A great deal of attention has recently been focused on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the broad-based international agreement supporting the MDGs means that they provide an important opportunity to promote a development agenda globally. What, then, is the relationship between a rights-based approach and the framing and implementation of the MDGs? And, more broadly does a rights-based approach help in achieving development or human development?
This article argues that although more discussion on this question is needed, a rights-based approach does contribute positively to human development and the fulfilment of the MDGs. The first section will focus on how a rights-based approach underlies and frames the MDGs. The next section will examine how a rights-based approach to implementing the MDGs strengthens their effects.
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This article comes from the IDS Bulletin 36.1 (2005) Can a Rights‐based Approach Help in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals?