1. Introduction

2. Incorporating the MDG Indicators within the GDDS Structure

3. The GDDS and PRSP Monitoring

4. Conclusion

Text Tables

 1. The Data Dimension of the GDDS
 2. MDG Indicators Not Related to Current GDDS Data Categories

Appendix

 I. Millennium Development Goals, Targets, and Indicators

I. Introduction

1. Since the last review of data standards in July 2001, the need for good quality data to monitor economic and social progress within and across countries and to provide the basis for effective poverty reduction has become even more apparent. In this respect, the agreement reached at the Millennium Summit in 2000 on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their subsequent translation into a number of specific targets and indicators has been a major factor. At the summit, there was full agreement on the eight goals and all countries entered into a commitment to monitor progress toward them. In subsequent discussions pursued through a number of international meetings, agreement has been reached on 18 targets and 48 indicators that will be used to measure progress.¹ Of these 48 indicators, some 35 depend on data that are normally generated by national statistical systems. The United Nations has established a reporting and dissemination framework for the MDG indicators.

2. The General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) assists countries in the development of their overall statistical systems, which generate much (but not all) of the data required by the United Nations MDG monitoring framework (Table 1.c). This paper describes the degree to which the GDDS is able to support the compilation of MDG indicators, and presents proposals to encourage GDDS participants to use the GDDS for guidance in producing statistics and describing compilation practices relevant to monitoring MDGs (Table 1). Not all countries that have poverty reduction programs are GDDS participants, and not all data categories relevant to MDG monitoring are covered by the GDDS (Table 2). Nevertheless the GDDS has a strong role to play in supporting the MDG framework.

3. The MDGs themselves are increasingly being used by the international community to provide a results-based framework for increasing the effectiveness of development assistance. They have served to focus attention on the importance of goals and targets as a means of strengthening policies and mobilizing resources, leading to increased awareness of the need for good quality indicators that can be monitored on a regular basis.

4. Within developing countries, there is also an increasing focus on development results and on the need to monitor progress, driven in particular by the preparation and implementation of national poverty reduction strategies. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and the PRSP process, together with the UNDP-led MDG Country Reports, have directly led to a substantial increase in the demand for good quality statistics, to set baselines, to monitor progress, and to evaluate the impact of policy change. Countries preparing PRSPs have developed their own sets of indicators of development progress, most of which are directly compatible with the MDGs, but which reflect local concerns and conditions.

5. The increased demand for statistical data and metadata and for indicators to monitor progress toward agreed goals and targets has inevitably led to increased attention being given to the various systems to collect, compile, process, and disseminate good quality statistics. At its 2003 Spring Meeting, the Development Committee "...welcomed the progress on developing a global monitoring framework to allow the Committee to regularly assess progress and to reinforce accountabilities among developing and developed countries, as well as institutional partners, for the policies and actions for achieving the MDGs and related outcomes." The Committee also underlined "The urgency of the work on statistical capacity building, especially for those countries most at risk of not meeting the MDGs . . ."²

6. Beside compiling and disseminating data, an important function of the global statistical system is to agree on standard definitions and methods of data collection and to provide opportunities for the exchange of information between national and international statistical agencies. If the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) is to fulfill its role as an important tool in improving the range and quality of statistics, then its development and implementation must strengthen the global statistical system. In particular, it is important to ensure that the GDDS supports both national and international efforts to compile indicators and to monitor progress toward agreed goals.

II. Incorporating the MDG Indicators within the GDDS Structure

7. Although there is not a direct relationship between the GDDS data categories and the MDGs, nevertheless, the structure of the GDDS data dimension underpins the majority of the 35 MDG indicators that are derived from national statistical systems. As indicated in Table 1.c, 23 of the 35 indicators are already covered by either the basic components or the encouraged extensions of the four socio-demographic data categories. The population data category covers two MDG indicators, the education category five, the health category thirteen, and the poverty category three. In addition, three further indicators (the share of women in nonagricultural wage employment, the unemployment rate among youths, and the ratio of external debt service to exports of goods and services) are covered by the macro-economic and financial data categories (Table 1.b). The remaining nine indicators include five on the environment, one on housing tenure, one on gender, and two on the benefits of technology. These indicators are currently not covered by the GDDS, which focuses on provision of guidelines for broad sectors of economic, financial and socio-demographic categories, and on the principal agencies responsible for dissemination of statistics. Expansion of the GDDS to cover additional categories will be considered, as internationally agreed frameworks and guidelines are developed for sectors beyond the current GDDS domain.

8. Incorporating a majority of the MDG indicators within the GDDS structure is straightforward and does not require any major change. Explicit recognition, within the GDDS, of those MDG indicators related to specific socio-demographic data categories, as set out in Table 1.c, will have a number of important advantages. First, it will highlight the importance of countries' generating the data needed to estimate the indicators and will help to improve data coverage worldwide. Second, countries will be encouraged to prepare metadata on these indicators and their associated statistical systems, and this information will enhance transparency and be useful to those agencies involved in the compilation of international datasets. Third, including the indicators within the framework will encourage countries to define plans for improving the range and quality of statistics, which should also lead to an improvement in the capacity of countries and the international community to monitor progress toward the goals.

III. The GDDS and PRSP Monitoring

9. The preparation and implementation of a PRSP is a data-intensive process that requires countries to identify poverty-related indicators and to establish systems to monitor these on a regular basis. A number of countries have found that the GDDS can be a useful tool both for the identification of indicators and for the development of a comprehensive monitoring system, with most of the areas of importance to the PRSP being covered by the GDDS.

10. The formal process of preparing the GDDS metadata ensures that the data systems underlying the PRSP indicators are well documented. The socio-demographic data component specifically includes poverty as a data category and thus provides the framework for documenting key poverty indicators. It also provides a framework for documenting the data systems that generate health and education indicators. Macroeconomic and financial sector statistics are documented under the respective sectors (see Tables 1.a and 1.b).

11. No change is required, therefore, to the basic structure of the GDDS to cover almost all of the PRSP indicators that have been used so far. What is needed is to encourage countries that are involved in preparing PRSPs and developing monitoring plans to participate in the GDDS, if they are not already doing so, and to ensure their metadata are up to date and reflect the needs of the PRSP process. It may then be possible to link the preparation of PRSP progress reports with updating the metadata, while Joint Staff Assessments (JSA) might highlight the role the GDDS can play in supporting PRSP monitoring.

IV. Conclusion

12. This paper has presented the case for giving explicit recognition in the framework of the GDDS to MDG indicators, and thereby encourages the development of appropriate statistical monitoring systems. To this end, the socio-demographic data dimension of the GDDS, as laid out in Table 1.c, has been expanded by a column showing the majority of MDG indicators in relation to the existing data categories of population, education, health, and poverty, and their basic components and encouraged extensions. Two MDG indicators relating to the labor market are reflected in a further disaggregation of data as part of the encouraged extension on labor market indicators in Table 1.a.

13. Following the Fifth Review of the Fund's Data Standards Initiatives, the staffs intend to submit changes to the GDDS document for approval by the Executive Board of the Fund and management of the World Bank. Apart from modifications in Table 1, as presented here, the GDDS document would be amended to encourage (1) dissemination of data that support the compilation of MDG indicators; (2) inclusion in the GDDS metadata of descriptions of methodology and associated practices used in compiling MDG indicators; and (3) inclusion in relevant GDDS metadata tables of descriptions of statistics used in compiling any additional indicators featured in national PRSPs.

Table 1. The Data Dimension of the GDDS

a. Comprehensive Frameworks-Macroeconomic and Financial Sectors
Core Framework		Encouraged extension(s)	Periodicity	Timeliness
Framework	Coverage, classification, and analytical framework
Real Sector
National accounts	Producing and disseminating the full range of national accounts aggregates and balancing items in nominal and real terms, yielding Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Income, Gross Disposable Income, Consumption, Saving, Capital Formation, and Net Lending/Net Borrowing. Producing and disseminating sectoral accounts and national and sectoral balance sheets, as relevant.		Annual	10–14 months
Fiscal sector
Central government operations	Producing and disseminating comprehensive data on transactions and debt, emphasizing (1) coverage of all central government units; (2) use of appropriate analytical framework; and (3) development of a full range of detailed classifications (tax and nontax revenue, current and capital expenditure, domestic and foreign financing) with breakdowns (debt holder, instrument, currency), as relevant.	General government or public sector operations data, strongly encouraged where subnational levels of government or public enterprise operations are of analytical or policy importance	Annual	6–9 months
Financial sector
Depository corporations survey	Producing and disseminating comprehensive data emphasizing (1) coverage of all depository corporations (banking institutions); (2) use of an appropriate analytical framework; and (3) development of classifications of external assets and liabilities, domestic credit by sector, and components of money (liquidity) and nonmonetary liabilities.		Monthly	2–3 months
External sector
Balance of payments	Producing and disseminating comprehensive data on the main aggregates and balancing items of the balance of payments, including e.g., imports and exports of goods and services, trade balance, income and current transfers, current account balance, reserves and other financial transactions, and overall balance, with detailed components, as relevant.	International Investment Position (IIP)	Annual	6–9 months

b. Data Categories and Indicators-Macroeconomic and Financial Sectors
Data categories	Core indicators	Encouraged extension(s)	Periodicity	Timeliness
Real sector
National accounts aggregates	GDP (nominal and real)	Gross national income, capital formation, saving	Annual (quarterly encouraged)	6-9 months
Production index/indices	Manufacturing or industrial indices Primary commodity, agricultural, or other indices, as relevant		MonthlyAs relevant	6-12 weeks for allindices
Price indices	Consumer price index	Producer price index	Monthly	1-2 months
Labor market indicators	Employment, unemployment, wages/earnings, as relevant	Disaggregation by age, sex, employment status, occupation and industry as appropriate.	Annual	6-9 months
Fiscal sector
Central government Aggregates	Revenue, expenditure, balance, and financing with breakdowns (debt holder, instrument, currency), as relevant	Interest payments	Quarterly	1 quarter
Central government debt	Domestic debt and foreign debt, as relevant, with appropriate breakdowns (currency, maturity, debt holder, instrument), as relevant	Government guaranteed debt	Annual (quarterly encouraged)	1-2 quarters
Financial sector
Broad money and credit aggregates	Net external position, domestic credit, broad or narrow money		Monthly	1-3 months
Central bank aggregates	Monetary base		Monthly	1-2 months
Interest rates	Short and long-term government security rates, policy variable rate	Money or interbank rates and a range of deposit and lending rates	Monthly
Stock market		Share price index, as relevant	Monthly
External sector
Balance of payments aggregates	Imports and exports of goods and services, current account balance, reserves, overall balance		Annual (quarterly strongly encouraged)	6 months
External debt and debt service schedule	Public and publicly guaranteed external debt, broken down by maturity Public and publicly guaranteed external debt service schedule	Private external debt not publicly guaranteed, and debt service schedule	Quarterly Twice yearly with data for 4 quarters and 2 semesters ahead Annual	1-2 quarters 3-6 months 6-9 months
International reserves	Gross official reserves denominated in U.S. dollars	Reserve-related liabilities	Monthly	1-4 weeks
Merchandise trade	Total exports and total imports	Major commodity breakdowns with longer time lapse	Monthly	8-12 weeks
Exchange rates	Spot rates		Daily

c. Socio-demographic Data
Socio-demographic data
Data categories	Basic components	Encouraged extension(s)	Related Indicators of Millennium Development Goals1	Periodicity	Timeliness
Population	Population characteristics: size and composition of the population, derived from census, surveys, or vital registration system	Disaggregation of population and vital statistics data by age, sex, and region, as appropriate		Annual (Census every ten years)	3-6 months for annual updates; 9-12 months for Census
	Dynamics of growth: vital statistics: births, deaths, and migration	Reporting of mortality rates, crude birth rate, fertility rate, and life expectancy	13. Under-five mortality rate 14. Infant mortality rate
Education	Inputs: measures of current financial, human, and physical resources available to public and private (if significant) educational institutions, recorded by level of education or type of program	Disaggregation of data by region is recommended for all data categories. Characteristics of teaching staff, including training, experience, and terms of employment (full or part time). Expenditures by households on education (including fees and other expenses for public or private education)		Annual	6-12 months following beginning of school year
	Process: measures of student progress through school, such as enrollments, dropouts, and repetitions, recorded by level of education and sex of students	Calculation of net enrollment rates (by grade and sex)	6. Net enrolment ratio in primary education 7. Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5 9. Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary, and tertiary education
	Outcomes: educational attainment measured by progress through school, graduations, and completions by level; literacy.	Disaggregation by age and sex. Graduation and completion rates. Scores on standardized achievement exams	8. Literacy rate of 15–24-year olds 10. Ratio of literate women to men of 15–24-year olds
Health	Inputs: measures of current financial, human, and physical resources available to public and private (if significant) health system, including public expenditures on health services; capacity of health care facilities by location and type of facility, and the number of trained personnel by location and certification	Private (household) expenditures on health services. Disaggregation of data by region		Annual (outbreaks of contagious diseases should be reported at higher frequency and with greater timeliness)	3-6 months following end of reference period
	Process (service delivery):Measures describing the number of clients served and type of care provided by public and private care providers, including inpatient, outpatient, and preventative care; population served by public health services such as immunizations, sanitation services, and improved water supply	Measures of the responsiveness of the health system to non-health aspects of service delivery. Disaggregation of data by region.	15. Proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles 17. Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel 19. Condom use rate of the contraceptive prevalence rate 22. Proportion of population in malaria risk areas using effective malaria prevention and treatment measures 24. Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under directly observed treatment short course 30. Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural 31. Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation
	Outcomes: statistics on mortality and morbidity, including mortality by cause and the incidence of disease by age, sex, region and other patient characteristics		4. Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age 16. Maternal mortality ratio 18. HIV prevalence among 15-24-year old pregnant women 20. Number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS 21. Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria 23. Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
Poverty	Income poverty: number and proportion of people or households with less than minimum standard of income or consumption; valuation of minimum consumption bundle	Measures of the distribution of household or per capita income or consumption, and incidence of low consumption	1. Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day 2. Poverty gap ratio (incidence x depth of poverty) 3. Share of poorest quintile in national consumption	3-5 years	6-12 months following the survey
	Other poverty measures: measures of deprivation or insecurity used to identify the population living in poverty, such as evidence of malnutrition, endemic diseases, educational achievement, and lack of access to basic services	Separate poverty estimates for urban and rural populations or for major regions, states, or provinces. Disaggregation of data by region.
1As documented (and numbered) in the Millennium Indicators Database of the United Nations Statistical Division (see Appendix I.)

Table 2. MDG Indicators Not Related to Current GDDS Data Categories1
Indicator Number	MDG Indicator
5	Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
12	Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
25	Proportion of land area covered by forest
26	Ratio of area protected to maintain biological diversity to surface area
27	Energy use (kg oil equivalent) per $1 gross domestic product
28	Carbon dioxide emissions (per capita) and consumption of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons
29	Proportion of population using solid fuels
32	Proportion of households with access to secure tenure
33	Net ODA, total and to LDCs, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors' gross national income
34	Proportion of total bilateral, sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
35	Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
36	ODA received in landlocked countries as proportion of their gross national incomes
37	ODA received in small island developing States as proportion of their gross national incomes
38	Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duties
39	Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries
40	Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as percentage of their gross domestic product
41	Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity
42	Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC-decision points and number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
43	Debt relief committed under HIPC initiative, U.S. dollar
46	Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis
47	Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population
48	Personal computers in use per 100 population and Internet users per 100 population
1As documented (and numbered) in the Millennium Indicators Database of the United Nations Statistical Division (see Appendix I).

APPENDIX

Millennium Development Goals, Targets, and Indicators³

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

Indicators
1. Proportion of population below $1 per day
2. Poverty gap ratio (incidence x depth of poverty)
3. Share of poorest quintile in national consumption

Target 2.
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Indicators
4. Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
5. Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

Goal 2. Achieve universal primary education

Target 3.
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Indicators
6. Net enrolment ratio in primary education
7. Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5
8. Literacy rate of 15 to 24-year olds

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

Indicators
9. Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
10. Ratio of literate women to men of 15 to 24-year olds
11. Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
12. Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Goal 4. Reduce child mortality

Target 5.
Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Indicators
13. Under-five mortality rate
14. Infant mortality rate
15. Proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles

Goal 5. Improve maternal health

Target 6. Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

Indicators
16. Maternal mortality ratio
17. Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Goal 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Target 7
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

Indicators
18. HIV prevalence among 15 to 24-year-old pregnant women
19. Condom use rate of the contraceptive prevalence rate
20. Number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS

Target 8.
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Indicators
21. Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria
22. Proportion of population in malaria risk areas using effective malaria prevention and treatment measures
23. Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
24. Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under directly observed treatment short course

Goal 7. Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 9.
Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources

Indicators

25. Proportion of land area covered by forest
26. Ratio of area protected to maintain biological diversity to surface area
27. Energy use (kg oil equivalent) per $1 gross domestic product
28. Carbon dioxide emissions (per capita) and consumption of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons
29. Proportion of population using solid fuels

Target 10.
Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water

Indicators
30. Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural

Target 11.
By 2020 to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

Indicators
31. Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation
32. Proportion of households with access to secure tenure

Goal 8. Develop a global partnership for development

Indicators for targets 12-15 are given below in a combined list.

Target 12.
Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.
Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction - both nationally and internationally

Target 13.
Address the special needs of the least developed countries.
Includes: tariff and quota-free access for least-developed countries' exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous Official Development Assistance (ODA) countries committed to poverty reduction

Target 14.
Address the special needs of landlocked countries and small island developing States (through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly)

Target 15.
Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term

Some of the indicators listed below are monitored separately for the least developed countries (LDCs), Africa, landlocked countries and small island developing States

Indicators

Official development assistance

33. Net ODA, total and to LDCs, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors' gross national income
34. Proportion of total bilateral, sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
35. Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
36. ODA received in landlocked countries as proportion of their gross national incomes
37. ODA received in small island developing States as proportion of their gross national incomes

Market access

38. Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duties
39. Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries
40. Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as percentage of their gross domestic product

41. Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity

Debt sustainability

42. Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC-decision points and number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
43. Debt relief committed under HIPC initiative, U.S. dollar
44. Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services

Target 16.
In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth

Indicators
45. Unemployment rate of 15 to 24-year olds, each sex and total

Target 17.
In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries

Indicators
46. Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis

Target 18.
In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

Indicators
47. Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population
48. Personal computers in use per 100 population and Internet users per 100 population