World leaders from 189 countries gathered at the United Nations in 2000 to approve an ambitious plan to change the world. By 2015, they vowed, countries would meet broad, measurable objectives -- which would become the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- designed to, among other things, eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, promote gender equality, achieve universal primary education and fight HIV-AIDS, malaria and other diseases. With the 2015 deadline approaching, some MDG targets appear out of reach. Others -- such as halving the percentage of people living in extreme poverty and lacking access to safe drinking water -- were met in 2010. But some critics say the MDGs have been inherently unfair because regions such as sub-Saharan Africa were far behind other regions at the outset, so they had much farther to go to meet the targets. As the international community prepares to draft new goals, it seeks lessons from the first round of MDGs on what works, what doesn't and whether goal-setting is the best way to solve global problems.

Danielle Kurtzleben reports on business and economics for U.S. News & World Report and previously worked at the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Originally from rural northern Iowa, Danielle holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College (Northfield, Minn.) and an M.A. in Global Communication from George Washington University's Elliott School for International Affairs. She has appeared on C-SPAN and the Washington, D.C., public radio affiliate, WAMU, and she is also a regular contributor to the career website Brazen Life.