Now that the millennium development goals section is available, I can check whether any given country is likely to meet its goals. Taking Bolivia as an example, I can see that some indicators are changing in the right direction, but others are not. For instance, the percentage of the population who consume less than one US dollar (purchasing power parity), changed from 20.4% to 14.4% between 1997 and 1999, a clear improvement. However, between 1999 and 2002 the percentage increased from 14.2% to 23.2%, a marked worsening. I’m assuming that the 1991 number (5.7%) is incorrect since it’s so much lower than subsequent measurements. If it were correct, it would mean that the 1990s was a completely lost decade.

I’m working on making it easier to keep track of these types of changes. I’ll probably add a scorecard-type of interface that will display all indicators graphically.