§ The Earl of Sandwichasked Her Majesty's Government:
How they monitor progress towards the international development targets year on year, both bilaterally and multilaterally; and where they publish the results. [HL4517]
§ Baroness AmosResponsibility for monitoring progress towards the International Development Targets (IDTs) lies with the World Bank, which collates relevant data from the other international agencies and publishes them annually in World Development Indicators. The Department for International Development reproduces these data for each IDT by country in its annual publicationStatistics on International Development. The next edition will be published in December 2000.
There is widespread agreement in the international community, including the United Nations, the World Bank and the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, on the uses of a core set of some 21 indicators to monitor progress towards the IDTs. In many countries, statistical capacity to collect the necessary data is weak. DFID and others are providing support to strengthen national statistical services.
Monitoring annual progress is not possible in all circumstances as in some cases data are collected only every few years. For example, data on the proportion of a nation's population subsisting on less than 102WA US$1.00 per day are collected only every third year. Estimates of maternal mortality rates are mostly based on surveys which collect data on maternal deaths over several previous years, and in some cases the previous 10 or 12 years.
DFID's Public Service Agreement (PSA) provides a framework for monitoring the contribution of DFID's activities towards achievement of specific IDTs. Progress against PSA objectives is reported in DFID's annual departmental report.