Editing Millennium Development Goals (section)

===Measurement difficulties===
A publication from 2005 argued that goals related to [[maternal mortality]], [[malaria]] and [[tuberculosis]] are impossible to measure and that current UN estimates lack scientific validity or are missing.<ref name="Amir Attaran 2005">{{cite journal |last=Attaran |first=Amir |author-link=Amir Attaran |date=October 2005 |title=An Immeasurable Crisis? A Criticism of the Millennium Development Goals and Why They Cannot Be Measured |journal=[[PLOS Medicine]] |volume=2 |issue=10 |page=318 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020318 |pmc=1201695 |pmid=16156696 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Household surveys are the primary measure for the health MDGs but may be poor and duplicative measurements that consume limited resources. Furthermore, countries with the highest levels of these conditions typically have the least reliable data collection. The study also argued that without accurate measures, it is impossible to determine the amount of progress, leaving MDGs as little more than a rhetorical call to arms.<ref name="Amir Attaran 2005" />

MDG proponents such as McArthur and Sachs countered that setting goals is still valid despite measurement difficulties, as they provide a political and operational framework to efforts. With an increase in the quantity and quality of healthcare systems in developing countries, more data could be collected.<ref name="McArthur JW 2005">{{Cite journal |last1=McArthur |first1=J. W. |last2=Sachs |first2=J. D. |last3=Schmidt-Traub |first3=G. |year=2005 |title=Response to Amir Attaran |journal=PLOS Medicine |volume=2 |issue=11 |pages=e379 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020379 |pmc=1297542 |pmid=16288557 |doi-access=free}}</ref> They asserted that non-health related MDGs were often well measured, and that not all MDGs were made moot by lack of data.