In his book, Jeffrey Sachs explains that Africa's problems "are especially difficult but still solvable with practical and proven technologies. Diseases can be controlled, crop yields can be sharply increased, and basic infrastructure such as paved roads and electricity can be extended to the villages.

A combination of investments well attuned to local needs and conditions can enable African economies to break out of the poverty trap. These interventions need to be applied systematically, diligently, and jointly, since they strongly reinforce one another. With focused attention by African countries and the international community, Africa could soon have its own Green Revolution and achieve a take-off in rural-led growth, thereby sparing the coming generation of Africans the continued miseries of drought-induced famine."(pg 208)

He lays out 8 goals to achieve sustainable development for the world's poorest people. These are the Millennium Development Goals:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

-Halve, btwn 1999 and 2015, the proportion of people who's income is less than one dollar per day.
-Halve, btwn 1999 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

2. Achieve universal, primary education

Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015.

4. Reduce child mortality

Reduce by two thirds, btwn 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.

5. Improve maternal health

Reduce by three quarters, btwn 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

-Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
-Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

-Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources
-Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
-By 2020 to have achieved a significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

8. Develop a global partnership for development

(Lots of points under this one, including predictable, nondiscriminatory trading and financial system....tariff- and quota-free access for least developed countries' exports...addressing special needs of landlocked countries and small island developing states...help developing countries deal with debt problems/make debt sustainable in the long term...cooperate with developing countries toward decent and productive work for youth...cooperate with pharmaceutical companies to provide access to affordable, essential drugs...cooperate with private sector to make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications