The deadline for the UN’s ambitious Millennium Development Goals is looming large, but their architect Kofi Annan warns against premature pessimism and looks at what is already being achieved. What is needed now, he says, is for political leaders to explain why the MDGs are vital to us all

It’s not too late to rescue the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) from failure, says Antonio Vigilante. But it will demand a major effort and the leadership of the EU for the ill-effects of the global economic crisis to be reversed