1. EQxIS Information System: Monitoring Millennium Development Goals when data is available
Carlos Eduardo Velez
Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Network
Caribbean Meeting
Kingston, Jamaica, February 24, 2006

2. Did you know?
... that in Latina America unemployment affects 16% of the population between year-old ...?

3. Unemployment rate of 15-24 year-olds (%)
... that in the poorest quintile unemployment reaches 23% whereas in the richest is only 12% ...?
22.9
Unemployment rate of year-olds (%)
18.9
16.8
12.9
11.5
Poorest
Richest II
III IV
Quintile
Quintile
Income Quintiles

4. Unemployment rate of 15-24 year-old (%)
... that unemployment affects more women than men...?
Women
28.1
23.3
Unemployment rate of year-old (%)
20.3
Men
15.0
17.7
12.1
14.5
13.3
10.8
10.9
Poorest
Richest II
III IV
Quintile
Quintile
Income Quintiles

5. Unemployment rate of 15-24 year-old (%)
... and also diverges between countries?
Jamaica
35.9
34.5
32.3
28.0
26.1
Unemployment rate of year-old (%)
Poorest II
III IV
Richest
Income quintiles
61.1
Dominican Republic
26.6
23.1
Costa Rica
42.8
16.7
30.6
26.8
10.0
17.9
5.6
Poorest II
III IV
Richest
Poorest II
III IV
Richest
Income quintiles
Income quintiles

6. Unemployment rate of 15-24 year-old (%) in Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguay
39.0
Dominican Rep.
33.2
Jamaica
31.8
Venezuela RB
29.2
Panama
26.3
Colombia
22.1
Chile
21.9
Brasil
18.7
Ecuador
17.7
Paraguay
16.3
Average LAC
16.1
Costa Rica
15.4
El Salvador
10.6
Honduras
10.0
Peru
9.1
Bolivia
7.6
Mexico
6.3
Guatemala
4.9

7. Outline
The potential gains of monitoring and evaluation to inform effective public policies
EQxIS: Information System on Social Indicators and Equity
Conclusions

8. 1. The potential gains of monitoring and evaluation to inform effective public policies
Evidence Based Policy Making (EBPM) are public policy decisions made after open discussions based on
relevant
transparent
credible information

9. 1. The potential gains of monitoring (…)
The systematic use of statistical information enables governments to:
Be aware of the relevance/irrelevance
Design and select specific policies and programs
Forecast/anticipate future problems
Monitor performance
Evaluate Impact

10. 1. The potential gains of monitoring (…)
For MDGs monitoring, EBPM helps to:
Know better the present situation
Define sectorial priorities
Balance the efforts required to attain MDG
Avoid errors ( e.g. programs overlapping)
Increase accountability to partners and citizens

11. 1. The potential gains of monitoring (…)
Avoid undesirable alternatives to EBPM
Arbitrariness
Power and influence of particular interests
Habits and Customs
Corruption

12. 1. The potential gains of monitoring (…)
What are some of barriers that prevent governments to embark in EBPM?
Conflicts of interest : “the nervous advocate”: Do you really want to know what is the impact of a program?*
Political Economy: Coalition of interested parties (government agencies, political parties, civil society, etc.).
*Prichet(2002) : It pays to be ignorant

13. 2. EQxIS: Information System on Social Indicators and Equity (IDB)
EQxIS is an information system that offers:
Graphics and tabulations of social indicators.
Divided by:
income groups
geographical areas
ethnic background
Information for 20 countries (1990) and 66 household surveys

14. 2. EQxIS/IDB (…)
Why is it important to monitor Social Indicators and Equity?
Social indicators measure progress in the achievement of development goals.
Usefulness of averages for social indicators is limited.
Necessary to have disaggregated measures that illustrate the distribution of social indicators.

15. 2. EQxIS/IDB (…)
How can governments promote EBPM?
By implementing open and accessible information for social indicators and the MDGs.

16. 2. EQxIS/IDB (…)
EQxIS is an information system useful to countries’ policy makers, donors, researchers, civil society and Bank’s staff

17. 2. EQxIS/IDB (…)
Information stored in a Data Base is easily updated and displayed in three different formats:
Graphics
Tables
Multidimensional Graphics (radar graphics)

22. 2. EQxIS: Information System on Social Indicators and Equity
MECOVI
Household Survey
Data Base
UN Indicators for monitoring MDGs +
Web page Display
* Calculation of indicators based on UN definitions. Disaggregating by :
- Income quintiles
- Gender
- Geographic Area
- Ethnic background
* Calculation of stat. significance figures
*Codification
Stata
Submission of coded database to Access
Consistency of Data
Display data features:
standard error less than 20% of average value
more than 30 sample observations
ASP Programs and Access inquiries

23. Social and Equity Indicators have value for multiple parties:
3. Conclusions
Social and Equity Indicators have value for multiple parties:
Countries: Monitor social indicators with an equity approach.
Donors: International comparisons of LAC
Researchers: Easy access to social indicators from 20+ countries.
IADB: Supports operations and country strategies.

24. 3. Conclusions
Evidence has shown the value of information for quality public policies.
In the case of the Caribbean countries like Jamaica that have established regular surveys and household surveys to monitor social indicators have been able to inform and develop accurate public policies (i.e. PATH).

25. 3. Conclusions
So far the IADB has supported
SPARC (CDB & UNDP): Committed $350,000 to collect, analyze, and produce high quality statistical information in the Caribbean
CARICOM: Joint proposal to support coordination in the region towards a common population census for the round of 2010 was presented to the Regional Public Goods Initiative ($550,000)

26. 3. Conclusions
EQxIS could become a tool to monitor MDGs and MDG+ for the Caribbean.
Regional Policy Dialogue Public Goods Initiative may be used to fund a Caribbean strategy rooted at the national level and involving horizontal cooperation among countries and development agencies.
MECOVI Programs for LAm– 10 years (IADB/ECLAC/WBank) successful hztal. collaboration