Transcript Implementation and Coordination of Statistical Capacity Building

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
African Centre for
Statistics
Implementation and Coordination
of Statistical Capacity Building
Efforts in Africa
Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and
Finance and ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning
and Economic Development
31 Mach-2 April 2008, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Dimitri Sanga
Outline
 Background
 Increase
in data needs
 Assessment of African National
Statistical Systems
 Challenges facing African Countries in
statistics
 Implementation of selected initiatives
aimed at addressing the challenges
 Issues for consideration by the
Committee
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Background
3
Quality statistics
Provide a basis for evidence-based policy and
decision-making
 Are essential to manage delivery of public
services
 Are essential for transparency and
accountability
 Provide a sound basis for designing,
management, monitoring and evaluation of
national policy frameworks e.g. PRS, MDGs,
etc
 They are part of the enabling environment for
development

4
Increase in data needs
Agriculture
Education
Health
etc…
Macroeconomic
framework
Sectoral Policies
& Programmes
Human Rights and
Freedom
Democracy and
Good Governance
HIV/AIDS
Surveillance
Gender
Energy and
Environment
Policy &
Research Agenda
Needs
Assessment of NSS
High
Demand
II
“Data
Supply-constrained
countries”
Poor
Quality
IV
“Virtuous
Circle
countries”
III
I
“Vicious
Circle
countries”
“Data
Demandconstrained
countries”
Low
Demand
Good
Quality
Challenges confronting
African countries in
statistics
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Challenges confronting NSS

Statistical harmonisation in African countries:
International standards, concepts, methodologies
and classifications

Prioritisation of statistics
Into national development processes
Among donor support programs to countries
Long-term planning for statistical
development: NSDS (MAPS)
 Building the statistical capacity of countries to
undertake core statistical activities
 The International Comparison Programme for
Africa (ICP-Africa)

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Challenges confronting NSS

The 2010 RPHC:
17 African countries (about 30% of the total) did
not participate in the 2000 round
50% of the African population was not enumerated
Outdated data and population projections are used
to inform development agendas

Coordination of statistical activities at all
levels :
 To achieve synergy, avoid duplication of effort
and wasting scarce resources
To improve data quality and comparability
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Implementation of
selected initiatives
aimed at addressing
the challenges
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Main frameworks for statistical
capacity building
International
MAPS
Regional
RRSF
Sub regional
National
African Charter
for Statistics
Afristat
RECs
NSDS
Population and Housing
Censuses
Advocacy: Many countries are committed to
conduct a PHC in the current round (20052014)
 Since the beginning of the round: 8 countries
have conducted a PHC: Burkina Faso, Cameroon,

Egypt, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria
For the 2008-2010 period: 22 have plans
 About 10 African countries may have serious
problems participating in the round
 Special focus on post conflict countries

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ICP-Africa





The Program was launched in 1970
Objective: Generate Purchasing Power Parities
(PPPs) for cross country comparisons of GDP and
related aggregates
Collection of prices for a well-defined basket of goods
and services (1,016 for Africa)
AfDB first African institution to manage ICP for
Africa (Eurostat before)
Partnerships
 Technical work: 50 RMCs, 4 Sub-regional organizations
(Afristat, Comesa, Ecowas, SADC), ONS-UK, INSEEFrance, World Bank
 Other partners: ECA, AU, UNDP, UNFPA, UNSD, IMF,
InWENT, UEMOA, EAC, AU, OECD-Paris21

Financial contribution: DFID-UK, World Bank,
ACBF, Japan, India
13
Historical ICP Participation
160
147
Total Countries
140
117
African Countries
120
100
80
64
60
60
48
34
40
20
10
16
15
1
1
4
1970
1973
1975
23
22
1985
1993
0
1980
2005

ICP-Africa results uses
Nationally:
 UN 1993 SNA recommends use of PPPs for cross
country comparison of GDP and related
aggregates
 Poverty Analysis: comparing welfare and living
standards (US$1/day poverty lines)
 Harmonizing economic policies for convergence
& regional integration
 Fostering intra African trade

Internationally:
 Establishing international poverty threshold
(WB)
 Constructing the HDI (UNDP)
 Assessing per capita education expenditures
(UNESCO)
 Comparing the relative sizes of economies
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The African statistical
coordination committee




September 2007, Tunis: meeting of the AUC,
AfDB, the UNECA, and ACBF
Setting up of the ASCC
Objective: lead the coordination of
statistical activities in Africa through the
RRSF
Setting up of 13 WG:
 Joint statistical database and publications
(ASYB 2008)
 Support to fragile states
 NSDS, RRSF implementation
 Making the African Statistics Charter effective
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The Statistical Commission for
Africa


First meeting: Addis Ababa, 21 to 24
January 2008
Some of the recommendations:
 African countries to mainstream statistics into
national planning and budgeting processes
 Countries to design an NSDS
 Clear strategy for conducting the census in
post-conflict countries


Africa Statistics Awards
Working groups on: MDGs, gender
statistics, informal sector, SNA, data
management, and statistical training
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Issues for consideration by the
Committee of Experts





Countries and dev. partners to give a higher
priority to statistics in their development
programmes
All countries to design effective NSDSs and
for dev. partners to assist both in their design
and implementation
Dev. partners to support African countries to
fully participate in the 2010 RPHC
ASCC to develop a strategy for the conduct of
censuses in post-conflict countries
Countries and dev. partners to support the
AUC on the Statistics Charter’s adoption and
implementation
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Issues for consideration by the
Committee of Experts (Cont’d)




AUC and RECs to strengthen their statistical
functions
Partners to continue supporting the AfDB in
the implementation of ICP-Africa beyond
2007
Countries and institutions to substantively
contribute to the success of the 57th Session of
the ISI to be held in Durban in August 2009
Support to the overall ECA programme of
work in statistics and its coordination role in
various bodies (StatCom-Africa, ASCC…)
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Thank you!
African Centre for Statistics
Visit us at http:www.uneca.org/statistics/
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