How Should MDG Success and Failure be Judged: Faster Progress or Achieving the Targets?

This paper addresses the debate about the use of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as performance measures in three ways. First we clarify the concept; like other global goals, the MDGs are benchmarks for gauging progress toward important objectives and should not be treated as planning goals. Second, when used as measures of national performance, the criterion of success should focus on the pace of progress rather than on achieving the targets. Third, we propose an alternative measurement method and find that with this metric, countries of Africa outperform global averages in progress to achieving the MDG targets.