EQxIS Information System:
Monitoring Millennium Development
Goals when data is available
Carlos Eduardo Velez
Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Network
Caribbean Meeting - 2006
Kingston, Jamaica, February 24, 2006
... that in Latina America unemployment
affects 16% of the population between
15-24 year-old ...?
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
... that in the poorest quintile unemployment
reaches 23% whereas in the richest is only
12% ...?
22.9
18.9
Unemployment rate of
15-24 year-olds (%)
16.8
12.9
Poorest
Quintile
II
III
IV
Income Quintiles
11.5
Richest
Quintile
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
Unemployment rate of 15-24
year-old (%)
... that unemployment affects more women
than men...?
Women
28.1
23.3
20.3
Men
15.0
17.7
14.5
12.1
13.3
10.8
Poorest
Quintile
II
III
IV
Income Quintiles
10.9
Richest
Quintile
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
... and also diverges between countries?
Jamaica
35.9
34.5
32.3
Unemployment rate
of 15-24 year-old
(%)
Poorest
61.1
42.8
Dominican
Republic
30.6
II
III
IV
Richest
Income quintiles
23.1
Costa Rica
16.7
26.8
17.9
Poorest
26.6
26.1 28.0
II
III
IV
Richest
Income quintiles
10.0
5.6
III
IV
Richest
Poorest II
Income quintiles
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
Unemployment rate of 15-24 year-old (%) in
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguay
Dominican Rep.
Jamaica
Venezuela RB
Panama
Colombia
Chile
Brasil
Ecuador
Paraguay
Average LAC
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Honduras
Peru
Bolivia
Mexico
Guatemala
39.0
33.2
31.8
29.2
26.3
22.1
21.9
18.7
17.7
16.3
16.1
15.4
10.6
10.0
9.1
7.6
6.3
4.9
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
•Outline
1. The potential gains of monitoring and
evaluation to inform effective public
policies
2. EQxIS: Information System on Social
Indicators and Equity
3. Conclusions
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
1. The potential gains of monitoring and
evaluation to inform effective public policies
Evidence Based Policy Making (EBPM)
are public policy decisions made after
open discussions based on
 relevant
 transparent
 credible information
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
1. The potential gains of monitoring (…)
The systematic use of statistical
information enables governments to:
- Be aware of the relevance/irrelevance
- Design and select specific policies and
programs
- Forecast/anticipate future problems
- Monitor performance
- Evaluate Impact
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
1. The potential gains of monitoring (…)
For MDGs monitoring, EBPM helps to:
- Know better the present situation
- Define sectorial priorities
- Balance the efforts required to attain
MDG
- Avoid errors ( e.g. programs
overlapping)
- Increase accountability to partners and
citizens
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
1. The potential gains of monitoring (…)
Avoid undesirable alternatives to EBPM
 Arbitrariness
 Power and influence of particular
interests
 Habits and Customs
 Corruption
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
1. The potential gains of monitoring (…)
What are some of barriers that prevent
governments to embark in EBPM?
- Conflicts of interest : “the nervous
advocate”: Do you really want to know
what is the impact of a program?*
- Political Economy: Coalition of interested
parties (government agencies, political
parties, civil society, etc.).
*Prichet(2002) : It pays to be ignorant
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
2. EQxIS: Information System on Social
Indicators and Equity (IDB)
EQxIS is an information system that offers:
– Graphics and tabulations of social
indicators.
– Divided by:

income groups

geographical areas

ethnic background
– Information for 20 countries (1990)
and 66 household surveys
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
2. EQxIS/IDB (…)
Why is it important to monitor Social
Indicators and Equity?
- Social indicators measure progress in the
achievement of development goals.
- Usefulness of averages for social indicators
is limited.
- Necessary to have disaggregated measures
that illustrate the distribution of social
indicators.
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
2. EQxIS/IDB (…)
How can governments promote EBPM?
By implementing open and accessible
information for social indicators and the
MDGs.
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
2. EQxIS/IDB (…)
EQxIS is an information system useful
to countries’ policy makers, donors,
researchers, civil society and Bank’s
staff
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
2. EQxIS/IDB (…)
Information stored in a Data Base is
easily updated and displayed in three
different formats:
- Graphics
- Tables
- Multidimensional Graphics (radar
graphics)
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
2. EQxIS: Information System on Social
Indicators and Equity
MECOVI
+
Household Survey
Data Base
UN Indicators for
monitoring MDGs
Web page Display
Stata
* Calculation of indicators based on UN
definitions. Disaggregating by :
- Income quintiles
- Gender
- Geographic Area
- Ethnic background
* Calculation of stat. significance figures
*Codification
Consistency of Data
ASP Programs and
Access inquiries
Display data features:
Submission of
coded database
to Access
- standard error less than
20% of average value
- more than
observations
30
sample
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
3. Conclusions
Social and Equity Indicators have value for
multiple parties:
- Countries: Monitor social indicators with an
equity approach.
- Donors: International comparisons of LAC
- Researchers: Easy access to social indicators
from 20+ countries.
- IADB: Supports
strategies.
operations
and
country
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
3. Conclusions

Evidence has shown the value
information for quality public policies.
of

In the case of the Caribbean countries
like Jamaica that have established regular
surveys and household surveys to monitor
social indicators have been able to inform
and develop accurate public policies (i.e.
PATH).
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
3. Conclusions
So far the IADB has supported
- SPARC (CDB & UNDP): Committed
$350,000 to collect, analyze, and
produce
high
quality
statistical
information in the Caribbean
- CARICOM: Joint proposal to support
coordination in the region towards a
common population census for the round
of 2010 was presented to the Regional
Public Goods Initiative ($550,000)
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
3. Conclusions

EQxIS could become a tool to monitor MDGs
and MDG+ for the Caribbean.

Regional Policy Dialogue Public Goods Initiative
may be used to fund a Caribbean strategy rooted
at the national level and involving horizontal
cooperation among countries and development
agencies.
 MECOVI Programs for LAm– 10 years
(IADB/ECLAC/WBank) successful hztal.
collaboration
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit
www.iadb.org/xindicators
IADB, Poverty and Inequality Unit