In the context of the MDGs, the extent to which a developing country is able to make progress on many of the goals (especially Goal 1 to eradicate poverty and hunger, but also Goals 4, 5 and 6 relating to health, and Goal 7 on environmental sustainability) depends not only on domestic policy choices, but also on how "friendly" or "hostile" the external economic environment is to that country. Four examples can illustrate this.
• The continuous fall in prices of export commodities has caused tremendous income and foreign exchange losses to many developing countries and is a major cause of persistent or increased poverty at local-community level.
• The financial instability and sharp currency fluctuations caused by large inflows and outflows of external funds have led many developing countries (including those considered the most successful among them) into financial and economic crises, with dramatic and sudden sharp increases in poverty rates).
• Many developing countries have suffered declines in or threats to their industrial jobs and farmers' livelihoods as a result of inappropriate import liberalisation policies, partly or mainly due to external policy influences resulting from loan conditionalities or multilateral trade rules.
• Cutbacks in social-sector expenditure, as well as the introduction of the "user-should-pay" principle, as a result of structural-adjustment policies in the past have been identified as a significant factor for the deterioration of social well-being of vulnerable and poor groups in several developing countries.
These examples, as well as the continuation of the debt crisis in many countries, show that attempts to improve domestic policies, however exemplary, are insufficient if developing countries are to attain the MDGs. Thus the importance of developing a "global partnership for development" to underpin or at least to accompany the other efforts for attaining all the other goals.
Another general point is that in the effort to meet the MDG targets, "getting policies right" is of crucial importance. If economic and social structures are inequitable and if policies (either for preserving the status quo or for reform) are inappropriate, then the mere expansion of funds and programmes in a country would not be enough, and may indeed increase the problems. This applies to structures and policies at both national and international levels. Efforts to attain Goal 8 for developing global partnership should therefore, as a priority, focus on getting international economic structures, policies and rules right. The rest of this paper will further discuss this aspect.