At the United Nations Millennium Summit held in New York in September 2000, world leaders committed to strengthening global efforts for peace, democracy, good governance, and poverty eradication, while continuing to promote the principles of human rights and human dignity. The Millennium Declaration, building on the outcomes of the international conferences of the 1990s, made a strong commitment to the right to development, to gender equality, to the eradication of the many dimensions of poverty, and to sustainable human development.

This report traces in detail Malaysia’s performance over the period since 1970, adopted as the benchmark year for this report, in accomplishing a number of key national developmental goals, many of which were later adopted under the banner of the MDGs. The publication makes use of illustrative and helpful charts and diagrams while mapping each goal to policies and programmes that have been put in place to support the achievement of these targets. It  further explores Malaysia's position relative to its regional neighbours and highlights challenges moving forward which need to be addressed in order to ensure that the MDGs are achieved in all communities in the country.