Introduction

Abstract

Around the world the turn of the New Millennium in 2000 was perceived as a chance to begin anew and face the global challenges that had arisen since the fall of the Iron Curtain ten years before. A new leaf was turned over by many crucial institutions and organisations, both nationally and internationally, including the United Nations and its specialised agencies. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were created as a promise that the global policy community would do its utmost to eradicate the most severe forms of poverty, hunger and disease that had been plaguing developing countries for so long. However, the MDGs did not clarify how to actually face the problems of the developing world and left global organisations to search for their own solutions.