How Africa data gaps fuel poor governance: report

Numbers

Data plays a critical role in informing strategy and policymaking by enabling baselines, benchmarks and targets to be set. ILLUSTRATION  | SHUTTERSTOCK

Lack of data in critical sectors in Africa is fuelling bad governance on the continent, according to a new study that highlights the importance of research in planning for the future.

That means most countries on the continent are flying blind into the future because they lack critical data for setting public policy, such as population censuses and birth and death registration.