On his blog The Gates Notes, Bill Gates features Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about It on his list of “The Best Books I Read in 2013.” Gates writes: “Jerven, an economist, spent four years...
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Year: 2013
The politics of agricultural statistics
I am writing the first of a series of posts on Agriculture and Politics for the blog Democracy in Africa. I talk about some findings in a recent paper, and how it relates to the general political economy of statistics in poor countries. Some...
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African Studies Assocation Meetings in Baltimore
I am attending the African Studies Association Meetings in Baltimore this weekend. Friday November 22, 5:30-6:00 PM, I am doing a 'Meet the Author/Booksigning' event for Poor Numbers in the main exhibitor hall. I am also co-chairing a panel with Gareth Austin called "Historical...
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Africa at Dawn
That's the title of a recent editorial in the Financial Times. The editorial recounts the recent data debates. Most importantly, the FT editorial highlights how important it is to debate data openly and freely and this is in African countries' interest . Referring to...
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A historian’s take on Poor Numbers
The coverage of the debate on African statistics continues, most recently in the Globe and Mail. I am also pleased to see that it is not only politics and media that gets stirred by the book. Recently, Poor Numbers, got coverage in Significance, which is...
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African Statistics Day
Did you know that November 18 was African Statistics Day? Jason Braganza of Development Initiatives with his view of what he thinks is required for meet the objective of "Quality Data to support African Progress."
New Afrobarometer results further question the ‘Africa rising’ narrative
In Poor Numbers I suggested that many African economies are not growing as fast as the official statistics will have us think, and that we know too little to judge what is happening actually to living standards and poverty in the aggregate. As John...
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Doing Bad….
I was asked by H-net Diplo to review Coyne's book. Doing Bad by Doing Good is the title. Coyne takes his inspiration from Mandeville and the fable of the bees. If you know the fable you already know how Coyne's book goes. I was not...
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What kind of ‘data revolution’ do we need?
There has been talk of a data-revolution. We are not quite sure what it would look like yet. Here are my 'five fundamental propositions' for a data revolution in development. 1. We need to focus on data supply, not only on global data demand....
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Leiden African Studies Center Annual Public Lecture
I have given many talks this year, medicine but I am the most proud to have been asked to give the first annual public lecture at the African Studies Center in Leiden. It takes place on 7 November 2013, stomach 18.30 - 20.00 Pieter...
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