United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
African Centre for Statistics
Reference Regional Framework for Statistical
Capacity Building in Africa (RRSF)
Ben Kiregyera
Director
African Centre for Statistics
19 October, 2007
Motivation
Issues which have come up during this workshop:
 organizational issues (including legal framework,
mandates, coordination, etc)
 institutional issues (including infrastructure, funding,
HR, capacity building, etc)
 data-related issues (data sources, data collection
methodologies, data management including
dissemination)
Many of these issues are best handled as part of broader
Frameworks and initiatives
Slide 2
Scope
Introduction
What is RRSF?
National Strategy for the Development of
Statistics (NSDS)
Capacity Building strategies
Critical success factors
Slide 3
Introduction
 Addis Ababa Plan of Action for Statistical Development
in Africa in the 1990s (AAPA)
• Precipitous decline in statistical production in 70s & 80s
• Factors constraining statistical production identified as:
 poor management
 inadequate funding
 lack of timeliness in delivery of statistics
 unsatisfactory quality of produced data
 inability to respond quickly to new data needs
•
AAPA adopted by the African Ministers for Planning and
Development in 1990 to:
 reverse decline in statistical production
 lay a basis for development of statistics in Africa
Slide 4
Evaluation of AAPA in 2000
Assessment
Results
Slide 5
Twin problem of data demand
and supply
High
Demand
II
“Data
Supply-constrained
countries”
Poor
Quality
IV
“Virtuous
Circle
countries”
III
I
“Vicious
Circle
countries”
Good
Quality
“Data
Demandconstrained
countries”
Low
Demand
Slide 6

Characteristics of statistical under-development

Inadequate statistical awareness/literacy

inadequate links of statistical systems to policy

inadequate coordination (next slide)

weaknesses in statistical capacity

limited capacity in management and strategic leadership

data gaps on some key demographic,
socio-economic and environmental indicators
unreliability of some existing data
inadequate use of existing data – challenge of
data use
unsustainability of statistical systems



Slide 7
Uncoordinated National Statistical System
Agriculture
etc
Health
NSO
Transport
Labour
Education
Slide 8
Partially coordinated National Statistical System
Agriculture
etc
Health
NSO
Transport
Labour
Education
Slide 9
Fully coordinated National Statistical System
Agriculture
etc
Health
NSO
Transport
Labour
Education
Slide 10

demand for good statistics increased exponentially since
countries signed up to managing for results

Managing for results has evolved as a global effort
among both national governments and development
agencies to:
 reduce poverty
 support sustainable and equitable economic
growth
 better define and measure development
outcomes
Challenges
Opportunities
Slide 11
 Opportunities




Increasing demand – results agenda is “data intensive”
Raising the public profile of statistics
Building statistical capacity in medium to longer term
International cooperation and partnerships for statistics
 PARIS21
 WB Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building
 Multi – and bilateral donors
 New emphasis on statistics by the African Development
Bank
 Renaissance of statistics function at UN ECA with
establishment of the African Centre for Statistics
Slide 12

Management for results given impetus by a number of
roundtables among them, the Marrakech Roundtable
meeting on managing for result, Morocco (2004)

Better statistics identified as a priority of the results
agenda and Marrakech roundtable came up with a
global plan for statistics, commonly called the
Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics (MAPS) to
improve national & international statistics

Reference Regional Strategic Framework for Statistical
Capacity Building in Africa (RRSF) is a regional variant
of the MAPS
Slide 13
What is RRSF?

Overall objective
The overall objective of the RRSF is to contribute to policymaking, development outcomes and good governance in
Africa by guiding and accelerating sustainable statistical
capacity building activities.





Specific objectives
Raise societal awareness about role and importance of
data to national development (statistical advocacy)
Enhance data quality and usability
Promote greater use of data
Build sustainable statistical capacity
Slide 14

The process

assessment missions to more than 20 countries & 40 subregional, regional and international & bilateral development
partners

leveraged previous assessments, existing frameworks &
initiatives

lessons learnt from the Addis Ababa Plan of Action for
Statistical development in Africa in the 1990s

Assessment identified:




strengths to build on,
weaknesses to resolve
opportunities to exploit
threats to avoid
Slide 15

RRSF endorsed by:

the meeting of Directors of NSOs,
 2nd Forum on African Statistical Development
 Conference of African Ministers for Finance,
Planning and Economic Development
Slide 16
RRSF Capacity Building
Strategies

Overarching strategy: design of the National Strategy for
the development of Statistics (NSDS)

Establishing In-service Training Centres at NSOs



meet huge demand for minimum competencies
among technicians who collect/manage data in
government
In S. Africa, this number is estimated to be
between 50,000 and 200,000
Centres should also organize periodic short
courses, seminars and workshops to meet specific
needs of NSOs & other data producers
Slide 17


Strengthen Regional Statistical Training Centres
Building statistical capacity in sub-regional organizations
(ECOWAS, SADC, COMESA, etc)
Slide 18
National Strategy for the
Development of Statistics
(NSDS)

What is NSDS?

National
strategy
and plan of
action
A catalyst
for change
to build
confidence


to strengthen statistical capacity across the
entire National Statistical System
A medium to long-term vision for SCB
responding to key user needs
A robust, comprehensive and coherent
framework to:
 address data limitations
 Mobilize & prioritise the use of
resources
 integrate statistics within national
policy processes
Slide 19
 Importance of the process
 as important as the strategy
 facilitate statistical advocacy
 mainstream key stakeholders i.e should:
 be participatory
 be inclusive
 use a concensus-building approach
• Plans that are country-specific and countryowned
• Ownership leads to more commitment,
creativity, imagination, innovation and
productivity.

participation and ownership are essential for
successful strategic management and the key to
the success of strategy
Slide 20

process presupposes that we are aiming to build
a truly integrated National Statistical System

process should be based on NSDS principles
developed by PARIS21 and partners

Guide developed by PARIS21 (2004)

Guide on Integrating Sectoral Statistics into the
Design of NSDS (AfDB, PARIS21 and Intersect)
Slide 21
Bottom-up approach
NSDS
SSPS
(Agric)
SSPS
(Health)
SSPS
(Edn. )
SSPS – Sector Strategic Plan for Statistics
Slide 22
Critical success factors

Strategic leadership and management (strategic insight)

NSDS not just one of the statistical activities

Statistical reform (not cosmetics)

Managing change
“It’s not the strongest species that survive, nor the
most intelligent, but the most responsive to change”,
Charles Darwin – father of evolution theory

Process (participatory, continuity, empowering, involve
development partners)

Cultivate “Champions” and “Missionaries”

Partnerships
Slide 23

building partnerships in Africa and beyond
 Statistical Commission for Africa (Statcom-Africa)
 African Statistical Coordination Committee
•
•
•
•
ECA
African Development Bank (ADB)
African Union (AU)
African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF)
 UN agencies, PARIS21, multilateral and bilateral
agencies and other partners

Scaling up Support for Statistics – High Level Meeting
of Donors in Paris 15 November
Thank you!
African Centre for Statistics
Visit us at
http:www.uneca.org/statistics/
Slide 25