Statistical Tragedy In Africa

Author : Morten Jerven
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317369335
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Statistical Tragedy in Africa? written by Morten Jerven and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we know about economic development in Africa? The answer is that we know much less than we would like to think. This collection assesses the knowledge problem present in statistics on poverty, agriculture, labour, education, health, and economic growth. While diverse in origin, the contributors to this book are unified in two conclusions: the quality and quantity of data needs to be improved; and this is a concern not just for statisticians. Weaknesses in statistical methodology and practice can misinform policy makers, international agencies, donors, the private sector, and the citizens of African countries themselves. This is also a problem for academics from various disciplines, from history and economics to social epidemiology and education policy. Not only does academic work on Africa regularly use flawed data, but many problems encountered in surveys challenge common academic abstractions. By exploring these flaws, this book will provide a guide for scholars, policy makers, and all those using and commissioning surveys in Africa. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Journal of Development Studies.

Author : Morten Jerven
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801467616
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Poor Numbers written by Morten Jerven and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most urgent challenges in African economic development is to devise a strategy for improving statistical capacity. Reliable statistics, including estimates of economic growth rates and per-capita income, are basic to the operation of governments in developing countries and vital to nongovernmental organizations and other entities that provide financial aid to them. Rich countries and international financial institutions such as the World Bank allocate their development resources on the basis of such data. The paucity of accurate statistics is not merely a technical problem; it has a massive impact on the welfare of citizens in developing countries. Where do these statistics originate? How accurate are they? Poor Numbers is the first analysis of the production and use of African economic development statistics. Morten Jerven's research shows how the statistical capacities of sub-Saharan African economies have fallen into disarray. The numbers substantially misstate the actual state of affairs. As a result, scarce resources are misapplied. Development policy does not deliver the benefits expected. Policymakers' attempts to improve the lot of the citizenry are frustrated. Donors have no accurate sense of the impact of the aid they supply. Jerven's findings from sub-Saharan Africa have far-reaching implications for aid and development policy. As Jerven notes, the current catchphrase in the development community is "evidence-based policy," and scholars are applying increasingly sophisticated econometric methods-but no statistical techniques can substitute for partial and unreliable data.

Author : Morten Jerven
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317369343
Total Pages : 136 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Statistical Tragedy in Africa? written by Morten Jerven and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we know about economic development in Africa? The answer is that we know much less than we would like to think. This collection assesses the knowledge problem present in statistics on poverty, agriculture, labour, education, health, and economic growth. While diverse in origin, the contributors to this book are unified in two conclusions: the quality and quantity of data needs to be improved; and this is a concern not just for statisticians. Weaknesses in statistical methodology and practice can misinform policy makers, international agencies, donors, the private sector, and the citizens of African countries themselves. This is also a problem for academics from various disciplines, from history and economics to social epidemiology and education policy. Not only does academic work on Africa regularly use flawed data, but many problems encountered in surveys challenge common academic abstractions. By exploring these flaws, this book will provide a guide for scholars, policy makers, and all those using and commissioning surveys in Africa. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Journal of Development Studies.

Author : Ben Kiregyera
Publisher : AFRICAN SUN MeDIA
ISBN 13 : 1920689567
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Emerging Data Revolution in Africa written by Ben Kiregyera and published by AFRICAN SUN MeDIA. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents a nuanced narrative about statistical development in Africa since around the time of independence when emerging states needed statistics mainly to support their planning processes. It highlights challenges faced then, some of which have persisted, including institutional, organizational and technical challenges. These challenges manifest themselves in countries with different degrees of severity and are quite severe in post-conflict countries. Key statistical programmes to support statistical development in Africa in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are presented

Author : Ben Kiregyera
Publisher : AFRICAN SUN MeDIA
ISBN 13 : 1920689575
Total Pages : 529 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Emerging Data Revolution in Africa written by Ben Kiregyera and published by AFRICAN SUN MeDIA. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents a nuanced narrative about statistical development in Africa since around the time of independence when emerging states needed statistics mainly to support their planning processes. It highlights challenges faced then, some of which have persisted, including institutional, organizational and technical challenges. These challenges manifest themselves in countries with different degrees of severity and are quite severe in post-conflict countries. Key statistical programmes to support statistical development in Africa in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are presented

Author : Morten Jerven
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317552997
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Measuring African Development written by Morten Jerven and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chief economist for the World Bank's Africa region, Shanta Devarajan, delivered a devastating assessment of the capacity of African states to measure development in his 2013 article "Africa's Statistical Tragedy". Is there a "statistical tragedy" unfolding in Africa now? If so then examining the roots of the problem of provision of statistics in poor economies is certainly of great importance. This book on measuring African development in the past and in the present draws on the historical experience of colonial French West Africa, Ghana, Sudan, Mauritania and Tanzania and the more contemporary experiences of Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The authors each reflect on the changing ways statistics represent African economies and how they are used to govern them. This bookw as published as a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies.

Author : Assistant Professor Morten Jerven
Publisher : Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1783601353
Total Pages : 121 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Africa written by Assistant Professor Morten Jerven and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-06-11 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘A valuable corrective to the fraying narrative of [African] failure.’ Foreign Affairs Not so long ago, Africa was being described as the hopeless continent. Recently, though, talk has turned to Africa rising, with enthusiastic voices exclaiming the potential for economic growth across many of its countries. What, then, is the truth behind Africa’s growth, or lack of it? In this provocative book, Morten Jerven fundamentally reframes the debate, challenging mainstream accounts of African economic history. Whilst for the past two decades experts have focused on explaining why there has been a ‘chronic failure of growth’ in Africa, Jerven shows that most African economies have been growing at a rapid pace since the mid nineties. In addition, African economies grew rapidly in the fifties, the sixties, and even into the seventies. Thus, African states were dismissed as incapable of development based largely on observations made during the 1980s and early 1990s. The result has been misguided analysis, and few practical lessons learned. This is an essential account of the real impact economic growth has had on Africa, and what it means for the continent’s future.

Author : Abiodun Alao
Publisher : University Rochester Press
ISBN 13 : 9781580462679
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa written by Abiodun Alao and published by University Rochester Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive account of the linkage between natural resources and political and social conflict in Africa.

Author : Kathleen Beegle
Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464807248
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Poverty in a Rising Africa written by Kathleen Beegle and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perceptions of Africa have changed dramatically. Viewed as a continent of wars, famines and entrenched poverty in the late 1990s, there is now a focus on “Africa rising†? and an “African 21st century.†? Two decades of unprecedented economic growth in Africa should have brought substantial improvements in well-being. Whether or not they did, remains unclear given the poor quality of the data, the nature of the growth process (especially the role of natural resources), conflicts that affect part of the region, and high population growth. Poverty in a Rising Africa documents the data challenges and systematically reviews the evidence on poverty from monetary and nonmonetary perspectives, as well as a focus on dimensions of inequality. Chapter 1 maps out the availability and quality of the data needed to track monetary poverty, reflects on the governance and political processes that underpin the current situation with respect to data production, and describes some approaches to addressing the data gaps. Chapter 2 evaluates the robustness of the estimates of poverty in Africa. It concludes that poverty reduction in Africa may be slightly greater than traditional estimates suggest, although even the most optimistic estimates of poverty reduction imply that more people lived in poverty in 2012 than in 1990. A broad-stroke profile of poverty and trends in poverty in the region is presented. Chapter 3 broadens the view of poverty by considering nonmonetary dimensions of well-being, such as education, health, and freedom, using Sen's (1985) capabilities and functioning approach. While progress has been made in a number of these areas, levels remain stubbornly low. Chapter 4 reviews the evidence on inequality in Africa. It looks not only at patterns of monetary inequality in Africa but also other dimensions, including inequality of opportunity, intergenerational mobility in occupation and education, and extreme wealth in Africa.

Author : Susan Hunter
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250086388
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Black Death: AIDS in Africa written by Susan Hunter and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To the surprise of many, George W. Bush pledged $10 billion to combat AIDS in developing nations. Noted specialist Susan Hunter tells the untold story of AIDS in Africa, home to 80 percent of the 40 million people in the world currently infected with HIV. She weaves together the history of colonialism in Africa, an insider's take on the reluctance of drug companies to provide cheap medication and vaccines in poor countries, and personal anecdotes from the 20 years she spent in Africa working on the AIDS crisis. Taken together, these strands make it unmistakably clear that a history of the exploitation of developing nations by the West is directly responsible for the spread of disease in developing nations and the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Hunter looks at what Africans are already doing on the ground level to combat AIDS, and what the world can and must do to help. Accessibly written and hard-hitting,Black Death brings the staggering statistics to life and paints for the first time a stunning picture of the most important political issue today.