1. Monitoring of Developing Country Policies and Actions for Achieving the MDGs and Related Outcomes
Zia Qureshi
Global Monitoring Secretariat, World Bank
Inter-Agency Workshop on Global Monitoring
Washington, DC, June 19, 2003

2. Approach and Framework
Monitoring framework anchored in Monterrey Consensus. Achieving the MDGs and related outcomes will require:
Policies supportive of stronger growth.
Enhancement of poor people’s capabilities to participate in growth, through improved delivery of key services to them—education, health, water and sanitation.
A global partnership in which stronger reform efforts of developing countries are matched with enhanced support from developed countries.
Central role of the PRSP as basis for country level action and partnership.

3. Dimensions of Developing Country Policies to Achieve the Development Goals
Economic and Financial Policies:
Private sector regulatory & institutional environment
Infrastructure: physical & financial
Macro
Trade
Social Sector Policies
Building human resources: education & health
Social protection
Voice/inclusion
Gender
Public Sector Management/
Governance
Public expenditure & revenue management
Public administration
Transparency, accountability, control of corruption
Environment
Policies & Institutions

4. Policy Priorities
Good progress on macro and trade policies, but not full pass through to growth: Three priority areas for action:
Private investment climate needs improvement, especially through strengthening the rule of law and infrastructure.
Biggest challenge for many countries is public sector governance—capacity-building and control of corruption.
More and better spending needed on human development and related services. More effective service delivery to the poor requires better governance, multisectoral approaches, and public-private partnerships.

5. Priorities for Monitoring Work
Despite substantial country analytical work (World Bank ESW, IMF Article IV reviews, PRSP JSAs, work of other agencies), lack of common yardstick for assessing policies across countries. Hence the quest for common metrics (e.g., WB CPIA, similar ratings by AfDB and other RDBs, the US MCA indicators). A key priority is to build on this work, in terms of robustness and comparability of the policy assessments.
Better policy metrics need to be supported by better primary data. Improved availability and quality of social sector data and indicators especially a priority.

6. Implementation of the Monitoring Framework: Country Policy Assessments
Key issues/tasks include:
CPIA upgrading (methodology, transparency of application, disclosure) and use in global monitoring (GM) of similar policy ratings by other agencies.
Increased GM/PRSP interface (use in GM of summary assessments of PRSPs and progress on their implementation; PRSPs as basis for assessing country development resource needs and availabilities).
Use of self-evaluations by countries (findings from NEPAD peer review system).

7. Implementation of the Monitoring Framework: Metrics and Data in Key Specific Policy Areas
Major areas of work and related initiatives are:
Metrics for key dimensions of private investment climate – Doing Business project, Investment Climate Assessments, use of FSAPs/ROSCs, Infrastructure Indicators initiative, IF country studies (trade and behind-the border issues).
More robust metrics for public sector governance – further development of public expenditure management/tracking indicators, second-generation/objective indicators of governance, governance operations progress indicators.
Better data on human resource development – inter-agency action plan to improve social sector data (subject of June 4-5 conference organized by World Bank in partnership with Eurostat, UNDP, and PARIS21).

8. Implementation of the Monitoring Framework: Research
Further research is needed to deepen the analytical underpinnings of the monitoring framework by clarifying the links between policies and outcomes. Key areas of ongoing research are:
Constraints to and impact of growth, and the role of key drivers such as investment climate and governance.
Effectiveness of delivery of human resource development and related key services to poor people.
Multisectoral determinants of the MDGs and their relative weights and elasticities with respect to the development goals.