Measuring Equitable MDG Progress

Milo Vandemoortele, Luisa Natali and Matt Geddes
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Milo Vandemoortele: Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
Luisa Natali: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, Italy
Matt Geddes: Overseas Development Institute, Freetown, Sierra Leone

The European Journal of Development Research, 2014, vol. 26, issue 5, 675 pages

Abstract: How do we identify and highlight countries achieving equitable Millennium Development Goal (MDG) progress? The answer lies in how we measure MDG progress. The current approach focuses solely on scale. Most policymakers have focused on the size, rather than the shape of change. Measuring equitable progress will make policymakers work harder towards large-scale and equitable progress. This article proposes an approach to combine scale with equity of progress into a single indicator – it can also be applied to national measurements of progress and provides a concrete manner in which to include equity in the post-2015 agenda. The article applies the methodology to 62 countries, and compares standard average progress with equity-adjusted progress. It then isolates the equity component of progress, and highlights the strengths and challenges of this approach. Finally, the article illustrates that when indicators incorporate both the size and shape of progress valuable new policy objectives emerge that would otherwise be missed.

Date: 2014
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