Who Counts? : The power of participatory statistics

This book seeks to provide impetus for a step change in the adoption and mainstreaming of participatory statistics within international development practice. The time has come for participatory statistics to be recognised as the first and best option for a “win win” approach to data generation and analysis.

Local people can generate their own numbers and the statistics that result are powerful for themselves and can influence policy. Development practitioners are supporting and facilitating participatory statistics from community-level planning right up to sector and national-level policy processes. Statistics are being generated in the design, monitoring and evaluation, and impact assessment of development interventions.Through describing policy, programme and project research, Who Counts? provides impetus for a step change in the adoption and mainstreaming of participatory statistics within international development practice. The challenge laid down is to foster institutional change on the back of the methodological breakthroughs and philosophical commitment described in this book. The prize is a win–win outcome in which statistics are a part of an empowering process for local people and part of a real-time information flow for those aid agencies and government departments willing to generate statistics in new ways.