Stronger African partnerships needed to cope with increased demand for statistics By Cristina Müller
This conclusion came at the end of the first of a three-day seminar of national statistics directors from over 40 African nations, which began on Monday at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. “It’s crucial that monitoring and reporting statistics be done jointly by the ECA and the African Development Bank (ADB), for example,” said Ben Kiregyera, Chair of the Ugandan Bureau of Statistics. He presented an analysis of the Reference Regional Strategic Framework for Statistical Capacity Building in Africa (RRSF), which is central to the meeting. Discussions on the RRSF lay the groundwork for Africa’s common position on global statistical development, ahead of the second Forum on African Statistical Development (FASDEV II), which starts later this week in Addis Ababa. Sponsored by the ECA, the ADB, the World Bank, and Partnership for Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS 21), FASDEV II is the second annual meeting of its kind dedicated to building consensus on statistical development in Africa. It provides a backdrop for the African delegation’s position at the world statistical body STATCOM 2006, which meets next month at UN headquarters in New York. Statistics are considered precarious on the African continent, but sound and transparent data will provide planners and policymakers with tools to tackle Africa’s burgeoning challenges including grinding poverty, Monitoring systems for Africa’s development agenda include the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs), the sub-regional economic and/or monetary integration frameworks, and specific sectoral frameworks. “All of these efforts have created a culture championing rigorous monitoring and evaluation of outcomes and evidence-based policy making,” said Abdoulie Janneh ECA Executive Secretary, in a speech to Africa’s statistical community and partners earlier this month in Cape Town. “In this regard, it is imperative that Africa as a whole works towards enabling African National Statistical Systems to provide data for evidence-based policymaking and planning and tracking progress towards national and international development goals,” he said. Dedicated to the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses, hosted by the South African government, the Cape Town meeting concluded that Africa must take responsibility for investing in its own statistics gathering, analysis and monitoring. ‘The relevance, usefulness and importance of Population and Housing Censuses data for effective socio-economic planning and governance, and monitoring development policies and programmes cannot be underestimated in Africa,” Janneh added. Addressing the RRSF meeting in Addis Ababa, Grace Bediako, government statistician of the Ghana Bureau of Statistics, said most partners agreed with the ECA position. “The general consideration in Cape Town was that statistics is the responsibility of governments, and more should be done on the part of individual governments to increment capacity in this area,” she noted. ***** Some of the challenges faced by National Statistics Bureaus include: · Inadequate political commitment to statistical production (especially at national level) and inappropriate profiles of National Statistical Offices in government hierarchy. · Limited coordination, collaboration, networking and information sharing among stakeholders at national, sub regional and regional levels. · Weak institutional capacities, including limited human
resources for statistical production. |
