This manual is a guide for use in Parliaments and is intended to provide a set of practical tools for Parliamentary engagement with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This manual provides examples of mechanisms which have been used in Parliaments around the world in order to ensure that achieving the principles outlined in the MDGs remain at the forefront of the Parliamentary agenda, and gives tips for Parliaments on how to implement the mechanisms described in this handbook.

The Millennium Development Goals are an agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives agreed to by world leaders at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. For each goal, there are also targets which should be reached in all countries by 2015. Whilst it was the participating governments which signed the Millennium Declaration on behalf of their respective countries and which ultimately have the responsibility to deliver the targets, Parliaments can also play an important role in orienting themselves toward these agreed upon development goals. The central role that Parliaments can play in reducing poverty in a country and attaining the MDGs has been further reinforced in international agreements such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005 and the Accra Agenda for Action in 2008.