The statistical act, its application and challenges BY ABERASH TARIKU ABAYE NATIONAL STATISTICAL DATA QUALITY AND STANDARDS COORDINATION DIRECTORATE DIRECTOR CSA ETHIOPIA

Out line Introduction UN fundamental principles of official statistics The current statistical law The gaps of the statistical law compared with the UN fundamental principles of official statistics. Challenges

The statistical act, its application and challenges Introduction The central statistical agency of Ethiopia is an autonomous federal government agency having its own legal personality. Vision To be a credible and recognized national statistical system for better decision making, in support of sustainable socio economic development. Mission To produce and disseminate nationally coordinated, timely and good quality statistical data for planning, monitoring and evaluation; for socio economic analysis, research and policy formulation.

The statistical laws of the country plays significant role in producing quality data on timely basis. The law will also help to facilitate coordination in the National Statistical System. Two issues should be considered with respect to the statistical law –The comprehensiveness of the statistical law (legislation) –The knowledge, efficiency and willingness to implement the statistical law A strong comprehensive and practical statistical law is required to produce good quality data and to coordinate the NSS efficiently. The comprehensive check list on possible contents of a statistical legislation are provided by T. Holt. (2003) and summarized by Ben Kiregeyera.

UN fundamental principles of official statistics The UN fundamental principles of official statistics can be summarized as –Impartiality on data compilation and dissemination –Use of scientific principles, methods and procedures for data collection, processing, storage and presentation –Present information according to scientific standards on the sources, methods and procedures

–Comment on erroneous interpretation and mis-use of statistics –Statistical agencies are to chose the source –Confidentiality of data –Publicity of the statistical law –Coordination among agencies producing statistics –Use of international concepts, classifications and methods –Bilateral and multilateral cooperation in statistics

The current statistical law The current proclamation to establish the Central Statistics Agency, proclamation No. 442/2005, was passed on 20 April The proclamation incorporates –objectives of the authority –powers and duty of the authority –organization of the authority –powers and duties of the directors –establishment of statistics council –powers and duties of the council –budget –obligation to provide statistical data –confidentiality of information –prohibition –penalties –power to issue regulation and directives

Even though the statistical act of Ethiopia incorporates almost all issues which are suggested as check list, there are some gaps in the law that needs to be clearly stated. Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia tried to identify the gaps of the statistical act during the development of the NSDS. The law does not prescribe the responsibilities of other agencies in the NSS. However, the CSA does have the authority to ”issue and follow up the implementation of programs and directives with a view to improving the countries statistical system and to avoid duplication of efforts in the statistical activities and “to design and monitor the implementation of the statistical recording and reporting systems to be followed by government agencies and institutions and other organizations”. Other government agencies are also obliged to supply information and data to the CSA. This gives a devolved, but rather voluntary, flavor to the wider national statistical system. The act in use does not oblige the other agencies producing statistics to submit their statistics to the CSA for quality endorsement.

The gaps of the statistical law compared with the UN fundamental principles of official statistics. The first principle requires that statistics be compiled on an impartial basis. Official statistics are currently compiled on an impartial basis. Currently, access to reports and publications is not constrained. Hard and soft copies of reports are sold on a cost recovery basis. Basic results of the surveys are also available on the web. Access to the micro data is administered by a data release protocol, which describes the principles and costs of users accessing the unit record information. The second and third principles which involve using scientific methods are observed by the CSA, but other producers in the NSS do not routinely supply meta data. To facilitate the use of scientific methods, capacity building for the NSS will be required. The CSA publication contains methodological chapters and annexes, and the methodologies are developed using scientific principles. This is not always the case for publication of official statistics produced by NSS partners. In the future, all published NSS data should have meta data publicly available.

Principle 4 relates to the power of statistical authority to comment on erroneous interpretation of data. The statistics law needs to clearly specify this issue. In addition, the clear guide line on the assessment of data collection and interpretation should be set to implement this principle. CSA is trying to develop DQAF for quality assesement. Principle 5, relating to choice of method, appears un problematic Principle 6, relating to confidentiality, is covered by the law. The law applies to all statistical data collection by the CSA.

Principle 7, regarding access to the law, is not problematic; the laws relating to data access are found on the CSA web cite. Principle 8 concerns coordination between statistical producers. This needs to be strengthened by creating a formal agreement with in the NSS. Principle 9 suggests that there should be standard concepts, definitions and classifications in place among data producers. The CSA should set common standards for the national statistical system in close collaboration with NSS stack holders. These standards should ensure comparability consistency and compatibility with international standards. Now a new unit “National statistical Data quality and Standards Coordination “ is established in CSA whose major duty is to deal with methodological issues, capacity building, setting standards, conducting quality control and coordination of the NSS. Principle 10 appears unproblematic in respect of the legal frame work.

Challenges To facilitate coordination of the NSS and to produce quality data some challenges that needs to be faced may happen. These challenges may be parts of the statistical act that needs to be improved or other activities that should be done by the NSS. These challenges include –Some improvements in the statistical act are required. This includes the specification of the responsibilities of the sector ministries in the NSS. –The coordination activity is at a lower stage at this point. This should be facilitated with the preparation of MOU in the NSS. The statistical council will play a significant role in the coordination. –Common standards for the NSS should be developed. The CSA should set common standards for the NSS in close collaboration with the NSS stockholders. This activity is already started and needs to be facilitated.

–The data quality in the NSS should be assessed. The data quality assessment frame work (DQAF) should be developed. CSA is trying to develop DQAF with the help of consultants with the fund from World Bank. –Capacity building is one of the challenges in the NSS. The NSS members have to be aware of current up-to-date statistical procedures and standards. Statistics office and NSS members should identify the gaps in the NSS. Some of these gaps are identified in the development of NSDS. The development partners should play significant role in helping the NSS to fill this gap by arranging short term trainings and sharing experiences. –The senior staff in the NSS is better qualified. But retaining these staff may need to have better payment.

–MOU should be signed by NSS members to avoid conflicting data and duplication of effort, to improve the data quality, to set statistics calendar, to use standard concepts, to create meta data and to coordinate with statistical aspects. –In order for the statistics offices to perform their duties, they have to be autonomous. This will help to better implement the duties and responsibilities of the statistics office and will also help to retain the professionals.

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