In September 2000, the Government of Indonesia, along with 188 other nations, signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing the nation to reducing poverty, improving health and education, and promoting peace, human rights, gender equality and environmental sustainability.  The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) emerged out of the Declaration, setting specific, measurable targets for participating UN member states to achieve by 2015.

While significant progress towards achievement of the MDGs has been made at the national level, there remain visible and pervasive disparities at the sub-national levels. These are most severe in “disadvantaged areas”, namely remote areas and those with potential for conflict or which are prone to natural disasters. The mitigating factors which have prevented many areas from making progress toward MDGs include political, socio-economic, environmental and cultural influences. They have revealed a need to localise MDG targets to meet the contexts of specific localities.

The government has made poverty reduction a priority in its development agenda.  In the 2004-2009 Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJM) and annual government work plans, poverty reduction has been the top priority.  The RPJM basically provides broad strategic directions for the government over the next five years. The main development components of the development agenda for 2004-2009 are: Creating a Prosperous Indonesia: reduce the number of people living in poverty, promote pro-poor growth and create employment opportunities, improve access to quality health and education services, reduce regional disparities, and improve management of natural resources and environment.

The TARGET MDGs Programme is designed as a multi-stakeholder platform for government, local authorities, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the private sector, and other development partners to gear their efforts through partnerships, collaboration, and programmatic synergies to contribute more effectively towards the attainment of the MDGs in Indonesia.   The platform provides flexibility for national stakeholders and development partners to find the most appropriate modality to work in a more coordinated manner without the need for formal partnerships or joint initiatives, where these are not possible.   This modality includes exchange of data, information, knowledge, and lessons learnt, leveraging existing networks formed by different stakeholders or development partners.