https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sdgoverview/mdg_goals.html

The Millennium Development Goals by the UN was the precursor to the SDGs which had a more pointed focus certain types of nations and on certain types of problems.  It claims to have been extremely effective at fighting poverty specifically.  Based upon these concepts and the experience the UN has developed with these goals, they looked to have more global, universal, and ambitious goals which aim to stop future problems instead of just responding to them.