Factfulness

Hans Rosling’s book couldn’t be more timely. At a time when our daily media is awash with political bickering, climate scares and violence close by, he seeks to do a very simple thing: shine a light on how far we’ve come.

He shows our global and pervasive ignorance when it comes to the real progress that’s been made in global development - health, wellbeing, livelihoods and income. He shows how distinguished scholars and senior development executives fare worse than chimpanzees randomly selecting answers to questions such as the percentage of girls in low income countries who finish secondary school (60%), and what’s happened to the proportion of the world living in extreme poverty in the last 20 years (it’s halved).

Most importantly, he seeks to open our eyes to the amazing progress we’ve made over the past decades, by virtue of slow and gradual changes, by setting a course and working towards it - at a time when we desperately need to believe in our ability to go beyond what we think is possible and act to secure a liveable planet for generations to come.

Everybody should read this book!