the grassroots.  But rich countries can help by reforming trade rules and yes, by aid.  Countries need help paying the salaries of teachers, nurses, agricultural extension workers.  They need outside resources to pay for AIDS drugs, to build roads and sanitation systems.

What is most exciting about the MDGs is the grassroots citizen movement they have sparked.  Across the world, there are anti-poverty MDG campaigns made up of citizen organizers, farmers, young people, teachers, clergy.  They are working to take the MDGs to the people, to empower them to demand that their government do right by them.  In South-South collaboration, they are sharing ideas and are part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty.  They are focused most on attacking corruption, government indifference, bad policies, but they also recognize that their countries can’t go it alone- they need trading opportunities and they need development aid that supports local priorities and empowers local people.  (Admittedly, way too much aid empowers donor agencies and consultants, rather than people, but MDG campaigns are tackling that issue too.)  The UN’s Millennium Campaign’s mission to support and work with these groups shows that the UN’s work on the MDGs is about a lot more than villages, even if the day to day work of empowering people doesn’t get the media and celebrity attention that a showcase village does.

Carol Welch is the North America Coordinator for the UN Millennium Campaign