The UN framework for development is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals are a set of targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women agreed upon by UN Members in 2000. In January 2005, the UN Millennium Project, headed by professor Jeffrey Sachs, presented a report on the results of the MDG-program up to now. It is titled Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. However, NFX feels that this report does not sufficiently acknowledge the role of the private sector in general, and the financial sector in particular, as a driving force in the effort to reach the MDGs. The members of NFX would like to take the opportunity of the World Bank 2005 Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics to present their view on the role of the financial sector in reaching the MDGs.
The first chapter is a general critique of the Sachs report, for which the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ABN Amro provided valuable input. The other chapters are case studies, provided by NFX members, illustrating the necessity of financial sector development. The report reflects the views of the group of NFX members on the role of financial sector development in reaching the MDGs in 2015.