The main conclusions from the plenary sessions of the Policy Forum can be summarised as follows: • focus must still remain on achieving the MDGs; • developing country ownership of the new framework is essential and the approach must therefore be Southern‐led; • the obligations of the developed countries towards the achievement of the MDGs need clarification; • international income and wealth redistribution should be a ‘right’ (‘automatic’ rather than discretionary), including international redistributive taxes and international inequality and its reduction should be given more emphasis; • ethical and moral perspectives need emphasising within a global social justice, rather than a purely Indicator‐driven, approach; • ‘fragile’ states and global uncertainty need special treatment; • the ‘quality’ of MDG achievements, rather than ‘quantity’, needs emphasising; • the science and technology capacity of developing countries is critically important; • processes which deliver the quantitative Indicators (MDGs) require more emphasis. Serious research is needed to ensure the debate is well informed.