Transcript Development of Information For Poverty Reduction

Development of Information For
Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper (PRSP) In Zambia
Oliver J. M. Chinganya
Central Statistical Office
Zambia
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PRSP Process

Zambia is preparing the PRSP which is intended
to map out its development goals and indicate the
strategies that will be employed to attain the set
goals.

The PRSP is being co-ordinated by the Ministry of
Finance and Economic Development (MOFED). A
unit has been set up to specifically manage the
process.
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PRSP Process

The government realized that in order to
achieve sustainable poverty reduction,
strong pro-poor economic growth and
continued strong social action programmes
are required.

In order to achieve this, relevant accurate
and timely data should be made available.
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Development of the PRSP

The preparation of PRSP began with an I-PRSP.

The process involved interactive consultation with
- Government institutions
- NGO’s
- Civil Society
- Other stakeholders.
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Development of the PRSP

Various sensitization workshops were held for:
- Senior Government officials
- Programme managers
- MPs and Cabinet Ministers

Discussions were made on how best to prepare the
PRSP.
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Development of the PRSP

In order to develop the
paper, 3 themes were
considered
- Economic theme
- Social theme
- Cross-cutting issues

Under economic and social
themes, the following expert
groups were formed
- Macro-economic
- Agriculture
- Tourism
- Mining
- Industry
- Governance
- Health
- Education
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Development of the PRSP

The cross cutting issues included:
- HIV/AIDs
- Gender
- Water and Sanitation
- Energy
- Environment and Natural Resources
- Roads

The groups discussed at various forums and it was
clear that in order to write an informative and
comprehensive paper, data and information was
needed.
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PRSP Process Links with PARIS21

Whilst in the preparation of the PRSP was going on,
OECD countries and other international agencies
formed the PARIS 21 Consortium. Its objectives are:
-

Developing evidenced based culture for
setting and monitoring policy.
Developing well-managed statistical systems,
utilizing available resources effectively.
These objectives were complementary to achieving
the PRSP initiative.
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SADC/Paris21

As a follow-up to PARIS 21 objectives, a meeting was held
in December 2000 with a theme “Developing Partnership
for Information needs of Poverty Reduction Strategies and
other Priority Policy Areas”

The workshop was attended by
SADC member countries
Programme managers
Government and Private sector
NGO’s
Representatives of International agencies such as
World Bank, IMF, AFRISTAT, etc including an
expert on Poverty from Uganda.
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Issues Discussed at the SADC/Paris21
Workshop

The status of information requirements of PRSP

Current issues around the information Requirements
and Poverty Monitoring

Priority Information Needs of sector ministries.

Information Needs of other stakeholders

SADC and other Regional organization information
needs
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Issues Discussed at the SADC/Paris21
Workshop





Information Needs of Civil Society
Information Needs of the Private Sector
Experiences and progress in Poverty Monitoring.
Dissemination and Information Accessibility
Supporting Poverty Monitoring and Information.
As a follow-up to this meeting another meeting was planned
to specifically look at the data requirements of the PRSP in
Zambia.
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Consultative Process in Developing an
Information Strategy for PRSP

The CSO is the main government organ mandated to
carry out all censuses and surveys.

CSO organizes a coordinated scheme of social and
economic statistics relating to Zambia and ensures that
data is available.

The OECD through Euro-stat and CSO agreed to
undertake a feasibility study to assess the knowledge
and practice in the production and use of
comprehensive statistical poverty data.
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Consultative Process in Developing an
Information Strategy for PRSP
In order to undertake the study, a consultant was
engaged. The mission consultant was to:

To determine facts about poverty issues.
 Examine basic information (concepts
definitions).
 Data gathering.
 Identify participants for the workshop.
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Planning of the Workshop

The Mission Consultant had a series of
meetings with stakeholders to look at
institutional data requirements and obtain
their perspective on poverty issues.

The mission consultant also discussed the
plan and focus of the Data Requirements
workshop.
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Planning of the Workshop
It was agreed that the workshop would cover:

A comprehensive analysis of the needs of all
users.
 A comprehensive review of all types of poverty
data.
 Analysis
of the major data gaps and
methodological weaknesses.
 Analysis of where action is needed to strengthen
the underlying data required for target setting,
monitoring, and further policy making.
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Planning of the Workshop

A review of the areas where poverty analysis is weak.

Consultation for such a workshop was important as this
resulted in facilitating those working in different areas,
with different approaches and methodologies to engage
in a dialogue in order to develop techniques to achieve
better synthesis between their methods and sources.

Secondly, it would foster a more effective and
sustainable dialogue between users and producers, so
that producers have a clearer idea of user’s needs, that
users are better able to interpret the data and analyses
which are made available to them.
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Workshop Brief Proceedings
(a) Policy Remarks
The workshop was opened by the Minister of
MOFED and attended by stakeholders. Also
Stats. South Africa sent representatives. The Head
of EU Delegation was also in attendance.
The Minister emphasized on:
A comprehensive review of the needs of users of
poverty data.

That the data to be used in the PRSP must be supported
by evidence based policies which must be growth
oriented and politically implementable.
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Workshop Brief Proceedings
(a) Policy Remarks (Cont’d)
The EU Delegation leader raised concerns on:

Information not penetrating to the ordinary people.

Translation of information so that the ordinary
people can benefit.

Collection and analysis of data should be based on
quantitative and qualitative approaches.
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Workshop Brief Proceedings
(b) CSO’s Position

The CSO which operates under the Census
and Statistics Act Cap 425 of the Laws of
Zambia gave an overview of the Zambian
Statistical System. It also highlighted on its
products, particularly in relation of the
PRSP data requirements
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Workshop Brief Proceeding
(b) CSO’s Position (Cont’d)
The CSO presentations raised in the discussions concerns on:

Collection of certain type of information.
 Analysis of certain data not comprehensive.
 Also that even if it was the main central organ which is
supposed to overall surprise the data collection including
methodology it did not have administrative authority/control
It was therefore recommended that a National Statistical
Coordinating Committee be setup to oversee the production of
all statistics.
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Workshop Brief Proceedings
(c) Poverty Unit at MOFED
The unit presented an overview and the current
status of PRSP. In addition, the working groups and
respective institutions presented papers.
The presentation and follow-up discussions revealed
the need for PRSP data to:
•
•
Understand the status in terms of poverty and what
data were needed.
Understand the relationship between sector
interventions and poverty.
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Workshop Brief Proceedings
(c) Poverty Unit at MOFED (Cont’d)

Monitor and evaluate the impact of intervention
and the ultimate objective for PRSP.
Discussions also confirmed that the PRSP had
brought an opportunity to prioritize the data
requirements and created a stronger relationship
between producers and users of information.
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Workshop Brief Proceedings
(d) Other Papers Presented

The private sector and the civil society.
Both dwelt on specific data generation, including
data mining of exiting data.

The donor/international agencies concentrated on
their programmes which played an intervention
role in poverty alleviation.
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Workshop Brief Proceeding
(e) Papers on Data Production and Procedures

The papers discussed about the classical
quantitative methods by CSO and, the
qualitative methods by PAG.

It was recommended that both methods be
used together to obtain best results.
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Conclusion

Need to co-ordinate the activities of various
agencies dealing with poverty for effectiveness of
poverty reduction.

Data mining of existing data should be
encouraged.

Analytical skills for poverty analysts, programmer
managers, policy makers and statisticians should
be enhanced.
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Provisional Future Agenda

Taking stock of available data.

Establishment of a body to oversee and provide
guidelines to the production of statistics.
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Establishment of Producer/Producer Committee and
User/Producer committee.

Develop an integrated database for poverty statistics.

Develop a system of disseminating data and
information regularly.
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Follow-up Activities

Transformation of CSO into a semiautonomous body – being rigorous done.

Preparation for an integrated database –
2gldb .

Dissemination strategies being developed.
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
It is clear from the Zambian experience of
involving policy makers, programme managers,
major data users and producers in the process of
statistical development that, statistical capacity
building to support the PRSP planning and
implementation will require the participation of
all concerned at all levels. It is not a one person’s
or institution issue but all stakeholders.
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THE END
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