As statistics-heavy information packets lay before the world’s leaders at both the G-20 Summit and the United Nations General Assembly, the folks over at AidWatch Blog are critiquing leaders’ unquenchable need for numbers, at any cost.
In international development, numbers can be extremely helpful when tough prioritizing decisions must be made. Project planners and funders must ask: how pressing is this issue? How many people will this program reach?
But why are the world’s leaders focusing their discussions around poverty impact numbers that are known to be either fudged, inaccurate and downright wrong? As Bill Easterly and Laura Freschi put it: “The onslaught of imaginary numbers weakens that cause while accomplishing nothing for the poor.”
Some numbers are better left out of the discussion.
For two contrasting views on the role of numbers in decision-making, see Raymond June’s recent Commons post on “fictitious numbers” and Nathaniel Heller’s post on the abuse of corruption incidices.
— Norah Mallaney and Global Integrity
