Economic growth and the MDGs - ODI Briefing Papers 60

• The challenge for policymakers is to maximise the impact of growth on human development • What matters is how the opportunities presented by growth are distributed, and specific policies are needed to ensure that the poor gain their fair share • Equitable distribution of the benefits of growth, in the form of progressive taxation and pro-poor public spending on health, education and social protection, is an essential part of how growth contributes to the MDGs A s we approach the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Declaration, attention will focus on the strategies that governments can adopt to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Economic growth needs a central place in this discussion. The link between economic growth and achieving the MDGs is in how the opportunities created by growth, and the benefits from growth, support the human development of the poorest people. This briefing paper reviews the evidence on this issue, and outlines a forward-looking policy agenda on growth and distribution to support accelerated progress on the MDGs between now and 2015.