Despite constantly being reminded by the IAEG co-chairs from the Philippines and Mexico that this was a technical meeting, not a political one, it was apparent that what and what does not get counted or even how a target is defined is a political decision. Difficult questions were raised on whether poverty should be measured using the USD1.25/person/per day standard or revise this to reflect the new World Bank statistic of USD1.90/person/per day.  There were debates around the definition of ‘basic services’ or even ‘mountains.’ There were also intense discussions on whether the same standards should apply for all countries, regardless of level of development or whether international conventions should apply to all countries, despite a country not ratifying this. 

 

The IAEG meeting ended with a final tally of 159 indicators marked green and 65 indicators in gray.  But perhaps what is glaring is that there is no single indicator to measure inequality between countries. 

 

Nothing will measure real changes to address the vast gap of wealth in the world. Nothing to measure whether transformation is happening to make the world livable for those most affected by austerity measures, decades of structural adjustment policies under an inequitable global economy. #