Conceptual Information Flow Architecture in an Integrated National Statistical System
Report of the Expert Group Meeting
(Draft)
Organised
by
Economic Commission for Africa
African Development Bank
African Union Commission
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
26-29 June 2012
Contents
Introduction 3
Background 3
Opening Ceremony 4
Objectives and structure of the EGM 4
Presentation of key concepts and issues 4
Session 1: Country presentations 5
The Gambia 5
Mozambique 6
Mauritius 7
Nigeria 7
Senegal 8
Ethiopia 8
Discussions 9
Session 2: Partner presentations 12
DataFirst 12
ECOWAS Commission 12
Discussion 12
Session 3: Conceptual framework for NSS 13
Lessons from the Geospatial Community on Metadata Management 13
Moderated discussion on main data/information hubs in a typical NSS 13
Session 4: Parallel Breakout Sessions: Moderated discussions on key concepts and issues identified 14
Input from groups Discussions 15
Group one: System topologies 15
Group two: Coordination arrangements 17
Group three: Enabling technologies 17
Discussion of outline of handbook 19
Annex I: List of Participants 21
Participants 21
Annex II: Papers 23
Mozambique 23
Introduction
The Expert Group Meeting on “Conceptual Information Flow Architecture in a National Statistical System” was held at United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 26 to 29 June 2012. The meeting was organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Africa Union Commission (AUC)
The meeting brought together experts in statistics, data management, Information and Communication Technology(ICT), Geo-information as well as the journalists. (see Annex I for list ).
The objective of the meeting was to develop conceptual model for information flow in National Statistical Systems emphasizing conceptual model rather than technical and/or physical architecture, interoperability, metadata, geography and statistics in view of improving problem hindering flow of data among ministries, departments and agencies in a country.
It is expected that the outcome and recommendations of the meeting would serve as input to the draft of the handbook on the “Conceptual Information Flow Architecture in a National Statistical System” the will be prepared by the consultant.
Background
ECA, AfDB and AUC with the other pan-African organizations and other partners have been working to assist Member States to develop their statistical systems to provide quality statistical products and supporting services . This is in recognition of the need for quality statistics to support sound policy making, development planning, programme implementation and monitoring and evaluation of progress made towards achieving internationally agreed goals, such as the millennium development goals (MDGs), among others.
In addition to the national statistics office, which is usually the main official statistical data provider, there are other government offices and agencies that produce data directly for their own use. These include the central banks and ministries (finance, trade, tourism, agriculture, health, and education, amongst others), sector associations, private institutions and non-governmental organizations also compile statistical data on a daily basis Although such data sets are by necessity and for efficiency in use, maintained by the producers, they still form part of the collective statistical data resource of the country. These sector data sets are interrelated and together with the policies, methodologies, technical and human resources for maintaining them and disseminating their contents, constitute the National Statistical Systems (NSS). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines a National Statistical System as:
… the ensemble of statistical organisations and units within a country that jointly collect, process and disseminate official statistics on behalf of national government.
As a system, the NSS needs to be coordinated. This coordination is provided by the national statistical office, which is usually the custodian of common statistical products derived from other sources, and therefore serves as the focal source for external users.
One of the problems identified for African NSSs is that data do not flow efficiently between the components of the NSS. This was one of the findings of the ad hoc experts’ group meeting (EGM) that reviewed existing data management and dissemination platforms in use in African National Statistics Offices (NSOs). As a result of this finding, the third meeting of the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa) passed a resolution requesting
… ECA, AfDB, AUC and partners to undertake studies to ensure optimal data flows within various units of the NSO in particular, and among various components of the national statistical systems in general.
In response to this resolution, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in collaboration with the African Development Bank is proposing an ad hoc experts group meeting to propose a conceptual framework for data flows in national statistical systems in Africa, in the spirit of moving from the whole to the parts.
Opening Ceremony
The Director of the African Centre for Statistics, UNECA, Mr. Dimitri Sanga opened the meeting. The director recalled the role of statistics in development and emphasized that end users need data and do not need to know about the process of transforming data as long as they get it in a timely fashion, ready for use and reliable information.
He also emphasised the role and mandate of NSOs which is to provide official statistics and also recognized that official statistics comes from several producers in a national statistical system. The Director thanked AfDB for financial contribution and facilitating the meeting and all participants for agreeing to serve as experts in different capacities during the meeting for the preparation of the handbook.
Mr. Sanga appreciated Dr. Akinyosoye for allowing us to use his paper as starting point of discussion and sharing of his experiences over many years in this field.
The Director said, he looked forward to receiving concrete proposals on how to improve data flow in the NSS
Objectives and structure of the EGM
Mr. Dozie Ezigbalike, Data Management Coordinator at African Centre for Statistics, UNECA dealt with the proposed agenda and objectives of the EGM as well as the logistic arrangement of the meeting.
Presentation of key concepts and issues
Dr Vincent Akinyosoye, former Statistician General of the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, presented his “thoughts on transforming statisticians into Data Managers”. He discussed the “market” we are in, trading in data, for the client, the data user. He saw an efficient data market as one in which the data user gets appropriate data expeditiously. He mentioned that while Data Managers can come from a variety of backgrounds they need to understand data and be able to deal with all types of data, numeric or non-numeric. They also need to be able to work with all types of data users, including those in government and academia, and also the media and the general public. Data producers that need to be taken into account by data managers include NSOs, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), research institutions and the private sector.
Dr Akiniyosoe stressed that metadata is vital for data usage – this should include the methodologies of data collection and collation, plus definitions of concepts. Finally, metadata should include policies and procedures for data access. Technologies need to be interoperable. The spatial dimension of data should be included with the data for optimal usage. “Data nodes” are important – data collection points, should be included in any model of data flows. All this is dependent on ICTs and therefore ICT support is vital in any data flow architecture in NSS.
He spoke about the situation at the NBS NSS where there are many different data sources and sometimes the same data from different sources is different. He stressed the need for an integrated system to allow data to flow freely and effectively among data suppliers and data users within the NSS, for Nigeria and other African countries.
The discussion that followed gave support to the idea of providing easy and quick access to data as a public good and to assist better data systems. Dr. Dozie Ezigbalike also emphasised that data producers need to be reminded that they are not in the business of statistics, but in the data business, and keep this as their focus. He stressed that the public needs to know the value of the work done in collecting, collating and supplying the data they need. Mr. Sanga emphasised the need for statistical literacy and advocacy among journalists, researchers, and policymakers and training in statistical literacy.
Session 1: Country presentations
Experts from Statistics Offices in some African countries gave overviews of the situation with regard to data flows in their institutions. These included presentations from NSOs in The Gambia, Mozambique, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal and Ethiopia.
The Gambia
Ms. Lolley Kah Jallow from The Gambia discussed problems of coordinating data flows within the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBOS). GBOS is mandated to run the statistics data flow efficiently to enable timely, quality and reliable data to users and researchers. This is lacking in the key institutions as most institution don’t have proper statistics unit. Most of the staff are not statisticians or have no idea in this important area.
The quality cannot be compromised. So all the line ministries (agencies), private sector etc, providing statistics should be harmonised and create data centres and NSO to be the central point for data to be pushed and they will be the supervisors and the Administrator to disseminate and harmonise all statistical data flow.
Archiving is a component for data flow, for the memory of the institution:- Archiving will provide a central access point for statistical information of a country to allow data flow . Whatever is archived can be downloaded, do your research and is still in the repository for future use. With an increase demand for Microdata from developing countries particularly with emphasis on objective monitoring and evaluation of poverty reduction policies as well as tracking progress on the MDGs, comes the need for the urgency of data flow within statistics offices with more trained personnel to handle this important demand.
Statistics unit is not established in most of the different line ministries / departments. Data is being kept by individuals as their own property in computers, USB, hard disk, etc. People leave their offices just to be told I can't give you the data, this is highly frustrating. My computer is not working just to make excuses. I am on a workshop or attending a meeting, who are you that I should give you my data (laugh), this attitude will hinder the progress of data flow by the NSO’s.
Ms. Jallow also gave the he Way Forward to the problems of data flow in the Gambia:
· Ensure effectiveness of data flow throughout the NSOs offices and beyond, by a System Topology through enabling a good application being used by many or all if possible e.g SPSS.
· Create LAN within line ministries and connect all line ministries to the NSO’s and let line ministries push their validated final data to NSO office for dissemination.
· Develop access policies for data flow, archiving and dissemination.
· Train more statisticians and create unit in the different line ministries and the NSO to be the supervisor to all line ministries/departments for easy flow of data in the Gambia, and beyond to make life easy for data users and researchers.
· Proper documentation should be done for all new dataset (metadata) or will not be accepted. We should find a way to document all the old datasets.
· Gaminfo is the right tool for data flow in The Gambia and beyond. The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBOS) has this LAN /WAN set up for efficient flow of data. Most of the line ministries have their validated indicators uploaded into the Gaminfo and anybody, anywhere can download the data and do analysis. It is a hot cake for all.
· With the help of this new handbook being developed by Experts, which is very timely, I think it will lead us to the right way, for data flow in Africa, Amen.
Mozambique
Tomas Bernardo from the Instituto de Nacional de Estatistica (INE) in Mozambique presented his proposed data architecture for his country’s NSO. Some INE surveys have been documented using the IHSN metadata editor and a MOZDATA national data archive. However, the INE does not have a data centre as a central repository for all data produced within the Mozambican NSS. There is also a heterogeneous level of skills in the institution and a multiplicity of database platforms implemented by various international donor organisations. Currently there is a revision of statistical legislation in the country, and changes are awaiting finalisation of this. He suggested speeding up data processing and dissemination and the centralisation of all data and metadata at African NSOs. This data can be important input to high-level planning. Also, without official sharing of reliable data there will be a “black market” in data in Africa.
Mauritius
Deepuk Bahadoor from the Statistics Mauritius (SM) discussed the evolution of data flows at his institution. Statistics Mauritius was set up in 1945 and to improve data flows, the institution networked with the Mauritian government to set up statistical cells at different government ministries. This setup provided statistical support for the Ministries and Departments to cater for their statistical needs while at the same time ensuring a continuous data flow from these institutions and Statistics Mauritius. There has been an increasing demand for data which has impacted on data flows. There was need for more coordination among the institutions and also to provide more timely and frequent statistical information to meet the demand of the users. Opportunities came in the late 1990’s with adherence to the IMF’s General Data Dissemination System (GDDS), an international ICT audit and an audit by the SADC and UNDC on the structure of SM. Also with the coming of the MDGs and other International commitments which has been ratified by the Government, Statistics Mauritius undertook advocacy at highest level which resulted in developing a Strategic Plan, the setting up of a Logistic and Support Division and various Steering Committees for improving data quality and management. They also introduced high level focus groups for data types. They have Memoranda of Understandings with the Central bank and Competitions Services Mauritius and also coordinate data work with the Financial Services Commission. A change in the legislation was needed for these improvements and a new Statistics Act was enacted in 2011. They have finally graduated to the IMF’s SDDS, a more stringent standard for data dissemination in February 2012.