Over that decade and a half, governments, international institutions and private foundations poured in billions of dollars, more than they had before, specifically to achieve 21 targets within the eight goals. Global development aid alone almost doubled in real terms. Global funding for child health increased eightfold from less than US$1 billion annually in the 1990s to $8 billion in 2015.

While we didn’t reach all of the targets, this huge investment unsurprisingly turbocharged our progress.

More children were kept in school and gender equality improved. Low-income countries across the world saw death rates drop much faster than before. In 1990, nearly one child in 10 died before reaching 5 years old. Child deaths had dropped by more than half by 2015. That adds up to almost 19 million children surviving their fifth birthday that would otherwise have died.

There was a dramatic reduction in hunger: It went from afflicting 16 percent of the world population in 1990 to around 8 percent in 2015. That meant 300 million people avoided the lifelong effects of hunger and malnutrition. And the fight against poverty was also accelerated, cutting the total number of poor by an astounding 1.2 billion people.

For the poor and vulnerable, the world simply became a much better place, thanks to the MDGs. While some targets like clean drinking water and sanitation didn’t accelerate, all saw dramatic improvements, making life less hard, with less hunger, poverty and dirty water, with more schooling and less death from tuberculosis, malaria and HIV, with fewer mothers and children dying.

But in 2015, when the world replaced the MDGs, things went wrong. World leaders could again have chosen to focus on a few, crucial targets. They could even have kept the same targets, since they are so important to the world’s most vulnerable people. We could have focused on pinpointing where the needs are deepest and the opportunities are greatest.

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