Reliable estimates of child mortality are critical for
monitoring progress toward Millennium Development Goal 4
(MDG-4), so I asked Dr. Kenneth Hill, who currently chairs the
Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of the United Nations Inter-
agency Group on Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), for some
insights into the methodological innovations captured in a new
sponsored collection, Child Mortality Estimation Methods,
published in PLOS Medicine today. In relation to MDG-4, why is
the work the TAG does important? When the Millennium Development
Goals were established in the year 2000, the objective was to
focus national and international effort on a small number of
critical areas of development with measurable targets. The
reasons for having measurable targets were to be able to
identify potential barriers to achieving the targets and to be
able to hold countries and international agencies accountable
for success or failure. MDG-4 was focused on the improvement of
child health, the primary target being the reduction of