South Africa's Statistician-General faults MDG 1 dollar-a-day indicator

Addis Ababa 3 April 2007: South African Statistician-General, Mr. Pali Lehohhla, said in Addis Ababa, that the use of a dollar-a-day as a measure of monitoring progress in poverty reduction was inappropriate for African countries striving to achieve the MDG s.

In an interview with the Information and Communication Service of ECA, during the Conference of Ministers of Finance, Mr . Lehohhla said “A dollar is not an appropriate measurement tool. The use of purchasing power parities is a more appropriate approach,” he said.

“Whose dollar are we talking about, anyway?” Mr. Lehohhla said. “Is it a dollar in South Africa or a dollar in Malawi? Unless we get the same basket of goods for a dollar across the board, then that indicator cannot be appropriate.”

He said it was difficult for African countries to correctly measure progress towards achieving the MDGs. “The statistics for measuring MDGs are not even available, let alone being reliable,” he said.

Mr. Lehohhla said for many African countries, the lack of statistics is compounded by a lack of consistency in data gathering, over time, and irregular census in many countries.

He said African countries need information with geographic specificity and teams of statisticians who would agree on definitions of units and volume of production and incentives in order to start growing and secure agreement, even on cultural issues.

“We need to have spreadsheets and geographic maps with relational information showing which directions issues need to be tackled. Maps of resources, population and geographic distribution should be used to demonstrated what should be done,” said Mr. Lehohhla