A series of fortuitous politics and events has placed an unprecedented focus on the fight against global poverty and the progress being made towards achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, aimed at eradicating extreme poverty.

Those events – including the UN’s Millennium Project2, which set out a practical blueprint for achieving the MDGs; the UK-sponsored Commission for Africa; the Gleneagles G8 summit, which focused on poverty in Africa and elsewhere; and the Make Poverty History campaign and Live-8 concerts – served to remind governments of the commitments they made in 2000 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.