With the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), perhaps the most important questions on the minds of most policymakers is whether the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were successful and what factors may have influenced their achievement. Answering these questions is important for assessing the ongoing progress of the SDGs and identifying key policy areas to focus on. This important edited collection examines various dimensions of the MDGs and development goals more generally, from socioeconomic factors to institutional, financial and more. The authors provide lessons and recommendations for attaining the Sutainable Development Goals that will be relevant to academics, development policymakers and practitioners, as well as NGOs, development agencies and students.

Autorentext
Sefa Awaworyi Churchill is a Senior Research Fellow with the School of Economics, Finance & Marketing at RMIT University, Australia. He holds a PhD in Economics from Monash University. His inter-disciplinary research focuses on development economics, addictive behavior, ethnic diversity, wellbeing, and other issues related to sociology, health and economics. He has experiences working on consultancy projects for various policy agencies and international development organizations.

Zusammenfassung
This book presents a collection of chapters that examine various dimensions of development. Between 2000 and 2015, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) remained the overarching development framework that governed the international development community. After a decade and half of commitment to the MDGs, the framework is widely considered a success, although progress reported across countries has been uneven. The new overarching international development framework may not be successful or present the best opportunities for the desired global change without a better understanding of factors that contributed the most or the least to the attainment of the MDGs. The chapters presented in this book provide discussions and insights into understanding these factors better. They represent a collection of scholarship that address some of the important questions in international development. They adopt a wide range of research methods to provide insight into what works, and what does not, in promoting the stipulated development goals.

Inhalt
Part I. Overview of Development Goals.- Chapter 1: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): What are they? How were they devised? Were they appropriate for developing countries?.- Part II. What Influenced MDGs?.- Chapter 2: Ethnic diversity and MDGs.- Chapter 3: Social capital and MDGs.- Chapter 4: Culture, religion and development.- Chapter 5: Democracy, good governance and development.- Chapter 6: Conflict, Fragility and the achievement of MDGs.- Chapter 7: Institutional Innovation and Development.- Chapter 8: Did foreign aid hinder progress towards the achievement of MDGs?.- Chapter 9: Trade openness, foreign direct investment and the MDGs.- Chapter 10: Financial Inclusion and Poverty.- Chapter 11: FinTech and Development.- Chapter 12: Microfinance, Poverty and Microenterprise Development.- Part III. The Post-2015 Agenda.- Chapter 13: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): what are they? How different are they from the MDGs?.- Chapter 14: Achieving the SGDs: Lessons from the MDGs.- Chapter 15: The Way Forward.