Introduction

As the first decade of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) was coming to a close, criticisms of their effects were growing stronger relative to celebrations of their achievements. Many observers agreed that the MDGs were poorly designed from an equity perspective, with no clear focus on reaching the most excluded groups; nor did they ‘consistently confront inequality, whether it is because of age, gender, caste, disability, geography or income’ (Save the Children, 2012, p v). Others found the goals geopolitically misaligned and narrow, given their focus on low-and middle-income countries with very little involvement of the latter and civil society constituencies in the design process (Kabeer, 2005; Waage et al, 2010) but heavy influence of ‘the Bretton Woods Institutions and World Trade Organization (WTO), acting mainly for G8 governments and corporations’ (Bond, 2006, p 341). Still others highlighted the gaps in the MDG agenda, from the ‘inadequacy of the targets and indicators … in capturing the goal of women's empowerment’ (Kabeer, 2005, p 4), to lack of attention to good governance and developing strong institutions that uphold the rule of law and democratic accountability, to a commitment ‘on reducing inequality within and between countries’ (Fukuda-Parr, 2010, p 34), to the devastating consequences of consumption and production on the environment. In terms of health policy, further gaps were visible, such as the exclusion of ‘noncommunicable diseases despite their significant and rising proportion of the burden of global disease’ (Buse and Hawkes, 2015, p 2).