10 March 2015: Opening the 27th meeting of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Millennium Development Goals Indicators (IAEG-MDG), Wu Hongbo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said the Group has “transformed an inspirational global agenda for development into a set of concrete and time-bound goals and targets, regularly monitored by statistically robust indicators.” He noted the UN Statistical Commission’s (UNSC) decision, at its 46th session, to establish a similar working mechanism (IAEG-SDGs) for the development and implementation of the post-2015 indicator framework.

Serving as the last IAEG-MDG meeting, the 27th meeting held in New York, US, on 9-10 March 2015, sought to discuss: preparations for the final global MDG monitoring report and related outputs; transitioning from the MDGs to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and steps toward the conclusion of the IAEG-MDG’s work.

Wu said regular monitoring of the MDGs had helped to galvanize development efforts and implement successful targeted interventions. He also noted the importance of the Group’s work on: providing “the most up-to-date and comprehensive” information on the progress towards the MDGs; informing the political discussion related to the Goals; enhancing the transparency of methodologies for data compilation and estimation; addressing discrepancies between national and international data, and strengthening national statistical capacity for effective monitoring of development. He said the annual MDG report has become “the key reference on MDGs” and remains one of the most widely downloaded and utilized UN publications. Looking ahead, he said the final MDG report “will be a historical document” as it will provide key reference material to the UN summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda in September 2015.

The IAEG-MDG includes various departments of the UN Secretariat, a number of UN and government agencies, national statisticians, and other organizations concerned with the development of MDG data at the national and international levels. The Group is responsible for: preparing data and analysis to monitor progress towards the MDGs; reviewing and defining methodologies and technical issues related to indicators; producing guidelines, and helping define priorities and strategies to support countries in data collection, analysis and reporting on MDGs. [Meeting Webpage] [MDG Indicators Webpage] [Wu Statement] [IISD RS Story on UNSC 46]