Already in 2011 and 2012, news of the forthcoming book caused some stir in the Media, locally and internationally. The coverage has continued in 2013. Please find a collection of the news reports, blog commentary and reviews of the book below.
(Last updated 28 Nov, 2013)
28 Nov, 2013, Peace Direct, “Data for development: serving local needs and demands”
26 Nov, 2013, The Peak, “Professor under fire after critiquing African economic data”
19 Nov, 2013, Insights, “Talking with Morten Jerven”
13 Nov, 2013, The Globe and Mail, “B.C. professor ruffles feathers by spotlighting Africa’s data problems”
12 Nov, 2013, Books&Ideas, “Are Statistics Useless?”
11 Nov, 2013, Foreign Policy, “The African Statistics Smackdown, Continued”
7 Nov, 2013, African Studies Centre, “ASC Annual Public Lecture by Morten Jerven: Poor Numbers: How we are misled by African development statistics and what to do about it”
5 Nov, 2013, Post2015.org, “What kind of ‘data revolution’ do we need for post-2015”
31 Oct, 2013, BBC News, “Connecting the ‘last mile’ of market research in Africa”
25 Oct, 2013, Council on Foreign Relations, “African Statistics: Poor Numbers and Political Wrangling”
15 Oct, 2013, UCT Press, “Morten Jerven Responds to Being Blocked from Speaking on African Statistics at UNECA”
11 Oct, 2013, The Africa Report, “The Curious Case of the censored African statistician”
4 Oct, 2013, econlife, “Misleading Statistics: African Development and Beyond”
7 October, 2013, Matt Dickenson, “African Statistics and the Problem of Measurement”
4 October, 2013, econlife, “Misleading Statistics: African Development and Beyond”
3 October, 2013, The Herald – Zimbabwe, “African growth statistics misleading”
2 October, 2013, The Borgen Project, “Malawi Calls for Putting Poor Households Before GDP to End Poverty”
1 October, 2013, The Human Economy Blog, “Economic Competitiveness Numbers Cause a Stir”
October, 2013, Humanities and Social Sciences Online, “Why Do We Need Better Numbers?”
26 September, 2013, Daily Maverick, “Analysis: Don’t touch me on my statistics – Pali Lehohla pulls the plug on UNECA speaker”
26 September, 2013, African Arguments, “Poor Numbers: The Politics of Improving GDP Statistics in Africa”
26 September, 2013, African Arguments, “Why We Need to Invest in African Development Statistics: From a Diagnosis of Africa’s Statistical Tragedy Towards a Statistical Renaissance”
23 September, 2013, Business Daily Live, “Stats SA chief denies ‘lobbying’ against Canadian academic”
20 September, 2013, The Vancouver Sun, “SFU analyst is slighted in Africa, but invited to speak at Oxford”
19 September, 2013, African Arguments, “Poor Numbers: why is Morten Jerven being prevented from presenting his research at UNECA?”
19 September, 2013, Local First, “Data for development: serving local needs and demands”
11 September, 2013, AFK Insider, “Are Africa’s GDP Statistics Misleading”
10 September, 2013, SciNet, “African development statistics are misleading”
9 September, 2013, Journal of Development Studies – Review Article, “Africa’s National-accounts Mess”
3 September, 2013, One Campaign, “Back to school: 5 books about Africa you should be reading”
18 August, 2013, Centre for Data Innovation, “Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics And What To Do About It”
16 August, 2013, The Standard, “Evidence based planning, evaluation key to State success”
15 August, 2013, Africa Check, “Lies, Statistics, and why Africa’s poor numbers really matter”
28 July, 2013, Daily Monitor, “Numbers and statistics can be very deceitful”
10 July, 2013, Nature, “Summer Books”
29 June, 2013, The Lancet, “Offline: Upping our game”
7 June, 2013, NPR, “When A Poor Country Gets A Lot Richer”
2 June, 2013, Grotius International “Conférence: la croissance africaine, une fiction statistique?”
26 May, 2013, Foreign Affairs, “Africa’s Accidental Advancement: How New Statistics Are Boosting the Continent’s GDP”
25 May, 2013, Africa 21, “União Africana celebra o seu 50/o aniversário”
23 May, 2013, RFI “L’économiste norvégien Morten Jerven crée la polémique avec son ouvrage «Poor numbers»
22 May, 2013, allAfrica, “In Conversation with Morten Jerven”
21 May, 2013, Africa Research Institute, “Africa’s GDP Conundrum – in Conversation With Morten Jerven”
21 May, 2013, The London School of Economics, “Book Review: Poor Numbers”
16 May, 2013, Touch Points, “Africa: The Best Guess”
14 May, 2013, Times of India, “Bill Gates: Development efforts will be misdirected”
8 May, 2013, Celebrating Progress Africa, “Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about It”
2 May, 2013, The Gates Notes, “Poor Numbers”
(Reprinted several places such as; 7 May, 2013, Asia comentada, “A Cruzada de Bill Gates”; 8 May, 2013, The Guardian, “How GDP understates economic growth”; 11 May, 2013, Taipei Times, “The problem with poor countries’ GDP”; 11 May, 2013, Nyasa Times, “The problem with poor countries GDP”;13 May, 2013, La Patilla, “Bill Gates: El problema de PIB de los paises pobres”; 13 May, 2013, Le Temps, “Si nous voulons aider les pays pauvres, cessons de parler de PIB”; 14 May, 2013, Daily Star, “Accurate GDP estimates mean we can help poor countries better”; 15 May, 2013, The Zimbabwe Mail, “How GDP understates economic growth”;17 May, 2013, AFRIPOL, “Poor Numbers: BOOK REVIEW by Bill Gates”;17 May, 2013, Today, “The problem with poor countries’ GDP”;21 May, 2013, The Namibian, “The Problem with Poor Countries’ GDP”; 29 May, 2013, La Tribune, “Le PIB, un indicateur peu fiable pour aider les pays les plus pauvres”)
09 May, 2013, Money News, “Using GDP to Measure Economies Understates Growth”
07 May, 2013, Voice of America “Questions About Over Growth Statistics in Africa”
25 April 2013, Foreign Affairs, “Book Review”
19 April 2013, Vancouver Sun, “Bad data leads to bad decisions on foreign aid”
10 April, 2013, UNECA, “Counting Matters! Statistics are the backbone of proper planning for Africa’s future”
08 April 2013, Africa Report, “Politics, damned lies and statistics”
27 March 2013, CNN, “Is Africa much richer than we think?”
18 March 2013, Jeune Afrique, “Ces données sont créées et non pas collectées”
13 March 2013, The Daily Texan, “Interview with Bill Gates”
24 February 2013, Financial Times, “Africa counts the cost of miscalculations”
28 January 2013, Foreign Policy, “We Have No Idea if Africa Is Rising”
13 January 2013, France TV, “L’Afrique va mieux qu’on ne le pense”
10 January 2013, Chris Blattman, “Link”
08 January 2013, African Arguments, “Africa’s image and reality: wealth and poverty sit side-by-side”
09 January 2013, Marginal Revolution (by Tyler Cowen), “Link”
07 January 2013, Econtalk, “Jerven on Measuring African Poverty and Progress”
19 December 2012, Financial Times, “Africa: underestimating GDP”
08 December 2012, BBC, “How to boost GDP stats by 60%”
08 December 2012, Dagbladet, “Er Afrika rikere enn vi tror?”
06 December 2012, Ny Tid, “Å måle vekst og ulikhet”
26 November 2012, Foreign Policy, “Link”
21 November 2012, Marginal Revolution (by Tyler Cowen), “Ghana “fact” of the day”
20 November 2012, African Arguments, “Poor Numbers”
20 November 2012, The Guardian, “Lies, damn lies and GDP”
09 November 2012, Business Week (by Charles Kenny), “What Rising TV Ownership Reveals About Africa’s Future”
24 November 2012, Washington Post, “Think U.S. GDP numbers are unreliable? Check out Ghana”
23 July 2012, Vancouver Sun, “African statistics paint misleading picture of wealth”
05 December 2011, Voice of America, “New Research Confronts Africa’s ‘Statistical Tragedy’”
28 February 2011, Chris Blattman, “Exactly what are African growth statistics based on?”