MDG Reporting: Millennium Indicators Francesca Perucci United Nations Statistics Division

MDGs Monitoring and Reporting In its resolution “Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit”, the General Assembly mandated the Secretary-General “to prepare a comprehensive report every five years, supplemented by an annual report on progress achieved towards implementing the Declaration.” This task involves regular monitoring at both the global and the country levels.

MDGs Monitoring and Reporting * Global reporting: UN-DESA UN/DESA, based on inputs prepared by the various designated agencies in the UN system and the World Bank, IMF and OECD, coordinates the preparation of the global report *National reporting: UNCT MDG National Reports are prepared by UN Country Teams

MDGs Monitoring and Reporting *Global reporting: UN-DESA The global report is used as a basis for the Secretary- General’s report to the General Assembly Objective  provide a global assessment of progress towards the achievement of MDGs Target audience  member states *National reporting: UNCT MDG National Reports are prepared by UN Country Teams Objective  raise awareness; advocate; focus national development debate on specific priorities; build national capacity for monitoring/reporting on MDGs Target audience  national policy makers, civil society, development partners

MDGs Monitoring and Reporting Selection of the indicators for MDG Monitoring Consultations among the United Nations Secretariat, IMF, the World Bank and OECD led to the selection of more than 40 indicators for the monitoring of progress towards MDGs Two subsequent inter-agency expert group meetings were held to further revise the millennium development goal indicators in March and April 2002

MDGs Monitoring and Reporting Selection of the indicators for MDG Monitoring The two inter-agency expert group meetings on the Millennium Indicators:  reviewed the MDG Indicators framework  discussed data availability, conceptual issues, data accuracy and measurement problem at national level  discussed geographical coverage and consistency over time for the calculation/estimation of regional and global figures for the two benchmark years (1990 and 2000)

MDGs Monitoring and Reporting Selection of the indicators for MDG Monitoring The two inter-agency expert group meetings on the Millennium Indicators produced the revised list of 48 Millennium Indicators. The list was adopted by all partner agencies and the UN Secretariat for the global monitoring towards the achievement of MDGs

Millennium Indicators Why is the Millennium Indicator Set an important achievement?  It proved effective in building up consensus among agencies and collaboration in data compilation  It represents a first significant step in the search for harmonization and rationalization of development indicators within the UN system  It is a goal/target-oriented list and so provides policy- oriented statistics  It provides a framework for coordination among and within international organizations and between international organizations and countries, for statistical capacity-building

Millennium Indicators From the Millennium Indicator Set to country- relevant indicators There is concern on:  The relevance of goals and targets to the specific country’s circumstances  The relevance of the indicators to specific countries’ situations  The selection of the indicators and their relevance to the targets  The availability, quality and international comparability of data necessary for the MDG indicators

Millennium Indicators How to make MDG indicators relevant to and applicable at the country level The process of selection of MDG Indicators had the main purpose of reaching a global consensus on ways of measuring and assessing progress in achieving development goals MDG Indicators for national reporting should be tailored to countries’ needs and circumstances

Millennium Indicators How to make MDG indicators relevant to and applicable at the country level MDG Indicators for national reporting should be developed taking into account: Gender issues Differences among socio-economic and/or ethnic groups Specific country’s circumstances in all spheres (such as health, education and the economy)

Millennium Indicators How to make MDG indicators relevant to and applicable at the country level: a few examples Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Target 1. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day Ind. 1 - Proportion of population below $1(PPP) per day (World Bank) At the country level it may be more relevant to consider the different dimensions of poverty, including not only market-based consumption, but also the public provision of goods and services, access to resources, aspects related to a satisfactory life, levels of education, health and mortality, etc. This conceptualization may be more instrumental in understanding the conditions of social and economic deprivation and its gender dimension and be more informative for policy makers.

Millennium Indicators How to make MDG indicators relevant to and applicable at the country level: a few examples Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Target 2. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger Ind. 4 - Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age (UNICEF - WHO) There are countries where child malnutrition concerns only specific population groups/geographical areas. The global indicator therefore has no relevance unless appropriately disaggregated. Other specific aspects of child nutrition and well-being may be considered.

Millennium Indicators How to make MDG indicators relevant to and applicable at the country level: a few examples Goal 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Target 8. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases Ind Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria (WHO) Ind Proportion of population in malaria risk areas using effective malaria prevention and treatment measures (UNICEF - WHO) Malaria represents a major disease when considering its toll on the world’s population or the population of specific regions and sub-regions. In most countries, however, other aspects of human health should be considered.

Millennium Indicators From the Millennium Indicator Set to country- relevant indicators There is concern on:  The relevance of goals and targets to the specific country’s circumstances  The relevance of the indicators to specific countries’ situations  The selection of the indicators and their relevance to the targets  The availability, quality and international comparability of data necessary for the MDG indicators

Millennium Indicators The selection of the indicators and their relevance to the targets: a few examples Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women Target 4. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015 Ind Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector (ILO) The target does not address the whole spectrum of the goal. The indicator does not have a clear link with the target. The indicator is not completely adequate to address gender equality in the labour market. Other variables would need to be considered, such as working conditions, the levels of remuneration and wage differentials, labour legislation and social benefits, full-time versus part-time jobs, the status in employment, the importance of the informal sector/home-based work in the country, etc.

Millennium Indicators The selection of the indicators and their relevance to the targets: a few examples Goal 8. Develop a global partnership for development Target 16. In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth Ind Unemployment rate of 15-to-24- year-olds, each sex and total (ILO) Unemployment is but one dimension of the employment problems faced by young people. A large number of young women and men in many countries are underemployed – either working fewer hours than they would like to, or working long hours for little economic gain. Also, economic stagnation and declining opportunities in the formal sector have resulted in a shift to work in the informal sector or in unpaid house-based work.

Millennium Indicators From the Millennium Indicator Set to country- relevant indicators There is concern on:  The relevance of goals and targets to the specific country’s circumstances  The relevance of the indicators to specific countries’ situations  The selection of the indicators and their relevance to the targets  The availability, quality and international comparability of data necessary for the MDG indicators

Millennium Indicators The availability, quality and international comparability of data necessary for the MDG indicators Problems with data for MDG Indicators are related to:  Lack of international standards  Failure in adopting international standards at the national level  Measurement problems  National programmes not fully developed in specific statistical areas  New statistical areas, with recent methodological development

Data availability for MDG Indicators: an example

Strengthening statistical capacity The national reporting mechanisms – MDG country reports– can help identify areas where efforts to strengthen statistical capacity are most needed One important outcome of the preparation of the MDG National Reports will be improved national capacity for national monitoring of MDGs  This will help raise awareness on the need to produce policy-oriented statistics, that is, statistics to address specific goals and targets

Conclusions Keeping the global and national monitoring close together will help Identify and correct differences and inconsistencies in statistics and indicators as presented at country level and in the global report/database Incorporate inputs from countries in the global picture Identify areas for improvement is statistics and channel resources and interventions of development partners towards them