Developing countries' efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of development and anti-poverty targets adopted by the international community, are confronted with a host of challenges, not least those posed by an unfavourable international economic setting. This book puts together two Third World Network papers which look at how the global financial and trade systems may impede realisation of the MDGs. The first paper considers how key elements in the international financial architecture - IMF loan conditionalities, the debt burden and capital account liberalization can hinder the implementation of national MDG strategies. The second paper examines the potential adverse impacts of trade liberalisation and other provisions in international trade treaties on developing-country prospects for achieving the MDGs. The analysis in these papers underlines the urgent need to address the financial the financial and trade constraints on progress towards attaining the MDGs in the developing world.