Goal 17 and targets for each of the goals related to the means of implementation are excluded from the assessment as these depend on collective national, regional and international action. There are certainly drawbacks of using such a simplistic methodology but the intention is not to have an accurate point forecast into 2030 or 2050, which would be difficult in any case for even more complex modelling or forecasting techniques. This simple framework is intended to provide the general direction that the SDG indicators are trending to allow a broad assessment of whether the SDGs can be achieved. As development efforts take time to manifest in these type of indicators, the past performance of these countries on the MDGs will also help ground the assessment against the related SDGs.