Charles Kenny from the Center for Global Development in Washington brandishes good news on poverty rather like Rush Limbaugh gobbles up hacked climate mails
Emboldened by the response to his book, Getting Better, Kenny’s blog wastes no opportunity to chronicle sympathetic material, such as the new ODI website, developmentprogress.org.
My scepticism stems from countries like Ethiopia which makes a regular appearance in these selections of development success stories. It has been a little disconcerting to find that, thanks to a dysfunctional national statistics office, there hasn’t been a household income and expenditure survey since 2005.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development instead calculates the poverty rate by assuming an inverse correlation with economic growth rates. As these have been high, we are assured that the 2015 MDG poverty reduction target will be achieved.
Ethiopia certainly has some real achievements under its belt, but there are far too many flaws in this poverty projection to hoist a victory flag for development.
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this post was first published by OneWorld UK