The UN agreed on a set of development goals once before, in 2000, and the authors call it one of the best ideas for development either of them has ever seen; they say it focused the world on key measures of basics such as good health and a chance to get an education.

The checkable part is that the UN adopted a set of development goals in 2000 (the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals) that targeted basics such as health and education. The authors' view that it was 'one of the best ideas' is opinion and is not tested. True: UN records show the Millennium Declaration was adopted in September 2000, leading to the MDGs, which included health and education goals. Mostly true: the core is right but a minor detail is off (for example the formal list of eight MDGs was finalised in 2001 after the 2000 Declaration). Mostly false: the UN had set comparable goal sets before 2000 in a way that makes 'once before' substantially misleading. False: no such UN goal set was agreed in or around 2000.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 United Nations · 8 September 2000

   “world leaders stated as they unanimously adopted a "United Nations Millennium Declaration" at the conclusion of their Millennium Summit on 8 September 2000.”

2. E2 United Nations Millennium Development Goals United Nations · 20 May 2008

   “The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions.”

3. E3 A Prehistory of the Millennium Development Goals: Four Decades of Struggle for Development in the United Nations | United Nations United Nations (UN Chronicle) · 1 December 2007

   “When the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Millennium Declaration in 2000, the goals and targets it set in the section on development ultimately became known as the Millennium Development Goals.”

4. E4 A Prehistory of the Millennium Development Goals: Four Decades of Struggle for Development in the United Nations | United Nations United Nations (UN Chronicle) · 1 December 2007

   “Recognizing that the problem was much wider than just hunger, the Assembly on 19 December 1961 [resolution 1710 (XVI)], on a proposal by the President of the United States, proclaimed the 1960s as the "United Nations Development Decade".”

A UN record shows world leaders unanimously adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration on 8 September 2000 (E1). The UN Chronicle says the goals and targets in the Declaration's development section became known as the Millennium Development Goals (E3). The UN's MDG page says those goals included halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education (E2), which matches the health and education basics in the claim. E4 records the earlier 1960s UN Development Decade, but nothing in the evidence shows it was a comparable goal set of the kind that, under the criteria, would make 'once before' substantially inaccurate. The 'best idea' remark is opinion, so it was not tested.