The Millennium Development Goals are the world's time-bounded and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions—income, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion—while promoting gender equality, education and environmental sustainability. They are also human rights. The international community knows what needs to be done to achieve the MDGs. The challenge is how. How do we scale up investments, mobilize the needed resources, and implement development programmes effectively at the national and local levels? The MDG Centre established in Nairobi is assisting, supporting and promoting the development of needs assessment and central planning strategies that truly integrate and cut across disciplines, economic and social sectors, and institutional frameworks to achieve all MDGs and respond to UN Secretary-General's call for an African Green Revolution. This will serve as a platform for partnership and collaboration, and draws on the best science and policy options available based on research and field experience from around the world. The Centre is building partnerships between governments and UN Country Teams, international finance institutions, and other stakeholders to identify gaps between current programmes, plans and investment levels, and those that are needed to achieve the MDGs by 2015. The Centre is committed to building capacity at all levels for designing and implementing effective strategies and action programmes to achieve the MDGs. Particular emphasis needs to be given to building institutional capacity for engaging civil society and the private sector. A significant feature of this work is the development of “south-south” partnerships. In addition, the Centre is catalyzing and supporting the scaling-up of “Quick Wins”. They are successful approaches aimed to generate early impact that will build the confidence of communities, governments and development partners.

Keywords: MDGs, MDG Centre, Investment, Development, Assessment, Planning, Assist, Promote, Support