How we count.

We publish figures we can evidence from our own field registers, and we say so plainly where a number has not yet been compiled. An organisation that counts carefully is worth more to a partner than one that counts generously.

Our field staff maintain registers in the villages where we work. A figure reaches this page only once it has been compiled from those registers and checked. Until then we say that it is being compiled, rather than estimating it or rounding up from a guess.

This means our published numbers are smaller than they could be. We think that is the right trade. A partner who finds one figure invented has no reason to trust the rest.