Africa’s ‘sluggish data collection needs a revolution’ | DataMashup

"Donors and countries in Africa need 'revolutionary' changes to turn the tide on 'bad data', as well as to insulate data from politics, according to a report on the data revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa.   “Nowhere is the need for better data more urgent than in most African countries, where data improvements have been sluggish,” says the final report of the Data for African Development Working Group, published this month (8 July). Funding for data collection is often unstable and inadequate, data accuracy is rarely checked, donors’ priorities sometimes overtake national ones, and national statistical offices lack incentives to improve, says the working group, co-chaired by the Center for Global Development and the African Population and Health Research Center. Although data collection is happening — more than 80 per cent of African countries conducted a census between 2005 and 2014 — the report states there is a 'paucity of reliable data' on key indicators of development such as maternal mortality.   And it adds that the early efforts have been 'focused on collecting more — not necessarily better — data'.   'This may divert attention from the underlying problems surrounding production, analysis, and use of basic data that have inhibited progress to date,' it says ..."