Achieving the Millennium Development Goals : What's wrong with existing analytical models? / Sanjay G. Reddy and Antoine Heuty

This study critically evaluates analytical models presently used to estimate the cost of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from sources including the UN Millennium Project, the UN Development Programme, the World Bank and the Zedillo Commission. Effective strategic choices for achieving the MDGs must be based on sound assessments of the costs and benefits of alternative policies. However, the existing approaches are unreliable. They derive from implausible and restrictive assumptions, depend on poor quality data, and are undermined by the presence of large uncertainties concerning the future. An alternative and less technocratic approach to planning is required.
MDG Cost Estimates -- Importance of cost estimates in the choice of strategies -- Analytical Requirements of a Cost Estimate -- Main Methodological Problems -- Conclusions.

28 p. : graphs, tables

Includes bibliographical references (p. 18-20).