For partner regions in official development assistance (ODA)-eligible countries (mostly non-OECD countries, with the exception of Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico), the analysis relies on selected indicators from the Global Data Lab Subnational Human Development Index (SHDI) database as proxies for United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) outcomes. The SHDI provides harmonised subnational estimates for a broad set of low- and middle-income countries, making it particularly useful where comparable regional statistics remain limited. The analysis does not use the composite SHDI score itself. Instead, it draws on one of its underlying components: estimated income per capita. This indicator is used as a proxy for outcomes related to poverty reduction. Given their estimated nature and the variation in underlying data availability across countries, the indicator is used only for exploratory analysis in ODA‑recipient regions and should be interpreted as a proxy rather than as a substitute for official national or subnational statistics.
The SHDI methodology is designed as a subnational adaptation of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index framework. To estimate subnational values, the Global Data Lab combines national reference values from the UNDP with subnational variation derived from household surveys, census data and national statistical sources. Where indicators such as life expectancy and gross national income per capita are not directly available at the subnational level, they are estimated using related variables, including under-five mortality and household wealth, with the latter measured through the International Wealth Index. This approach provides a consistent basis for cross-country comparison while remaining aligned with the conceptual structure of the UNDP methodology (Global Data Lab, 2026[1]; Smits and Permanyer, 2019[2]; Permanyer and Smits, 2020[3]).
