For a long time, the urbanization and development discourse has coincided with a focus on economic growth and big cities. Yet, much of the world's new urbanization is taking place in smaller urban entities (towns), and the composition of urbanization may well bear on the speed of poverty reduction.

Stylized facts set agendas and shape debates. In rapidly changing and data scarce environments, they also risk being ill-informed, outdated and misleading.

Stylized facts drive research agendas and policy debates. Yet robust stylized facts are hard to come by, and when available, often outdated.

This report begins by evaluating Africa’s data landscape to monitor poverty. It maps out and assesses in detail the availability and quality of the data needed to track monetary poverty (expenditures, prices, GDP) and also reflects on the governance and political processes that underpin the current situation.

Africa’s strong economic growth has contributed to improving people’s health and education in the past 20 years as well as major reductions in poverty in several countries, but a rapid rise in population has led to increases in the overall number of extreme poor, the World Bank Group said in a comprehensive report on poverty in the region.