Millennium Development Goals:progress and capacity building

Jessica Gardner

UNECE Statistical Division

Expert Group Meeting on MDG Indicators in Central Asia

Astana, Kazakhstan, 5-8 October 2009

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Demand for official statistics

Internationally agreed development goals

Reporting and analysis:• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)• Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)• Common Country Assessment (CCA)• Human Rights Conventions• …

Response to disasters and crises

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“Even within successful countries, there are pockets where poverty and hunger are persistently high and which will not share the fruits of economic growth.

Particular groups of people suffer higher overall incidence of poverty and hunger, including children, female-headed households, indigenous and tribal peoples and landless populations.”

Achieving the Internationally Agreed Development Goals

Dialogues at the UN Economic and Social Council, 2005

Sub-national population change in New Zealand

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“Governments need to enhance their statistical and other capacities to enable the monitoring of the impact of MDG strategies in different segments of their populations…”

Achieving the Internationally Agreed Development Goals

Dialogues at the UN Economic and Social Council, 2005

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“The UN must demonstrate greater alignment with national priorities and country systems... and to help shape those priorities to reflect governments’ international/global commitments to the MDGs and internationally agreed upon development goals…”

United Nations Development Group, 2009

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Building statistical capacity

2005 Assessment of capacity to produce MDG-relevant statistics

21 countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia

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Key findings

1. Deterioration in quality of data based on administrative registers

2. Limited capacity to maintain a regular national survey programme able to produce MDG statistics

3. Very limited capacity to produce MDG data disaggregated by sub-population groups

4. Lack of a systematic and sustained approach to disseminate MDG statistics

5. Lack of capacity to produce indicators related to HIV/AIDS, access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT), slums

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Recommendations

1. Review the quality of the data obtained from administrative registers

2. Streamline the great amount of data produced through administrative records

3. Develop comprehensive and sustainable national survey programmes

4. Improve the size and design of household samples

5. Conduct the population and housing census

6. Improve the dissemination and accessibility of MDG-related data