Statistics, Knowledge and Policy
OECD World Forum on Key Indicators
Palermo, 10-13 November 2004
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS: MEASURING AND
MONITORING GLOBAL PROGRESS
PAUL CHEUNG
In September 2000, the world’s leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration committing to a global
partnership to eradicating global poverty and acknowledged that progress was based on sustainable
economic growth, which should focus on the poor. To help track progress, a set of time-bound and
measurable goals and targets (MDGs) were derived from the Declaration. Extensive technical
consultations, working within guidelines and rules established by the political process, led to the selection
of MDG Indicators now endorsed by the General Assembly.
The MDG Indicators provide an agreed set of quantitative measures of progress toward the Goals, based
on established principles and practices of official statistics. The indicators are now widely accepted and
used in national, regional and international programmes for monitoring and evaluating implementation of
the MDGs.
MDG monitoring and reporting at the international and national level
Monitoring at the global level requires full collaboration among international agencies and continuous
consultation with national experts and statisticians. This work is undertaken through an Inter-agency and
Expert Group to ensure coordination across the UN system, other important international parties, and
national statistical services. The monitoring is based on international data series compiled by specialized
agencies responsible for the different areas covered by the MDGs.
Active country participation and ownership of the MDGs are critical to their effectiveness. The process of
monitoring MDGs at the national level has engaged governments in national debates to discuss priorities
and to tailor the MDG targets to these priorities and national circumstances. National statistical services
have become involved in the preparation, analysis and monitoring of MDG indicators based on their
country data. This has resulted in a stronger sense of national “ownership” and also caused national policy
decisions and planning efforts to gradually coalesce around a defined set of development aspirations. The
assessment of progress presented in MDG country reports is widely used to inform national debate and
promote the production and use of statistics for policy making and monitoring.
The challenges ahead
The MDGs have succeeded in raising awareness that a sound quantitative knowledge of what has been
achieved and the distance to go is the foundation for reaching the final goals. The monitoring
requirements however have also clearly uncovered important shortcomings in the availability of data to
monitor development efforts. Producing the necessary data to monitor the MDGs in countries where
resources are limited is obviously a significant challenge. Better statistics have thus assumed a critical
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role in the MDG agenda, with the international community recognizing that statistical development of
national statistics needs to be part of any development strategy.
Continuous efforts are needed by the international statistical community to overcome problems of
comparability and provide an analysis of the aggregate figures that goes beyond the abstraction of
averages and fairly represents the local situation. International statistical services have the responsibility
of ensuring the credibility of the MDGs by providing every year a sound basis for assessing progress and
for focusing the international debate and the development of strategies for the achievement of the goals.
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