Book excerpt: This Overview is an invaluable summary of the capstone volume Investing in Development, which brings together the core recommendations of the UN Millennium Project, commissioned by UN Director-General Kofi Annan and directed by Jeffrey D. Sachs, one of world?s leading economists. The Overview provides a user friendly introduction to the main volume, which is the official action plan for ending poverty, providing practical investment strategies and approaches to financing them and an operational framework that will allow even the poorest countries to achieve the MDGs within ten years.