This study argues that while the MDG concept is clear on goals, it has never been clear on how to link goals to policies and on how to promote synergies between goals. A framework for linking agriculture and health in ways that alleviate pov¬erty and hunger is missing, as is a set of policies to effectively exploit the synergies between agriculture and health. Such a framework requires an additional emphasis on context, governance, and policy tools. Both agriculture and health are important for most of the MDGs, and positive synergies could link agricultural and health policy, programming, and research in ways that would benefit both sectors and advance the MDGs as a whole. But the current approach toward achieving the MDGs needs an overhaul, and plan¬ning beyond the MDGs offers opportunities for more comprehensive approaches to improving human well-being. To realize this potential, it is important to stop singling out individual MDGs and instead to start recognizing the linkages among them and their functional relationships and interdependence. Strategic use and strengthening of the linkages between agriculture and health offer particularly strong opportunities for achieving poverty reduction and health goals in many low-income countries. Exploiting these opportunities requires a new initiative for evidence-based and knowledge-intensive action across the agriculture and health sectors.