This paper is linked to the project entitled “Realizing the Millennium Development Goals through Socially Inclusive Macroeconomic Policies” which aims to answer three key questions relating to South Africa achieving its MDGs, namely what is the likelihood of South Africa achieving the goals under current policies and investments? What changes in South Africa’s strategies and policies are required to achieve these goals? What are the costs of the different strategies, policies, and investment alternatives? This project is a joint collaboration between UNDP, UN-DESA and the World Bank. The benefits of this project are more than providing the answers to the questions mentioned above. The methodology used is a comprehensive framework to evaluate developmental policies as it links the various developmental objectives and may be applied to other policy questions and strategies within South Africa for example evaluating the success and cost of
AsgiSA, as well as the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) and the New Growth Path policy. The capacity building objective of this project is also very important for South Africa as it enables South Africa to build its own capacity in this field.