The material and symbolic importance of the MDG targets make it vital to assess the analytical coherence of the MDG “project”. In this spirit, this note highlights complexities and difficulties of the MDG approach that policy makers should consider. It covers issues of measuring progress, and achieving and valuing outcomes; sustaining outcomes; devising policies during structural transformation; and implementing policies in a decentralised policy system. These discussions draw attention to some of the limitations of current methods of analysing the MDGs. A final section concludes.