PARIS21 Annual Meetings
March 28-30, 2012
Seminar – NSDS at Work: National & Regional
Good Practices
Preliminary report on the review of the NSDS in Africa
Statistical Capacity Building Division
Statistics Department
Africa Development Bank
1
Contents
Background
 Objectives of the review
 Scope and methodology
 Preliminary findings
 Way Forward

2
Background of the NSDS review






Marrakech Action Plan (2004) recommended that all countries design
NSDS by 2006
NSDS design and implementation is the overaching strategy of the
Reference Regional Strategic Framework for statistical capacity building
in Africa (RRSF)
RRSF sets out a coherent framework to build statistical capacity
initiatives in Africa in line the Marrakech Action Plan
The AfDB in collaboration with UNECA coordinates the implementation
of the RRSF
New initiatives, new funding instruments, emerging issues/needs & new
players
AfDB has & continues to play a major role in supporting the design &
implementation of the NSDS
3
Objective of the review

Overall objective - to review the design and
implementation process of the NSDS in RMCs.

Specific objectives



Assess NSDS essentials/principles if they are observed
Identify areas of improvement with a view to provide
support
Identify areas that require attention of the national
authorities i.e. advocacy, mainstreaming in the NDP and
Budgeting
4
Scope and methodology

Desk review

NSDS documents, national strategy and policy (PRSP, national
development plans) and all other useful documents for (29): Benin,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Niger,
Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Chad, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda.

Review missions to selected countries based on a
combination of issues (7): (Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon
and Mali)





Completed the NSDS
Updating previous NSDS generation
Poorly implemented,
Not being implemented
Target group - NSO heads, NSDS Coordinators, Sector
planning officers & Development partners
5
Scope and methodology
The review based on the four NSDS essentials:

Integrated into the national development process,


Developed in an inclusive way; incorporating results-based
management principles


Based on consensus-building; nationally led; UN Fundamental Principles, etc
Comprehensive and coherent


Political support & commitment; demand focussed; funded as a public
good;main streamed in the NDP; robust legislation
Covers the NSS; long-term oriented; resource for evidence-based policy
making
Provision for monitoring the status of the statistical system (M&E).

Assessment of the current status of the NSS; vision for statistics; outline
financing requirements, etc
6
Preliminary findings
1. Integration into the development process



i.e. promote mobilization of resources particularly
from external partners (literature review)
NSDS Action Plans are too big and
not linked to available human and
financial resources. (literature & mission)

Regional and sub-regional
committments/activities not well
integrated or visible (literature & mission)

External funds mainly for household
surveys, consequently resulting
 Weak of economic & other
routine statistics
 Poor harmonized NSS as some
donors choose to fund the
sectors to meet thier
requirements (mission)
Weak political support – poor
advocacy (mission)
Demand and better use of statistics
(literature & mission review)



Weaknesses
Best practices
Improvement in strengthening of
linkages between NSDS & PRSP –
Stats Council (if in existence) play
an important role in the design of
the NSDS (mission review)
Improvement of the leadership of
the process of design & managing
the NSO (mission review)
Govts are begining to adopt NSDS
(mission review)

7
Preliminary findings
Developed in an inclusive way; incoporating results-based
management principles
Best Practices





Good coverage of traditional sectors
(education, health, agric) (from mission)
From mission review – only Mali has
sector strategies
Workshops were organized to
review the NSDS developmenmt
process (mission)
Advocacy – (donor round tables,
African day of Statistics
commemorated. (Benin; twice
months/year) (mission)
Preparation of work program (mission)
Weaknesses

Poor coverage of emarging areas:
gender, governance, environment &
climate change mainly because the
guidelines are do not exist (mission)

Lack of participation regional statistical
offices (mission)

Weak development of sectoral strategies
in many countries (mission)
Weak advocacy (lack of communication
plan/strategy, almost absence of the use
of radio and TV, etc) (mission)
Weak dissemination of NSDS documents
and the process; no info on country
websites (mission)
Some stakeholders find the contents of
NSDS workshops too technical and do
not understand rational, i.e. what are
benefits, role, etc (mission)
Monotony - same people are invited to
workshop. Need to expand to include
policy makers, legislaters (mission)
8




Preliminary findings
Key elements of strategic framework (3. Comprehensive &
coherent; and 4. Provision of status of the statistical system (M&E))
Best practrice



All countries have a road map;
work plans and budgets (mission)
Stats council makes decisions
and approves Plan and
Budget(mission)
Development of elements of
strategic framweork (diagnosis,
vision, strategies, objectives, action plans…)
(lit and mission)


Assess the data demands/needs
national and sectoral policies
(PRSP, MDG, etc.) (mission)
Reference to GDDS (literature &
mission)
Weaknesses


The road map prepared but does not
match the political agenda (mission)
Funding lag – implementation not on
schedule because of lack of funding
(mission)


Lack of prioritization of activities, - all
depends on the clout of the person
driving the agenda/activity (mission)
Activities are too many for the
available human and financial
resources (mission)

Identical strategies from country-tocountry and yet the problems are
different (literature & mission)

Weak integration of activities including
coordination within the NSO (mission)
9
Preliminary Findings
Implementation of the NSDS
Best Practices


M&E system is in place BUT weak
(literature and mission)
For countries advanced in the
implementation – prepare &
disseminate annual progress reports
(mission)


Dialogue among stakeholders within
the NSS to some extent (mission)
Statistical coordination (mission although
Weaknesses

(literature and mission)




Reforms, institutional & legislations,
establishment of coordination
bodies; a key achievement of the
NSDS process (mission)
Mid-term or post implementation review of
NSDS - partially conducted (mission)
Challenges – NSO find the process too
demanding given the resource constraints,
espcially if it is coordinated by one person, and
worse if is at a low position (mission)
Lack of clear output indicators and/or statistical
capacity building (literature & mission)
Lack of a funding strategy and hence
sustainability of funding activities is not assured
(literature and mission)
not in all cases)

Poor link between the M&E and outputs/results


Poor advocacy for mobilizing the required
funds (mission)
Lack or poor of human resources strategies (literature & mission)

The coordination of stakeholders though in
place in some countries, is still very weak
10
Way Forward











Mainstream the NSDS in the national development & budgeting process
Clearly defined M&E framework
Develop sectoral strategies, (SSPS)
Develop a funding strategy
Strengthening advocacy among stakeholders, particularly among senior staff in
govt so that national resources can be mobilized
Improving coordination among development partners including establishment of
thematic groups
Elevate statistics to the highest possible office
The coordination of NSDS should be at the highest level,i.e. the coordinator
must hold a senior position
NSDS to be driven by national authorities – leadership & ownership
Review the statistical legislation to make it robust in order support the NSDS
implementation requirements and emerging needs
Re-design or update NSDS design to




Reflect the countries’ situation and needs
Make it realistic and selective according to the available resource envelope
Be flexible and focus on achievable improvements
Scale up the NSDS to regional economic groupings, (RSDS)
Final review report will be made available as soon as possible
11
Thank you
12