On August 2, United Nations member states signed off on the Post-2015 Development Agenda — a document two years in the making that will determine the shape of international development for the next fifteen. The agenda is comprised of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), launched in 2000 with the goal of eradicating world poverty.

While they’ve received plenty of spin, the MDGs — which set numerical targets for states to reduce various indicators of poverty such as homelessness, child mortality, and lack of access to basic services — ultimately failed in many areas.

The MDG calling for the reduction of slum populations is illustrative: instead of spurring an increase in decent housing for the poor, in some countries this nebulous goal led to the criminalization and forced eviction of slum dwellers. States could meet their targets simply by showing quantitative improvements rather than qualitatively improving the lives of people living in poverty.