Every rung counts–A retrospective analysis of global sanitation progress across the service-level ladder under the MDGs
Fig 3
Illustration of the possible improvements in sanitation service level among the four categories reported by JMP and how they are incorporated into the MDG binary metric.
(a) Using the binary metric applied during the MDGs, only progress moving population to the top of the ladder (“Improved”) received credit toward the target, (b) types of progress that did not receive credit on the MDG target include moving a family from open defecation to shared use of an improved sanitation facility. Major improvements such as households upgrading from OD to a shared latrine were not counted under the MDGs; all changes shown in a and b receive credit when using the Ladder Score.