This report analyses the causes and consequences of the uneven progress made by ESCWA member countries towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by providing a detailed examination of the MDG targets and their associated indicators through the prism of a gender lens.

The principal hypothesis of the report is that progress towards attaining the MDGs will not materialize if countries fail to adopt gender-responsive and rights-based national development policies and strategies. It also posits that national development policies and programmes that disregard the role played by women in safeguarding human life and nurturing the seeds of development will all too easily reap precisely what they have sown, missing scarce but valuable opportunities for developmental progress towards achieving the MDGs.