Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 
Author-Name: Moldalieva, Janyl
Author-Email: moldalieva@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Muttaqien, Arip
Author-Email: muttaqien@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Muzyamba, Choolwe
Author-Email: muzyamba@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Osei, Davina
Author-Email: osei@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Stoykova, Eli
Author-Email: stoykova@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Le Thi Quynh, Nga
Author-Email: nga.le@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Author-workplace-name: UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University
Title: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Did they change social reality?
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to investigate whether the Millennium 
	 Development Goals (MDGs) changed social realities of people around the 
	 world or not. By answering this question, we contribute to the 
	 longstanding debate on whether social improvement in the lives of people 
	 is MDG-precipitated or it is incidental to the introduction of MDGs. We 
	 make use of interrupted time series analysis and show that although 
	 there has been improvement in social realities of people around the 
	 world between 1990 and 2013, the two dominant opposing views on the role 
	 of MDGs in this process are uncandid. Although the genesis of the 
	 improvement was in the early 1990s (before the introduction of MDGs), 
	 there is no way of stating without question that the improvement in 
	 social realities would have been sustained after 2001 in the absence of 
	 MDGs. We conclude that given the above, the question should not be 
	 "whether the MDGs have improved social realities or not". Instead, we 
	 recommend that in order to effectively assess the usefulness of the 
	 MDGs, one needs to conduct a tedious and complex task of 
	 "tracing-the-change" by following through the chain of policy changes 
	 triggered by the MDGs.
Keywords: Millennium Development Goals, impact, social realities, Interrupted
	 Time Series Analysis, Sub-Saharan Africa 
Classification-JEL: A13, I14, I24, O19, O21
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20160616
Number: 2016-035
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2016/wp2016-035.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2016035