Building Africa’s Statistical System. Africa’s Statistical Deficiencies?

By Dr Jose Awong Alene

This publication shall answer many question that have been addressed to me about the deficiencies of ASS since I assumed the position of Public Servant, as a Senior Statistician at the African Union Commission. Also to respond to the African’ Statistical tragedy published by Devarajan in 2013.
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Dr. José Awong Alene is a Senior Statistician, from Equatorial Guinea. Former student of “INEM, Carlos Lwanga” of Bata (Equatorial Guinea), and also former student of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid (Spain), from which he obtained the title of Bachelor’s Degree on Statistics.

In September 2007, he was appointed International Officer by the African Union Commission (AUC) (former Organization of African Unity, OAU).

In 2013, he obtained the Title of Master Degree on Monitoring and Project Management within International Business School, Euroinnova, in Granada, Spain.

In February 2018, he obtained the Title of Doctor on Human Resources within Universidad of San Miguel, in State of Sinaloa, Mexico.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr Jose Awong Alene
• Release date: Nov 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463652145

Dr Jose Awong Alene

I am Dr Jose Awong Alene, from Equatorial Guinea I am a Senior Statistician at the African Union Commission.

Book preview

Dr Jose Awong Alene

Building Africa’s Statistical System.

Africa’s statistical deficiencies?

Copyright © 2019 Dr Jose Awong Alene

Published by Dr Jose Awong Alene Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Dr Jose Awong Alene using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Gerard Peter

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

Contents

About the Author

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Objective of the Publication

1. Introduction

1. African Union – United Nations

2. Demand for Statistics in Africa

2. African Statistical System

1. Introduction

2. What is the African Statistical System?

3. Statistical Conferences

4. Statistical Institutions

5. Set up of Statistical Governance in Africa

3. Ass: Key Initiatives

(A) Action Plans for Statistics

(B) Strategy Initiatives for Statistics

4. Ass: Challenges

(a) Inadequate Funding and Limited Autonomy of the National Statistical Offices

(b) Data Availability

(c) Data Quality

(d) Data Accessibility and Use

(e) Use of Geospatial Data

5. Ass: Key Achievements

A. Statistical Legal Framework

B. Statistical Strategy Framework

C. Statistical Institution Arrangements

D. Statistical Forum Arrangements

6. Ass: What To Correct

A. Statistics Reforms

B. Set Up a Strong Coordination Mechanism

C. Author’s recommendations

7. Sub-National Data

a. What is the Interest in Sub-national Data?

b. On the Supply Side

c. Improving Sub-national Data

d. What is the Impact of the Non-availability of Subnational Data?

e. What is Needed to Ensure Quality Subnational Data?

f. Stratification of Regional Units

g. How can Sectors Contribute to the Development of Subnational Statistics?

h. Can Partnerships Help Solve Some of the Data Challenges at Subnational Level?

8. General Conclusions of the Author

9. Pan-African Organisations Cooperation

1. Cooperation Between the Three PAOs

2. Brief History of the Evolution of the Cooperation Framework between the PAOs and RECs

3. Initial Mandates of the Three PAOs

4. Current Cooperation Between the Three PAOs

10. Key Concepts/Definitions

Quality Statistics

What Does Autonomy Means to NSOs?

Why do we need an Autonomous Statistical Agency?

Credibility and Impartiality

Engendering Change

Fostering Efficiency and Effectiveness

Free Trade Area (FTA)

11. References

About the Author

Dr. José Awong Alene is a Senior Statistician. He was born in Ncoasas–Concentrado, a district of Niefang in the province of the Centre-South in Equatorial Guinea. He is a former student of Instituto Nacional de Ensenanza Media, Carlos Lwanga de Bata (Equatorial Guinea), and also studied at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Statistics.

From 2003 to 2007, he was an employee of the National Oil Company of Equatorial Guinea, GEPetrol. In September 2007, he was appointed International Officer by the African Union Commission (AUC), formerly known as the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), within the Department of Economic Affairs of the Commission.

In 2013, he obtained a master’s degree in Monitoring and Project Management from Euroinnova International Business School, in Granada, Spain.

In February 2018, he obtained a PhD in Human Resources from Universidad de San Miguel, in State of Mexico.

He is a contributor to several statistical documents published by the Statistics Division (AUC) and some joint documents published by the three Pan-African organisations namely, AUC, AfDB and UNECA. He is also a contributor to some documents jointly published by Eurostat (EU) and Statistics Division (AUC).

He has previously published two books in Spanish namely, Credibilidad y Calidad en las estadísticas públicas (2013) and Temas de Calidad en las estadísticas públicas (2015).

Foreword

Many African countries lack the capacity to produce and use comprehensive quality statistics for evidence-based policy-making. This makes it difficult to monitor the implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) and interventions to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), now revitalised and modified as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), commonly referred to as Agenda 2030.

Also, in Africa, there has been a substantial increase in demand for official statistics and development indicators as a result of countries signing up to managing for results (or results agenda). This has put massive pressure on national statistics systems to deliver better official statistics in terms of relevance; scope; quantity and quality; consistency through time and space as well as timeliness; and level of data disaggregation. In the same direction, the development partners have provided considerable technical and financial assistance. However, this assistance has not only been uncoordinated at country level but also focused more on meeting short-term data needs and is less oriented towards building sustainable capacity. For all these reasons, statistical systems in Africa have by and large been underperforming and unable to meet all facets of the ever-increasing demand for statistics to support national and international development.

Now, there is greater recognition among stakeholders in Africa’s development of the need to strengthen national statistical systems so that they can better support national, regional and international development agendas and processes to achieve desirable development outcomes/results.

Some initiatives, such as the 2004 Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics (MAPS), which highlighted the need to mainstream strategic planning of statistical systems, especially through the implementation of national strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS), provide a holistic approach for integrating statistics within national policy processes, and for mobilising and prioritising the use of resources to strengthen the national statistical system (NSS). NSDS design and implementation is the overarching strategy of the Reference Regional Strategic Framework for the Development of Statistics in Africa (RRSF).

While national statistical offices are responsible for compiling and disseminating official statistics, statistical units in line ministries of the central or provincial governments or in other government units, e.g. the central banks, are also responsible for collecting and providing sector specific data that is key to monitoring development progress. Therefore, it is imperative that sectoral requirements as well as responsibilities are integrated into NSDS design.

However, this progress has been uneven, and moreover limited, and many national statistical systems and mechanisms for measuring development results remain weak.

Finally, there is a need to mainstream statistics into national development agendas and processes, reform national statistical systems as part of the wider public service reforms and scale up investment in statistical capacity and infrastructure development. The strengthening of National Statistics Offices should be the entry point to further improve national statistical systems as part of desirable statistical reforms. It is shown that the lack of autonomy of statistical authorities can potentially inhibit production of good statistics and in reality, this has happened in many African countries. However, the concept of autonomy of a National Statistics Office is usually not well understood by policy and decision-makers and to some extent even by statisticians themselves. This book will explain what autonomy means before making the case for its adoption in the key concepts/definitions section.

Acknowledgements

This inaugural Building Africa’s Statistical System publication is structured as follows: (i) introduction of African Union’s and United Nations’ role in Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063; (ii) African Statistical System general aspects, initiatives, key challenges, key achievements and the need for corrections; (iii) issue of sub-national data; (iv) PAOs cooperation; and (v) general conclusions of the author.

So, taking into account the above, this publication would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions and support of many individuals and institutions. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those who helped make this publication a reality.

Throughout its development, I have benefited greatly from the critical comments and suggestions of people generous enough to find not only time to read but also to give me their opinion. I am particularly indebted to Mr. Bernd Struck, an international expert, Mr. Guests Charumbira, former Government Statistician of the Centre of Statistics of Botswana, now Statistics Botswana, for their immense skill and advice without which this book could never have been born.

My thanks also goes to the following persons: Mr. Maxime Bonkoungou, former Director of NSO of Burkina Faso, and PAS Coordinator, for his intellectual advice, the revision of the background documents and his intuitive comments and also to Mr. Gildas Crepin Nzingoula for his IT contribution.

I also thank everyone who has been involved, individually or collectively, to guide my efforts while fully assuming my responsibility for the errors, inaccurate statements and/or omissions that may be present in this publication.

Dr. José Awong Alene

Acronyms and Abbreviations

AACB: Association of African Central Bank

AAPA: Addis-Ababa Plan of Action for Statistics Development in Africa

ACBF: African Capacity Building Foundation

ACS: African Centre for Statistics

AfDB: African Development Bank

AGROST: African Group on Human Resources and Statistical Training

AMCP: African Monetary Cooperation Program

AMU: Arab Maghreb Union

AU African Union

AUC: African Union Commission

ASCC : African Statistical Coordination Committee

ASS: African Statistical System

ASSD: African Symposium on Statistical Development

A2063: Agenda 2030

A2030: Agenda 2063

BAPS: Busan Action Plan for Statistics

BCEAO: Central Bank of West African States

CAADP: Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme

CCSA: Committee for Coordination of Statistical Activities.

CODI: Committee on Development Information

CoDGs: Committee of Directors-General of National Statistics Offices

COMESA: Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

CPI: Consumer Price Index

CRVS: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics

ECA: Economic Commission for Africa

ECCAS: Economic Community of Central African States

ECOWAS: Economic Community of West African States

ECOSOC: United Nations Economic and Social Council

FAO: UN Food and Agricultural Organisation

GDDS: General Data Dissemination System

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

HCPI: Harmonised Consumer Price Indices

ICP-Africa: International Comparison Programme for Africa

ICT: Information and Communication Technology

ILO: International Labour Organization

IMF: International Monetary Fund

ISI: International Statistical Institute

MAPS: Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics

MDAs: Ministries Departments and Agencies

MDGs: Millennium Development Goals

MIP: Minimum Integration Programme

NAEMA: Nomenclature of Activities of Afristat Member States

NEPAD: New Partnership for Africa’s Development

NGOs : Non-governmental Organisations

NOPEMA: Nomenclature of Products of Afristat Member States

NSDS: National Strategy for the Development of Statistics

NSI: National Statistics