Like it or not, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the Member States of the United Nations in 2000 have dominated the agendas of development agencies and organizations—inside the UN to be sure, but also in many bilateral donors, development banks, and multilateral aid organizations in the NGO sector. And in typical fashion and rapid succession the international community developed new programs in response—with the aim of both catalyzing the process and its needed funding, as well as tracking its progress including: the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the Millennium Project, the Millennium Challenge Account, the Millennium Promise, etc. Initially, it was felt that meeting the eight MDGs would cost some $40–60 billion each year in additional development assistance. What those figures did not include however was the needed boost in R&D that would have to support the flow of aid if practical, dare I mention sustainable, solutions would be forthcoming. Subsequently, and not that long after the MDGs were adopted, the combined R&D and investment figure was adjusted upward to $100 billion annually. And the truth is that even that figure has been called into question as little more than a ‘shot in the dark.’ Much has also been written about the starts and stops of the MDG process, but as we approach the two-thirds mark since their adoption and the 2015 date by which time we were supposed to have met the goals, it may be worthwhile to reinforce one aspect of the process that seems fundamental regardless of the funding or timing involved. And let me be clear that I can really only address two of the 18 MDG targets in any detail: those of (1) reducing by half the number of people without access to sufficient quantities of safe drinking water from the 2000 estimate of 1.2 billion, and (2) reducing by half the number of people without access to sanitation from the estimate at that time of 2.2 billion people. Investment in education at all levels, but particularly post-graduate education, to develop the next generation of water and environmental managers and scientists is seriously lagging behind what is needed if the MDGs are to be met. This reality is not exclusively a developing country issue. Parts of Scandinavia and Western Europe will loose upwards of 30% of their environmental professionals in the next 5–10 years as the post-60s generation of scientists and academics retire in rather large waves. But the problem is most critical in the South. UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education undertook a preliminary assessment of the situation in 2007 which will be validated at a higher degree of confidence this year, but our initial findings are rather startling. A 300% increase in water technicians, engineers, managers, and scientists is needed in Africa if the investments being made in the R. A. Meganck (&) UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: rameganck@gmail.com