Africa should urgently invest in robust data and statistical systems to accelerate sustainable development, the Director of the Africa Centre for Statistics at the Economic Commission for Africa, (ECA), Oliver Chinganya has urged.
Opening the Eleventh Forum on African Statistical Development (FASDEV X), as part of the series of events by the community of African statisticians, including Statistical Commission for Africa (STATCOM), Mr. Chingaya, stressed the importance of data and statistics in supporting informed decision-making and planning.
FASDev initiated in 2004 by the ECA, the African Development Bank, the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) and the World Bank, brings together representatives of national statistical offices, statistical training centres, international, regional and subregional institutions, bilateral agencies, international donors to deliberate on supporting statistical development in Africa.
FASDev, being held at the back of the Statistical Commission for Africa (STATCOM), has established linkages among producers of official statistics, statistics training centres, and partners supporting statistical development in Africa.
This year the Forum is meeting under the theme, ‘Strengthening the mobilization of technical and financial resources to support innovation in statistical development in Africa’, which Mr. Chinganya said reflected continued efforts in the transformation and modernization of official statistics on the continent.
Mr. Chinganya highlighted that African countries had made notable progress in improving their national data and statistical systems in the areas of digital censuses as well as in modernizing administrative data for statistical purposes. Furthermore, many countries have harnessed data science and new data sources to close data gaps and adequately respond to users’ needs.
Despite the progress made, Africa was challenged by limited investment in data and statistics which hindered innovation and the delivery of timely and accurate statistics for development. “There is a need to expedite the provision of robust data and statistics to assist the Government in accelerating the achievement of the agenda for sustainable development and agenda 2063 through their national development plans,” said Mr. Chinganya, calling for the strengthening the mobilization of technical and financial resources to support innovation in statistical development in Africa.
“I urge the eleventh Meeting of the Forum on Statistical Development in Africa to deeply reflect on strengthening synergies among all stakeholders to enhance innovation in the African Statistical System because ‘Synergy is better than my way or your way; it is our way’,” he said.
There are numerous efforts underway. For instance, ECA in collaboration with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda have developed the capacities of African National Statistics Offices to exploit big data sources and data science techniques to complement official statistics. Furthermore, ECA, FAO and three regional statistical training centers partnered to provide training and capacity-building on agricultural statistics. “As a result of this partnership, 48 students from national statistical systems graduated with master’s degrees in agricultural statistics from 2022 to 2024,” he said.
“The theme of this year’s STATCOM “Unleashing the potential of African innovation in statistical development”, resonates with the philosophy of FASDev, which is to develop and strengthen the capacity of National Statistical Organizations to modernize and transform their statistical systems,” said Mr. Chinganya.
For his part, Adoum Gagoloum, Chief Economic Statistics at the African Union Commission, and Acting Director of the African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC), highlighted that Africa’s development is hinged on reliable statistics and that African countries needed to improve their data collection systems.
“The status of data collection in Africa is important for improving data quality and crucial for decision-making and development. Actors must work hard to produce credible statistics,” said Mr. Gagoloum, calling for the harnessing of more and sustainable resources to produce reliable data.
Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of Africa’s statistical systems, Babatunde Omotosho, Director of the Statistics Department at the AfDB, said Africa needs to scale up innovation and mobilize resources for statistical development.
“We need to explore new financing partnerships and resources to prioritize statistical development projects in Africa,” said Mr. Omotosho, noting that the ECA, the African Union and the AfDB have partnered to advance the modernization of statistical systems in Africa.
Reiterating the importance of partnerships and coordination in transforming Africa’s statistical systems, Philippe Gafishi, Inter-Regional Advisor at the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), said Africa needs to create synergies across vast diverse stakeholders to maximize the impact of resources and improve the efficiency and responsiveness of African statistical systems.
“Transformation is essential to close the data gaps and in achieving the Africa Agenda 2063 and SDGs. However, this vision calls for skilled personnel and robust infrastructure, and it is here where stakeholders and donors can make an impact, not only to supply resources but develop technical expertise,” Mr. Omotosho said.