With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September to accelerate progress towards the MDGs. Throughout 2010, the global community has been busy taking stock of proven initiatives that made progress on these Goals and mobilizing support for their achievement by the 2015 deadline. This special issue of the MDGNet, PRNet and IPC-IG News Update brings together a compilation of major reports, events and initiatives in preparation for the MDG Summit. We hope you will find it resourceful and useful!