Focus Groups in the Context of International Development: In Pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals

The legacy of the twentieth century and the promise of the twenty-first century were on the minds of leaders, change agents, and ordinary people around the world as the new millennium approached. The most far-reaching aspirations—the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—were adopted in 2000 by all 189 memberstates of the United Nations General Assembly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank (WB). The Millennium Declaration was designed to throw into relief the values of various organizations concerned with international development and to stimulate concerted action (United Nations, 2000). As the culmination of several major international meetings and summits, the adoption of the Millennium Declaration “was a defining moment for global cooperation in the 21st century” (United Nations, 2002).