World according to the Human Development Index

Sometimes it feels like we only engage with Africa through demoralizing statistics. This many millions suffering from Disease X, this many billions in debt, this many millions living below the poverty line.

I’m sick of statistics, and know they’re hard to engage with, but also know that they are necessary to describe the magnitude of the problems that exist on the Continent. Lately, though, I’ve come across these initiatives that work to present data on Africa (mostly in the area of health and economic indicators) in new ways. In his Ted Video, Hans Rosling helps to make the chicken/egg relationship of health and wealth more explicit. Worldmapper represents global regions based on a number of different subject areas, rather on their landmass (such as internet users or affected by disasters).

Pretty Awesome!

Global Rich List tries to put your income in perspective by showing where your earnings stand you in a world-wide comparison.  I may feel like a starving student, but apparently I almost make it into the top 10 percent!  It’s a less than thinly veiled attempt to have you donate to CARE, which you can do directly from the site, but it’s a neat tool anyway! 



Also check out the Toronto initiative, Make Affluence History, which has an interesting take on making poverty history.