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The purpose of SDG indicator 1.b.1 is to assess the extent to which government spending on health, education, and direct transfers benefits the monetary poor, as defined by national income or consumption poverty standards.

This indicator measures the proportion of government spending on health, education, and direct transfers (cash and near-cash) that benefits the monetary poor, as defined by national income or consumption poverty standards. This indicator evaluates whether public spending is effectively targeting poor populations by comparing the proportion of spending on social services to the proportion of the population classified as poor. Pro-poor spending is identified when the share of public expenditure on these services for the poor exceeds their proportion in the population. This measurement underscores the government's financial commitment to poverty eradication and the implementation of pro-poor development strategies. Future improvements may expand this indicator to include other vulnerable groups, such as women and children.

Ministry of Finance (MOF)

Ministry of Finance (MOF)

Annually

Monetary Poverty can be derived directly from a nationally representative micro-data set (an Income and
Expenditure Survey, for example). Procedures for estimations are detailed comprehensively in the 1.2.1
metadata. The estimates used for this indicator would be the same as the ones for Target 1.2.1.
Public spending on social services can be directly derived from budget administrative data.
A fiscal incidence analysis is required to estimate the benefit the poor individuals or households
(depending on underlying survey data) are receiving from those services. The incidence analysis measures
the monetised value of in-kind transfers in education and health services at average government costs. In
addition, this indicator includes cash and near cash transfers in the definition of social services
(conditional and unconditional cash transfers, school feeding programmes etc.). The procedures are
described in detailed in the CEQ Handbook, Meerman, Jacob (1979), Selowsky, Marcelo (1979), and many
other ones.

• Proportion of public spending: Expenditures by governments on health, education and direct transfers
  (cash transfers and near-cash transfers).
• The poor: Monetary Poverty as determined by national definition of income/consumption poverty
  (consistent with SDG 1.2.1). 

The indicator can be disaggregated by subnational level, if fiscal, budgetary, and administrative data on
government expenditures on this level are available. Further developments of the methodology and
improvements in data availability may allow to expand this indicator to other subgroups which are
included in the micro-data set

Monetary Poverty can be derived directly from a nationally representative micro-data set (an Income and
Expenditure Survey, for example). Procedures for estimations are detailed comprehensively in the 1.2.1
metadata. The estimates used for this indicator would be the same as the ones for Target 1.2.1.

Public spending on social services can be directly derived from budget administrative data.
A fiscal incidence analysis is required to estimate the benefit the poor individuals or households
(depending on underlying survey data) are receiving from those services. The incidence analysis measures
the monetised value of in-kind transfers in education and health services at average government costs. In
addition, this indicator includes cash and near cash transfers in the definition of social services
(conditional and unconditional cash transfers, school feeding programmes etc.). The procedures are
described in detailed in the CEQ Handbook, Meerman, Jacob (1979), Selowsky, Marcelo (1979), and many
other ones.

This indicator can be used to track whether the government is targeting their services and transfers on the poor groups of society, reinforcing pro-poor development strategies.  

The indicator does not take into effect the consequences of revenue-related fiscal activities,
such as taxes or contributions to public insurance systems, on the poor. The proposed methodology does
not currently expand to other groups, such as women or children. 

All the metadata shown was gathered from the United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.