In 2005 economist Jeffrey Sachs presented an action plan to meet the UN's poverty-slashing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, which included practical and affordable interventions such as bed-nets to fight malaria, vaccinations to combat infectious diseases, the provision of anti-AIDS drugs, fertilisers to improve crop yields and drilling wells to provide safe drinking water. Sachs, who heads the UN Millennium Project and the Earth Institute, has been criticised for suggesting strategies that have been implemented before and failed. In a wide-ranging interview with IRIN, Sachs defended his plan and provided some details on how the project is going to help poor countries help themselves.