Regional Workshop on Data Management

Regional Workshop on Data Management October 26 – 28, 2009 Kampala, Uganda Opening Statements By B.Kokil Division Manager, African Development Bank

Mr. Hon. Minister of state for Finance and Economic Affairs, Mr. Director, African Centre for Statistics, the Director, UN Statistics Division, Mr Director of UBOS, Distinguished Colleagues, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of Mr Charles Lufumpa, Director of the Statistics Department of the African Development Bank, I join my predecessors to welcome all of you to this Regional Workshop on Data Management jointly organized and sponsored by UBOS, UNECA, UNSD and AfDB. Data dissemination is an important challenge. There is a growing need to move from passive dissemination, making data available in the hope that the will be used, towards more active marketing which involves building relationships and convincing potential users to use official statistics. Statistics have to be used in order to be useful, so statistical offices have to consider user needs, and explain the value of information that already exists.

As you all may know the AfDB is currently implementing the Multinational Statistical Capacity Building in Regional Member Countries for MDG Monitoring and Results Measurement, for which the Board has approved a grant of about US$ 28.5 million to support capacity building in RMCs. The total cost is estimated at UA 50.60 million over a 2-year period. The program’s objective is to assist RMCs to meet the data requirements for effective policy and decision making; and to facilitate efficient results measurement, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination, particularly in respect of MDGs. One of the components of the program concerns Data Development, Archiving and Dissemination. It aims to provide support to RMCs to improve data processing, storage, and dissemination systems for statistical outputs. It will also include critical support for RMCs to exploit unused or underutilized existing data.

In terms of statistical developments there have been a number of positive developments over the recent past, with an increasing number of NSOs designing NSDS, and embarking on improving their statistical systems. Much more effort is needed for knowledge dissemination. We have concentrated our efforts to collecting data and have given insufficient attention to our roles in generating information and knowledge. While collection of high quality data is important, it is equally important for statisticians to disseminate the data that have been collected, to get involved in the interpretation and use of information i.e transform the data into knowledge. In this context statisticians need to work more closely with subject-matter experts, data analysts and researchers and civil society in the analysis of existing data and go even further making these databases and data accessible to all stakeholders.

Data collection is very costly and we have to make efficient use of the data collected and be able to inform policy needs such as PRSPs and MDGs. This involves both macro data, which have to be made readily available on-line to users in a timely manner together with appropriate analysis; as well as micro data, preserving and documenting the data collected during surveys and making them accessible to researchers. This will involve putting in place appropriate data dissemination policy; adopting the right technology and international standards such as DDI and SDMX. In this context countries will need support to build capacity and invest in skills development. The Bank is working closely with other partners to assist countries in improving their data management and dissemination systems. It is, therefore, also the purpose of this Regional Workshop to discuss technical issues and best practices as well as to forge a harmonious relationship for the various stakeholders to work closely for the improvement of data management and dissemination in countries.

We look forward to a very fruitful workshop.

Thank you.