Setting Targets

-- An infant mortality rate of 10 per thousand by 2015
-- Inflation between 3% and 5% by 2015
-- A literacy rate of 75% or greater by 2015

Each statement above is an example of a target—the value that an indicator is expected to reach by a particular date. Targets provide benchmarks against which performance can be judged. They vary according to the indicator for which they are set, and to the level of certainty and predictability of the dimension measured.

Why are targets important?

Clear, explicit targets play an important role in policy-making by:

• Identifying the priorities of public action and, in so doing, directing the allocation of resources on specific policy areas and towards achieving specific goals
• Focusing the efforts of the various actors involved in the process
• Strengthening accountability.

What are some attributes of good targets?

1. Simple, measurable, and reliable
2. Relevant for decision-making
3. Consistent with the overall priorities and with each other
4. Technically realistic and achievable
5. Fiscally realistic and sustainable
6. In line with implementing capacity

What tools are used for setting poverty targets?

• POVCAL -a DOS-based program that can be used to simulate what happens to poverty indicators when consumption increases by a certain amount, with or without changes in inequality.
• SimSIP Poverty - an Excel based program that enables the user to make poverty and inequality comparisons between sectors and over time.
• DAD - a Software for Distributive Analysis designed to facilitate the analysis and the comparisons of social welfare, inequality, poverty, and equity across distributions of standard living.
• PovSTAT- an Excel based program that produces forecasts that vary by level of complexity depending on the availability of reliable data for the post survey period and on the extent to which various factors influencing poverty levels are incorporated. You will find a chapter describing the tool, as well as a file with the program itself.

  View a presentation about East Asia's Experience with Poverty Monitoring and with PovSTAT by Tamar Manuelyan Atinc (176Kb PDF).

For a more detailed discussion of targets, read the guidance note and the chapter from the PRSP Sourcebook and view the presentation in the highlight boxes to the right. (Use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF files.)

Related Sections:

• See Training Events and Materials for resources on setting targets.

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