The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals Indicators website is the official location to access data and information related to the 48 indicators used to track progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It has been recently updated with some very useful new materials. Some of these resources include:

Trendalyzer

Trendalyzer is a powerful tool for viewing time series data and assessing MDG progress over time. Trendalyzer allows users to visually manipulate MDG indicator statistics, plotting them geographically on a map or linearly on a graph. An animation feature enables users to track changes in country statistics since 1990. Users can even isolate and follow one or more countries of their choosing over the years represented. This kind of tool is a helpful supplement to the data tables and charts on MDG progress in the fact that it is animated, displaying information in moving graphics over time and making trends easy to identify. For example, when viewing the data on the Millennium Development Goal reduce under-five mortality by two-thirds from 1990 to 2002 as a moving graphic, it is visually clear that under-five mortality in Cote d’Ivoire and Iraq (among a few others) is actually increasing while under-five mortality is decreasing in the majority of countries represented. The Trendalyzer tool was created by GapMinder, a Swedish non-profit, and can be applied to a wide variety of data.

MDGs 2006 Progress Chart

For a brief, accessible overview of regional progress on the Millennium Development Goals, see the MDGs 2006 Progress Chart.

This simple, color-coded chart displays regional progress on each of the MDGs. Progress in each region is represented as

• Target already met or very close to being met
• Target is expected to be met by 2015 if prevailing trends persist, or the problem that this target is designed to address is not a serious concern in the region
• Target is not expected to be met by 2015, if prevailing trends persist
• No progress, or a deterioration or reversal, or
• Insufficient data.

The conditions of each problem that the respective MDG is addressing in that region are also displayed making the current rate of compliance with the goal easy to gauge.

Report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization and The Millennium Development Goals Report 2006

The Secretary-General's report emphasizes feasibility and practicality of development efforts, good governance and transparency as keys to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The Secretary-General also proposes four new targets to be added under the existing goals. These new targets are:

• Make the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all, including for women and young people, a central objective of relevant national and international policies and our national development strategies (under Millennium Development Goal 1)
• Achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015 (under Goal 5)
• Come as close as possible to universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS by 2010 for all those who need it (under Goal 6)
• Significantly reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010 (under Goal 7)

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2006 is a collaborative effort of 25 UN agencies and international organizations and offers a well-designed, concise overview on the progress the MDGs.