Speaking Notes
Julia Bunting – Statistics Adviser, DFID Central and Southern Africa
Slide 1
My name is Julia Bunting and I am a Statistics Adviser with the UK’s Department
for International Development. From this week I have started a new job, based in
Pretoria, as the Statistics Adviser for DFID offices in Central and Southern Africa.
So I am very grateful to Statistics South Africa for inviting me to attend this
workshop which is a very useful introduction for my new role.
However, the reason that I have been asked to speak to you this morning is that
for the last two years I have been working at DFID’s Headquarters in the UK on
our International Statistics Strategy. This has involved providing funding and
support to a number of international statistics programmes such as:
 the World Bank’s Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building
 the IMF’s General Data Dissemination System
 the UN’s work on the Millennium Development Goal indicators
 and, last but my no means least, support to the secretariat and activities of
PARIS21
I want to use this time to highlight the current window of opportunity open to us for
developing national statistical capacity and indicators and monitoring systems of
development progress. This opportunity is provided by the international
community’s recognition of the importance of evidence based policy-making.
Slide 2
There have been two main initiatives in the last couple of years which have really
raised the profile of the statistics on the international agenda. These are:
 The UN’s Millennium Development Goals (and associated targets and
indicators)
 and, the advent of Poverty Reduction Strategies and other National
Development Plans.
Millennium Development Goals
We have just heard about the MDGs from Ms Barungi so I will not say anything
more about them except to reiterate the importance being assigned to them by
development agencies. Like the UN and World Bank (amongst others) the whole
of DFID’s development programme is focused on contributing to the achievement
of the MDGs. In DFID, as elsewhere, this has raised the profile of statistics as
never before as our policy makers and programme managers recognise the
importance of statistics in order to actually achieve, as well as to monitor, progress
towards the MDGs.
As many of you to whom I have spoken over the last day or so have said to me the
UK’s Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, has been a
Page 1 of 4
key advocate of the importance of statistics for international development. In fact,
the reason that Mary Strode from the PARIS21 Secretariat is not with us today is
that she has flown to Pretoria to oversee the video recording of an interview, that
Clare Short has agreed to do, on the importance of statistics for international
development. This interview will be used by PARIS21, along with extracts from this
workshop and an interview held with Mr Manuel yesterday, to produce an
advocacy video on the importance of supporting and investing in the development
of national statistical systems.
In the same way that Mr Manuel recognises the importance of statistics to
demonstrate the success of South Africa’s development programmes over the last
8 years, Clare Short has recognised the need to have statistics to demonstrate
that national and international development efforts are really helping to change the
lives of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty.
At a meeting of DFID’s statistics advisers’ last month she said she was prepared
to commit more of DFID’s resources, and encourage other international agencies
to do likewise, in order to ensure that national governments and the international
community have the statistics they need to achieve and monitor progress towards
the Millennium Development Goals. Statisticians need to seize this opportunity
because if we don’t manage to demonstrate over the next couple of years that we
can rise to such a challenge the opportunity for real progress in statistics will be
lost.
PRSPs and other National Development Plans
I think that many people in this room will recognise that the projects and
programmes of development agencies have not always been in line with national
governments’ own priorities and have even distorted them. However, donors are
now recognising the need to ‘buy into’ countries Poverty Reduction Strategies and
other National Development Plans.
In DFID, a lot of thought is being given to how the indicators and monitoring
systems being used by national governments to monitor their own achievements
can also be used to monitor our programmes and policies. This is in part a result
of the increasing recognition of the burden that development agencies have placed
on national governments to provide reports on individual projects. I heard once
that in one country (I think it was Tanzania) they had prepared over 9,000
separate reports in one year to meet the demands of donor agencies; I hope that
this is not a true statistic but I fear that it may be.
Anyway, because of the change of emphasis from donor led projects to supporting
national governments own development strategies, development agencies are
recognising the need to assist countries in developing their statistical capacity and
monitoring systems. This leads me on to another development which also has the
potential to increase the demand for, and funding of, national statistical systems.
Page 2 of 4
Slide 3
Direct Budgetary Support
DFID, like some other development agencies, is gradually moving from a project
and programme based approach to what is known as Direct Budgetary Support. I
said earlier that donor projects have not always been in line with government’s
own priorities and may have even distorted them. The idea behind Direct
Budgetary Support is to get away from the traditional project and programme
approach which has undermined rather than strengthened government’s own
capacity to a process which actually contributes to capacity building. With Direct
Budgetary support donors contribute directly to the governments central budget. In
essence, donors agree 3-5 years of financial assistance (to provide stability and
facilitate national planning) and then just basically provide one cheque a year; of
course it is not quiet this simplistic! National governments can then use this
additional money along with their own national budgets to fund their priority areas.
The funnelling of donor assistance through the government system, rather than as
an add on to it, contributes to the building of national systems and strengthens
national capacity.
One may have thought that Direct Budgetary Support would reduce donors’
demand for information because there would be only one ‘project’ to monitor; but,
in fact it likely to increase demand. Not the demand for project reports but the
demand for national statistics. This is because of the need for accountability.
There are two basic forms of accountability:
 Firstly, public accountability by national governments to their people. For
example, information on how decisions are made, resources are
allocated and progress monitored. This is part of the good governance
agenda.
 And secondly, public accountability by donor agencies to their funders.
DFID is accountable through the UK Ministry of Finance to the UK public
for money spent. Therefore we also need to demonstrate that our
money is being used effectively and efficiently and to highlight
successes.
Performance Monitoring and Performance Management
Another issue that I just want to touch on is Performance Monitoring and
Performance Management. As I mentioned earlier indicators are needed to
achieve, as well as to monitor, development progress. But, it is not sufficient to just
have performance monitoring systems (i.e. technical systems) there also needs to
be performance management systems (i.e. political and policy processes in place).
By this I mean that there needs to be a feedback loop between policy formulation,
policy implementation and policy refinement.
Donors are increasingly interested in funding, not the routine collection of data, but
the analysis and dissemination of information so that it can be used in the
formulation and management of policy and can contribute to public accountability.
Page 3 of 4
South-South Co-operation
The final point that I want to make is in relation to technical assistance. In many
countries (especially South Africa) donor money makes only a small contribution to
the national budget and the focus of donor assistance is on technical co-operation
rather than on development aid. However, technical co-operation is not just about
hiring international consultants. There is increasing recognition of the importance
of South-South Co-operation.
I am delighted to see and hear that South Africa is leading the way in
demonstrating the important role that South-South co-operation has to play. At this
workshop we are joined by colleagues from a number of SADC countries and by
experts from across Africa in order to share experiences and best practice. I have
been hearing about joint work being done between Kenya and Statistics South
Africa in relation to the processing of the 2001 census data. We have also heard
about the strong relationship and collaboration being formed between the
Ugandan Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and Statistics South Africa. I am sure there
are many other examples.
From what I have seen and heard so far I think I am going to have a very exciting
three years in my new post. I look forward to further opportunities to work with you
all.
Julia Bunting
Statistics Adviser
DFID Central and Southern Africa
208 Infotech Building
1090 Arcadia Street
Hatfield 0083
Pretoria
Tel: +27 (0)12 431 2100
Fax: +27 (0)12 342 3429
e-mail: j-bunting@dfid.gov.uk
Page 4 of 4