To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if his Department will assess the merits of reporting against the underweight indicator in the public service agreement as one of the agreed indicators for millennium development goal 1. (135630)

DFID is currently developing the indicators for the new public service agreement (PSA) on international poverty reduction which will cover the period April 2008 to March 2011. The final indicators will be subject to approval by the Treasury and will be dependent on wider discussions across Government.

The elimination of poverty in poorer countries through the achievement of the millennium development goals still remains our overarching goal. The PSA will therefore draw indicators from the set of millennium development goals and the inclusion of a specific indicator covering the prevalence of underweight children under five years of age is part of our current proposal.