Measuring Progress Towards Millennium Development Goals by Province in Populous Countries

Correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed to: Dr. C. John Clements 89 Wimborne Drive Melbourne, VIC 3930 Australia Email: [email protected] While the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent ambitious targets for reducing poverty by 2015, measuring whether the goals have been reached is problematic, particularly for the most populous developing countries. The provinces/ states in these very large countries are often more populous than some entire countries. They frequently have largely-autonomous governmental powers and may be at liberty to create policy independent from the national government in areas such as health and welfare. These states may also have varying degrees of wealth. It is not surprising, then, that disparities exist between provinces (a typical example of variation in health status between provinces is shown in the figure). So, it makes good sense to report progress of MDGs by province in these populous countries.