UNECE has launched a new database of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) indicators. The database contains official estimates of over a hundred indicators used to monitor MDGs nationally and internationally.
It is designed to benefit users and producers of MDG indicators on both national and international levels and help understand the different estimates that are available from different sources. The database also aims to alleviate the reporting burden of national statistical offices by making the national official data broadly available.
The United Nations Millennium Declaration, unanimously adopted by the General Assembly in 2000, resulted in the largest international development effort. The declaration identified eight time bound goals and  set quantified targets.
Monitoring the progress towards these goals is essential as it guides the planning and evaluation of policies and supports accountability of governments to citizens. Internationally, the monitoring results are used as criteria for financial and other assistance. For all these reasons, good and reliable statistics on progress towards MDGs need to be available.
The United Nations Statistics Division coordinates the monitoring process. It regularly updates a defined and internationally agreed set of monitoring indicators. In the context of the global importance of MDGs, the regional specificities in achieving and monitoring them are also widely recognized and UNECE member countries have requested establishment of a regional database to improve the monitoring.
Besides the official internationally agreed indicators, UNECE countries often use indicators by population sub-groups and additional indicators relevant for monitoring MDGs in their specific situation. UNECE includes those indicators in the regional database if they are reported among a wider group of countries.
A key benefit of the UNECE regional database is the presentation of both the international and national official estimates of the monitoring indicators. Frequently, the values of the international and national official estimates for a specific monitoring indicator differ from each other because of different definitions, methods, primary data sources and reference periods. To help users interpret the data and the discrepancies between the estimates, UNECE publishes in the database extensive additional information — metadata.
To access the database, go to http://w3.unece.org/pxweb