Project Syndicate: Smart Development Targets
Bjørn Lomborg, adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and founder and director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center

“…[T]he U.N. is currently poised to consider an impossibly inclusive 169 targets [for the post-2015 development agenda]. … In truth, having 169 priorities is like having none at all. That is why my think tank, the Copenhagen Consensus, asked 82 of the world’s top economists, 44 sector experts, and U.N. organizations and NGOs to evaluate which targets would do the most good for every dollar, euro, or peso spent. … This list of smart targets will not solve all of the world’s problems; no realistic list, however ambitious, can. But the 19 targets identified by the Copenhagen Consensus can help the world’s governments to concentrate on key priorities. These targets will do more than four times as much good per dollar spent as spending across all 169 targets would do. Governments should stop promising everything to everyone and start focusing on delivering the most possible” (5/20).