Read on Twitter
"Even the simplest information is often unavailable. In #Tanzania only about 1 in 8 births is registered; in #Niger only about 3% of deaths are"
Me on how scarce #data in #Africa makes policy making VERY hard – for #COVID19 & everything else (Thread) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/05/07/lacking-data-many-african-governments-make-policy-in-the-dark
Me on how scarce #data in #Africa makes policy making VERY hard – for #COVID19 & everything else (Thread) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/05/07/lacking-data-many-african-governments-make-policy-in-the-dark
#COVID19 has shown the terrible problem of a lack of data for decision making. In #Kano in #Nigeria gravediggers say they've not been this busy for 60 years. But no one knows for sure how many have died or whether it is #coronavirus
But the problem of scarce data is far older, & more widespread, than #COVID19. Almost half of Africans live in a country where there has been no census since 2009. In the Democratic Republic of Congo the last one was in 1984.
Poverty statistics are scant, too. The @WorldBank latest count of the world’s poor excluded the region that has most of them—sub-Saharan Africa—because not enough countries had released credible data. https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/march-2020-global-poverty-update-world-bank-new-poverty-estimates-2018
The @GlobalGoalsUN cover a broad sweep of objectives, from education and health to the environment. But in #Africa there are too few statistics to track progress on 60% of the indicators. Even where data are provided, about half are estimates, not solid counts
Lack of data creates big problems. How do you make policy if you don't know the population, where the poorest are, or what progress is on everything from #education & #health to #environment & #jobs?
"“Where do we build clinics, where do we build roads?” asks @gyude_moore
"“Where do we build clinics, where do we build roads?” asks @gyude_moore
Even data that is collected is hard to use & often not widely shared. That leads to mix ups. A few years ago #Malawi ministry of #agriculture estimated there were 3.4m farm households, whereas the National Statistical Office reckoned there were 2.5m.
Academic research matters for policy too. But the world’s top five economic journals published just 34 papers in 20 years about sub-Saharan Africa, which also hosted a tiny 1.5% of the world’s medicine trials. https://voxeu.org/article/geographical-bias-top-journal-publication
In Africa lots of groups are stepping up
@Africa_evidence is vigorously pushing evidence in policymaking
@BudgITng turns dry Nigerian budgets into clear graphics & tracks whether promised schools & roads are built
Academic studies from #Africa rose ~40% frm 2012 to 2016
@Africa_evidence is vigorously pushing evidence in policymaking @BudgITng turns dry Nigerian budgets into clear graphics & tracks whether promised schools & roads are built Academic studies from #Africa rose ~40% frm 2012 to 2016
Governments & donors could both do much more. Only 0.33% of all official overseas aid is allocated to statistics says @ContactPARIS21. And even that is rarely coordinated. Much more is needed to build wider statistical capacity not just fund ad hocs surveys
More data for policy makers would be a huge help to fight #COVID19 - but also for countless other decisions.
Plus studies by @PeterRosendorff @james_vreeland & James Hollyer suggest open #econ data helps increase #FDI & helps new democracies survive https://www.amazon.com/Information-Democracy-Autocracy-Transparency-Political/dp/1108430805
Plus studies by @PeterRosendorff @james_vreeland & James Hollyer suggest open #econ data helps increase #FDI & helps new democracies survive https://www.amazon.com/Information-Democracy-Autocracy-Transparency-Political/dp/1108430805
Finally the @Mo_IbrahimFdn has much more on the scale of the problem & the progress being made
https://mo.ibrahim.foundation/iiag/gr-2019-key-findings
The next @wb_research World Development Report will be on #data. If you care about this tell them here
https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/we-would-hear-you-launching-online-consultations-world-development-report-2021-data-better (END)
https://mo.ibrahim.foundation/iiag/gr-2019-key-findingsThe next @wb_research World Development Report will be on #data. If you care about this tell them here
https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/we-would-hear-you-launching-online-consultations-world-development-report-2021-data-better (END)
