Statistical Training Programme For Africa (STPA)

In recent past, African countries and development partners have increasingly recognized the need for better statistics as a tool for evidence-based policy and decision making and for a better support to policy implementation, monitoring progress and evaluation of outcomes and impacts of development initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs). This is in line with the commitment made by developing countries in the world (including those in Africa), to the results agenda or managing for results.

As a result, demand for quality and timely statistics in Africa has seen unprecedented increase as policy makers and other stakeholders seek information on national and international developments. This increased demand is accompanied by a new culture championing rigorous monitoring and evaluation of outcomes and evidence-based policy decisions. This has challenged already weak and vulnerable National Statistical Systems (NSSs) and presented new opportunities for raising public awareness about statistics and harnessing national and international resources for developing statistical capacities. One of the main challenges facing African countries in producing quality statistical information is the lack of human resources and up-to-date skills. There is, in fact, a broad consensus among African countries and development partners about the need for better training of statisticians if countries have to produce the needed quality statistics for evidence-based policy-making and planning and to better support effort made by countries in their quest to meet nationally, regionally, and internationally agreed upon development agendas such as those enshrined in the MDGs.

As a response to the challenges posed to African countries in the particular area of statistical training, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), contributed to the advancement of statistical development through a number of statistical programmes including the Statistical Training Programme for Africa (STPA) in the seventies and the eighties in collaboration with major partners such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Unfortunately a combination of events led to the decline in the statistical function at the UNECA from 1997 to 2005 following major reforms of the UN System. As part of these reforms, the Statistics Division was abolished and this impacted negatively on the work of the UNECA as a knowledge centre and concomitant decline in the growth and development of statistics in Africa as well as the ability of African countries to measure and monitor their development and progress towards the MDGs.

In 2006, the UNECA was repositioned to serve Africa better and as part of this repositioning exercise, knowledge management and statistics were identified as priority sub-programmes of the organization. An African Centre for Statistics (ACS) with Division status was established in August 2006 to implement the statistics programme of the UNECA. Following this repositioning, a business plan was designed covering the period 2010-2012. This plan includes a statistical training programme component.

This project, which is in line with the business plan, is aimed at assisting African Statistical Training Centres (STCs) and countries develop their human resources by transferring knowledge, and by broadening and deepening strategic skills base, thereby enhancing the capacity of African countries to produce quality information in support of their development agendas. This is expected to enhance the capacity of countries to meet user needs for data to support national development processes and also support UNECA divisions to enhance their capacity for programming and policy analysis. To realize the project objectives, related activities will be carried out over a three-year period (2010 to 2012) with a total budget of US$11,887,405.

The project will be implemented by the ACS with the collaboration of major regional partners including the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) as well as other regional and sub regional organizations under the umbrella of the African Group on Statistical Training and Human Resources (AGROST) of the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa) in order to ensure that duplication is avoided and synergy is built among the African stakeholders.

1. Background

1.1. The importance of statistics for development

There is increasing consensus internationally that development in many countries, especially the poorest, has faltered in the past because development efforts did not focus on results. However, in recent past,

many developing countries in the world (including those in Africa), have committed themselves to the results agenda or managing for results, which includes Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs), sectoral and other national development initiatives and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The results agenda involves measurement, monitoring and reporting on progress i.e. achievement of outputs, outcomes and results or impact, and in particular, tracking and reporting on progress towards sectoral, national, regional and international development goals. The results agenda emanated from a series of conferences organized under the auspices of the United Nations. The first one held in Monterrey, Mexico in 2002 on Financing for Development recognized that to be successful, development has to be country-driven, country-owned, and country-specific and that good results require good policies and institutions that constitute the conditions to make development assistance highly effective. The second conference, held in Marrakech, Morocco in 2004 focused on Managing for Development Results called for clear and systematic measurement and reporting on achievement of outputs, outcomes, and the impact of development policies and programs using better statistics.

Critical to achievement of development results is the ability to measure and closely monitor it for “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”[1]. It is, therefore, the case that statistics are needed “to drive the outcomes that policies are aiming to achieve and not just to measure progress towards those outcomes”. The roundtable held in Washington in 2002 and the one held in Marrakech in 2004 recognized that good statistical information is crucial not only to support development policies but also to measure the impact of interventions. They thus identified better statistics as a priority of the results agenda and as part of the enabling environment for democracy and development. Specifically, statistics are needed:

· To inform policy analysis and development, and to assess programme options aimed at improving the well being of the population e.g. building roads, providing clean water, building schools, providing relief in case of disaster, etc;

· For designing, management, monitoring and evaluation of national policy frameworks e.g. PRS, MDGs, etc

· For governance and administration such as deciding on grants to give to different administrative units, demarcating constituencies for electoral purposes, etc;

· To identify vulnerable groups in society (e.g. the poor, children and socially disadvantaged) for whom it designs special intervention programmes usually multi-sectoral in nature;

· To manage for transparency, accountability and delivery of public services;

· For managing for results which governments have adopted to achieve better development outcomes

However, for statistics to play this important role, they need to:

· be comprehensive (covering all sectors – health, education, agriculture, water, transport, etc);

· be produced in a sustainable manner, and on a scale and in a time frame that are relevant to policy makers,

· be available to a broad range of the public and private users and be trusted as objective and reliable,

· have a breadth and depth of coverage to meet all policy needs and to inform the public so that they can evaluate the effectiveness of government policies, programmes and actions, and

· have integrity and credibility, be free and be seen to be free from political manipulation.

In order to produce good statistics, countries need to enhance national statistical capacity to increase data quantity and improve data quality and their use at national and sub-national levels especially for PRS and MDG monitoring; and improve coordination within National Statistical Systems and between national and international agencies to ensure consistency between national and international data. The National Statistical Office (NSO) needs to play a central role in PRS and MDG monitoring. The NSO should coordinate production of national data and should become a “focal point” for each country, collecting and verifying development data from different sources in the country and acting as the main source of data on the country. This will help not only to strengthen country level coordination and development monitoring but also contribute towards improving coordination between national and international statistical systems. However, this requires that the NSO builds ample capacity to collect, collate, harmonize and integrate data from different sources (mainly key line ministries of health, education, agriculture, water, transport, etc); develops and manages an accessible and user-friendly national database with development data and indicators; and makes data available to users in a format that makes them understandable and usable. One of the main challenges facing African countries in doing so is the lack of human resources and up-to-date skills. There is, in fact, broad consensus among African countries and development partners about the need for better training of statisticians and other data producers if countries have to produce the needed quality statistics for evidence-based policy-making and planning and to better support efforts made by countries in their quest to meet nationally, regionally, and internationally agreed development goals such as those enshrined in the MDGs.

1.2. Role of Statistical Training Centres

There are a number of institutions in Africa whose role is to provide statistical training services on a regular basis. Some of them have a regional character - Regional Statistical Training Centres (RSTCs); others have a national character such as Departments of Statistics at national Universities. The main regional statistical training centres in Africa include: école Nationale Supérieure de Statistiques et d’Economie Appliquée (ENSEA, Abidjan, C?te d’Ivoire), école Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse Economique (ENSAE, Dakar, Sénégal), Institut Supérieur de la Statistique et d’économie Appliquée (ISSEA, Yaoundé, Camerooon), Department of Statistics at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (ISAE) at Makerere University (Uganda), Eastern Africa Statistical Training Centre (EASTC, Tanzania), Institut de Formation et Recherche Démographique (IFORD, Yaoundé, Cameroon) and the Cairo Demographic Center (Cairo, Egypt)[2].

The current programmes at training centres have tended to be theoretical. In addition, they have not been opened up to other domains and subjects such as law, history, political science, etc. Computer is part of the training programme at all training centres. However, some aspects of computer applications do not seem to be emphasised. A case in point is building databases. Training centres are facing a number of problems. Key among them are shortages of teaching staff both in terms of numbers and experience, limited fellowships which has made it difficult for the RSTCs to get many trainees from outside the host countries, scholastic materials (mainly books and computers), less than adequate budgetary support from host Governments, space problems, etc. Also the linkages between training centres and the national statistical systems are generally weak and not formalized. This is unhealthy as it affects the relevance of the training programmes to the national social and economic challenges. It also does not render “live data” readily available for use in practical courses at the training centres.

Fellowships for specialized study abroad have become more and more difficult to obtain. In most cases fellowship support has come from various donor-funded projects and this has in some cases distorted priorities for human resources development.

Clearly these training centres have played a significant role in the development of human skills in Africa. They have also been assisted over the years by individual development partners. There is now an apparent need to give them support using broader STPA approach.

1.3. Role of the UN Economic Commission for Africa

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) is one of five regional commissions under the administrative direction of United Nations (UN) headquarters. It is the main regional institution of the UN in Africa; it is an Africa led and driven organization of the UN and as the regional arm of the UN in Africa, it is mandated to:

· Support the economic and social development of its 53 member States, foster regional integration, and promote international cooperation for Africa's development, and

· Promote the development of statistics to enhance national capacities in support of the economic and social development of Africa.

The core functions of the UNECA in the area of statistics were defined in the Secretary-General's Bulletin referenced ST/SGB/2005/12[3] on the organization of the UNECA. These can be summarized as follows:

· Research on methods and standard setting including harmonization so as to produce a consolidated set of statistics for Africa;

· Developing and implementing regional programmes that are well coordinated across African countries;

· Development of survey systems;

· Data compilation with respect to the African region particularly statistics to support regional integration and development frameworks;

· Strengthening data processing capability in African National Statistical System (NSS);

· Database development; and

· Providing advisory services to the member States towards building their statistical infrastructure.

1.4. Repositioning the UNECA to better support African countries meet their development challenges

As part of the UNECA repositioning exercise in 2006, knowledge management and statistics were identified as special programme priorities for the organization. This strategic decision led to the revamping of statistical activities at the UNECA and the establishment of the African Centre for Statistics (ACS) in September 2006. This has created a lot of expectations among Africa member states and development partners as well as the UNECA itself about improving national and regional statistics.