Poor Numbers – How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do About It (Uzuazo Etemire)

It is not uncommon these days to find, say, Nigerian citizens expressing shock at development economics statistics, e.g. on 'percentage of population at a certain level of poverty', published by national or international bodies. The bewilderment usually relates to how the relevant authorities came about the numbers, whether any proper (field-based) data collection exercise was done at all, and how the published numbers fit within their everyday experiences which seem to be at variance with the import of such publications. In a very powerful way, Jerven uses this brilliant book to give an effective response to such queries and more. With this piece, Jerven draws our attention to the highly unreliable nature of much of the development economics and social statistics relating to, or emanating from, most countries in Africa, why this is the case, the (potential) negative implications of such flawed data on many endeavours (e.g. the development of knowledge, governance -in terms of transparency and accountability, and decision/policy-making), and what can be done to improve the situation.