With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expiring in 2015, the United Nations is debating a new set of goals to guide future multilateral cooperation for development at a time when overlapping global risks – from the climate, poorly regulated finance and failed human security – present unprecedented challenges to international cooperation. To finance future development, the UN system is turning more and more to the private sector for answers without reflecting on the negative results that market-led development might bring. This Perspective offers a vision for reclaiming the UN’s traditionally values-based framework and suggests that accountability needs to be at the core of development.