African Centre for Statistics United Nations Economic Commission for Africa 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 l Background l Increase in data needs l Assessment of African National Statistical Systems l Challenges facing African Countries in statistics l Implementation of selected initiatives aimed at addressing the challenges l Issues for consideration by the Committee 2

Background 3

Quality statistics l Provide a basis for evidence-based policy and decision-making l Are essential to manage delivery of public services l Are essential for transparency and accountability l Provide a sound basis for designing, management, monitoring and evaluation of national policy frameworks e.g. PRS, MDGs, etc l They are part of the enabling environment for development 4

Sectoral Policies & Programmes Agriculture Education Health etc… Macroeconomic framework Policy & Research Agenda Needs Democracy and Good Governance Gender HIV/AIDS Surveillance Human Rights and Freedom Energy and Environment New challenges Increase in data needs

IV“VirtuousCirclecountries” LowDemand HighDemand GoodQuality II“DataSupply-constrainedcountries” I“ViciousCirclecountries”III“Data Demand- constrained countries” PoorQuality Assessment of NSS

Challenges confronting African countries in statistics 7

Challenges confronting NSS l Statistical harmonisation in African countries: International standards, concepts, methodologies and classifications l Prioritisation of statistics  Into national development processes  Among donor support programs to countries l Long-term planning for statistical development: NSDS (MAPS) l Building the statistical capacity of countries to undertake core statistical activities l The International Comparison Programme for Africa (ICP-Africa) 8

Challenges confronting NSS l 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(about 30% of the total) did not participate in the 2000 round  50% of the African population was not enumerated  Outdated data and population projections are used to inform development agendas l Coordination of statistical activities at all levels :  To achieve synergy, avoid duplication of effort and wasting scarce resources  To improve data quality and comparability 9

Implementation of selected initiatives aimed at addressing the challenges 10

Main frameworks for statistical capacity building MAPS RRSF Afristat RECs International Regional Sub regional NSDS National African Charter for Statistics

Population and Housing Censuses l Advocacy: Many countries are committed to conduct a PHC in the current round ( ) l Since the beginning of the round: 8 countries have conducted a PHC: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria l For the period: 22 have plans l About 10 African countries may have serious problems participating in the round l Special focus on post conflict countries 12

ICP-Africa l The Program was launched in 1970 l Objective: Generate Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) for cross country comparisons of GDP and related aggregates l Collection of prices for a well-defined basket of goods and services (1,016 for Africa) l AfDB first African institution to manage ICP for Africa (Eurostat before) l Partnerships  Technical work: 50 RMCs, 4 Sub-regional organizations (Afristat, Comesa, Ecowas, SADC), ONS-UK, INSEE- France, World Bank  Other partners: ECA, AU, UNDP, UNFPA, UNSD, IMF, InWENT, UEMOA, EAC, AU, OECD-Paris21 l Financial contribution: DFID-UK, World Bank, ACBF, Japan, India 13

Historical ICP Participation

ICP-Africa results uses l 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 l Internationally:  Establishing international poverty threshold (WB)  Constructing the HDI (UNDP)  Assessing per capita education expenditures (UNESCO)  Comparing the relative sizes of economies 15

The African statistical coordination committee l September 2007, Tunis: meeting of the AUC, AfDB, the UNECA, and ACBF l Setting up of the ASCC l Objective: lead the coordination of statistical activities in Africa through the RRSF l 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 16

The Statistical Commission for Africa l First meeting: Addis Ababa, 21 to 24 January 2008 l 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 l Africa Statistics Awards l Working groups on: MDGs, gender statistics, informal sector, SNA, data management, and statistical training 17

Issues for consideration by the Committee of Experts l Countries and dev. partners to give a higher priority to statistics in their development programmes l All countries to design effective NSDSs and for dev. partners to assist both in their design and implementation l Dev. partners to support African countries to fully participate in the 2010 RPHC l ASCC to develop a strategy for the conduct of censuses in post-conflict countries l Countries and dev. partners to support the AUC on the Statistics Charter’s adoption and implementation 18

Issues for consideration by the Committee of Experts (Cont’d) l AUC and RECs to strengthen their statistical functions l Partners to continue supporting the AfDB in the implementation of ICP-Africa beyond 2007 l Countries and institutions to substantively contribute to the success of the 57 th Session of the ISI to be held in Durban in August 2009 l Support to the overall ECA programme of work in statistics and its coordination role in various bodies (StatCom-Africa, ASCC…) 19

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