Millennium Development Goals: A Concern Over Sub-National Variations

Millennium development goals (MDGs) were agreed upon by 192 countries in the year 2000 and are due to be achieved by 2015. This paper highlights that MDGs deal with national averages and their achievement may hide sub-national variation. Sub-national variation in the ability to achieve development goals should be expected because government spending would achieve such goals faster if it were targeted at areas where the required improvements are smaller, as is often the case in city-regions. Rural and dispersed populations may gain little from MDGs, at least in the short run. Data analysis of South African Magisterial Districts highlights this issue.