For the proposed Target 1A of halving the proportion of people living under extreme poverty from 1990 to 2015, the definition of "extreme poverty" is that of the World Bank, that is, to live with less than $1 per day purchasing power parity (PPP). It should be mentioned that the World Bank is currently revising the definitions of poverty and extreme poverty, i.e. living with less than $2 and $1 (PPP) per day respectively, as in the current scenario those numbers seem to be insufficient thresholds to properly reflect both phenomena. New information from new price surveys shall be available to create new reference values for this indicator.

The region, in particular in Latin American countries, the methodology used for analysis and to measure poverty and extreme poverty is based on poverty lines defined by basic consumption baskets which are contrasted with data from household income. The former data component comes from household surveys which are periodically conducted in most countries of the region and which have a long history.

Both measuring methods have their own advantages. On one hand, the World Bank’s poverty line allows the comparison in absolute terms of the diverse realities present in countries worldwide. On the other hand, the methodology of national poverty lines allows for measurements, which are more relevant to each particular context, thus being more useful in terms of designing public policies and monitoring the development of such indicators over time. Except in some cases, the value of extreme poverty lines in Latin American countries exceeds in magnitude the line corresponding to $1 per day.

As shown in table 1, the incidence of extreme poverty in Latin American countries is a phenomenon of heterogeneous character. Notwithstanding, on average, a decrease is observed for this indicator, from 22.5% in 1990 to 14.4% in 2005 (A. León, 2008 /1).

Complementary to this, the MDGs consider a measurement of poverty "depth". The poverty gap is the difference between the average income of poor (or extremely poor) population and the poverty (or extreme poverty) line expressed as a proportion of the value of the former.

Moreover, another consideration is an indicator of income/consumption distribution of the population. The official indicator refers to the proportion of domestic consumption corresponding to the most impoverished quintile of the population. According to World Bank data , the Latin America and the Caribbean region is one of the regions with the highest rate of inequality, only comparable to Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2008 /2). .

ECLAC has also proposed to consider the Gini Index as a supplementary indicator. For the Gini Index most of the countries have data available as it is a common measurement in studies for income distribution. Gini Index takes values from 0 to 1 where 1 corresponds to maximum inequality.

As shown in Chart 1, in most countries a decrease in the Gini Index is reported although of small magnitude.

The new Target 1B for employment considers four (4) official indicators. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth per individual employed, employment-population ratio, people employed with income below $1 (PPP) per day, and self employed or working in a family business.

While it is true that these are new official indicators for MDGs, countries and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have been monitored them for a long time by. It is for this reason that information is available although the monitoring of those indicators will become more systematic in this context.

Target 1C refers to the population whose food consumption is insufficient. It considers two indicators, prevalence of underweight children under-five/a , and proportion of the population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption.

In the case of children under-five, the regional situation is very heterogeneous. While is true that the region has made great progress in improving children’s health, the problem still persists in several countries, with 15% or 20% of children considerably under the average weight for their age (see Chart 5).

The Global Progress Report on MDGs 2008 emphasizes the multi-dimensional character of poverty and how sensitive this phenomenon is in the context of different countries. In particular, a reference is made to the increase in food prices and its likely negative effect on meeting this goal by 2015. Also, the importance of incorporating a gender focus in these areas as it is well accepted that women are more deeply affected by these phenomena.

The Latin America and the Caribbean region are in a good position to reach the targets of MDG1. However, it will be necessary to continue supporting efforts to achieve them, especially in those countries that lag behind.