REPORT on EAC/FAO CountrySTAT Fourth Technical Working Group Workshop of the Project MTF/GLO/345/BMG for Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 24-26 July 2013
1. Introduction:
The fourth Ethiopian Secretariat and Technical Working Group (TWG) workshop on CountrySTAT was held from 24 to 26 July 2013, in Addis Ababa, at the Intercontinental Hotel in a Mini Conference Hall. This workshop was jointly organized by the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) and FAO within the scope of the implementation of the Project MTF/GLO/345/BMG, "CountrySTAT for Ethiopia,”
The technical working sessions included people from the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) and Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) who are involved in the system of national food and agriculture statistics, including data from other related sectors. The number of professionals initially planned to participate in the TWG workshop was thirteen. But one member from the ERCA was not able to join the Secretariat and TWG in the workshop as he was out of the city on an urgent assignment. As a result, twelve professionals drawn from the CSA and ERCA participated in the collection and validation of datasets to be uploaded to CountrySTAT Ethiopia website. Annex 2 contains the list of professionals who participated in the workshop.
As in the case of the earlier three TWG meetings, the purpose of this workshop has been to bring together the CountrySTAT Secretariat and technical working group members in order to collect and harmonize missing time series data to be uploaded to CountrySTAT Ethiopia website. The harmonization of data also includes the assessment and resolution of discrepancies and inconsistencies in the existing datasets at the National and Sub-national levels as well as checking the contents of the FAO Questionnaire against the data sets published on CountrySTAT and fixing irregularities.
2. Objectives of the workshop General Purpose: The secretariat and technical working group will collect and validate datasets to be uploaded to the CountrySTAT Ethiopia website. Existing datasets will also be reviewed and updated.
1 Specific objectives: (i) to collect and validate data for missing indicators in the Standard Core and Sub- National domain; (ii) to collect and validate data on area harvested, production, and land use from the 2012 Main Season Agricultural Survey at the Core and Sub-national levels; (iii) to collect and validate the “Belg Season” Agricultural data; (iv) to collect and validate data from the 2001 Agricultural Census; (v) to collect and validate data from Agricultural Statistics Abstract; (vi) to collect and validate data on number of Live Animals;
(vii) to collect and validate data on Slaughtered Animals; (viii) to collect and validate data on Seeds; (ix) to collect and validate Producers’ Price Data for 2012 at the Core and Sub-national level; collect and validate Producer Price Index(PPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) for 2012 at the Core level; (x) to collect and validate Trade Data (Import & Export) at the National level; (xi) to analyze and resolve discrepancies and inconsistencies in the data at the Core and respective Sub-national levels;
(xii) to validate and update data tables in accordance to the international standards; (xiii) to update the Correspondence Table to get complete national list on agricultural products;
(xiv) to prepare and insert Metadata for the newly collected and validated data sets;
(xv) to upload additional data to the CountrySTAT website;
3. The Outcome of the meeting
During the three days workshop the technical working group organized and validated about 23 different datasets. Annex 1 contains the datasets which were collected and validated during the fourth TWG meeting, as well as other datasets that need further assessment and validation. The verification of the datasets involved the collection and validation of data for the missing indicators at the National and Sub-National levels, resolving some of the discrepancies and inconsistencies in the data, and the collection and partial validation of the quantity and value of trade datasets related to the import and export of Live Animals and Machinery. The partial validation is due to the fact that the value of import/export of items is given in local currency and that needs to be converted to hard currency (USD) before the data can be uploaded. For the conversion, annual average exchange rate is required and the TWG members who have been working on the 2 validation of the Trade Data are now trying to get it from the national bank. The data will then be uploaded as soon as the average exchange rate is obtained and the data is updated accordingly.
The Secretariat and TWG group also collected and validated the “Belg” Season Agricultural data for eight years (2003-2012) at the national level. The “Belg” Season crops refer to crops that are harvested during the months of March to August in limited parts of the country. According to the Ethiopian calendar the “Meher” (Main) Season and the “Belg” Season lie in the same year; but in Gregorian calendar the two seasons lie in different years.
4. Strategy The technical working group workshop followed the predesigned program schedule (Annex 3). The meeting was intended to include plenary session and group discussions. To facilitate easier group work, five subgroups were formed and each worked on a set of different datasets. Accordingly, the first group was assigned to work on Area harvested, Production, and Land Utilization for 2012, including same datasets for the 2001 Agricultural Census. The second group focused on number of Live Animals, Female Animals, Milking Animals, Production of Milk, Laying Animals, and Production of Eggs for 2012, including same datasets related to livestock from the 2001 Agricultural Census. The third group collected and validated the “Belg Season” agricultural data for eight years at the national level. The fourth group collected and validated data on Producer Price at Core and Sub-national level including the Producer Price Index (PPI) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) at the national level. The fifth group worked on the quantity and value of Import and Export data on Live Animals and Machinery.
During the plenary session problems encountered during the collection and validation of datasets by each working subgroup were discussed and resolved. As the result of the validations made, the TWG found out that some datasets need further verification and these datasets are indicated in Annex1. Furthermore, discussions were initially made by the participants on the Core Standard and Sub-national Indicators that are missing and how to work on the collection and validation of the missing indicators during the workshop.
On the other hand, to make the collected and validated datasets available to users as early as possible, the group was able to upload some of the validated and verified datasets. As a result, datasets related to: area harvested, production, land use, producer price, Producer Price Index (PPI), and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for 2012 that have been collected and validated during the workshop have been uploaded at Core level. Producer price dataset up 2012 has also been uploaded at Sub-national level.
3 5. Main constraints encountered
5.1 Due to time constraint, the technical working group was unable to fill-in the FAOSTAT Production Questionnaire and verify it against the CountrySTAT data during the meeting. Datasets on Seeds and Slaughtered Animals for 2012 were also not collected and validated during the workshop due to time constraint.
5.2 Some datasets collected and validated contain data elements with high Coefficients of Variation (CV’s) which are suppressed or represented with an asterisk. These data are not visible in the table, but are included in the totals. This leads to discrepancies between the totals at the Core and Sub-national levels.
5.3 The data tables for the Agricultural Yearbook (Agricultural Statistics Abstract) contain Amharic and English fonts rendering it difficult to upload the data in Excel format. Thus an attempt will be made to upload the Agricultural Yearbook in a PDF format.
4 Annex 1: Datasets Collected, Assessed and Validated During the 4thTWG Workshop No. Dataset validated Year National Sub- Remarks National 1 Area harvested 2012 √ √ 2 Production 2012 √ √ 3 Land use 2012 √ √ 4 Fertilizers, consumption 2012 √ √ 5 Live Animals 2012 √ √ 6 Female Animals 2012 √ √ 7 Milking Animals 2012 √ √ 8 Production of Milk 2012 √ √ 9 Production of Eggs 2012 √ √ 10 Laying Animals 2012 √ √ Agricultural Census data 11 Area harvested 2001 √ 12 Production 2001 √ 13 Live animals, heads 2001 √ √ Rural, Urban + Rural 14 Female Animals 2001 √ √ » » 15 Milking Animals 2001 √ √ » » 16 Production of Milk 2001 √ √ » » 17 Production of Eggs 2001 √ √ » » 18 Production of Eggs 2001 √ √ » » 19 Laying Animals 2001 √ √ » » 20 Producer Price 2012 √ √ 21 Producer Price Index (PPI) 2012 √ 22 Consumer Price Index (CPI) 2012 √ 23 “Belg” Season Agricultural Data 2003-2011 √ No data for 2006 due to the 2007 Pop. & Housing Census 24 Agricultural Statistics Abstract 2012 Needs further assessment and validation 25 Live Animals, Import Quantity 2012 » » 26 Live Animals, Import Value 2012 » » 27 Live Animals, Export Quantity 2012 » » 28 Live Animals, Export Value 2012 » » 29 Machinery, Import Quantity 2012 » » 30 Machinery, Import Value 2012 » »
5 Annex 2: List of the 4th Technical Working Group Members who attended the Workshop
No. Participant Institution Directorate Task 1 Tabit Ahmed CSA Data Processing Chair Person
2 Habekristos Beyene CSA Agricultural Statistics Member & Secretary 3 Aman Abdelwahab CSA Statistical Branch Offices Member Desk 4 Eleni Kebede CSA ICT Member
5 Wudalat Gedamu CSA Public Relations Member
6 Yohannes Gulilat CSA ICT Member
7 Tesema Urgessa CSA Agricultural Statistics Member
8 Kifle Lakew CSA Data Processing Member
9 Samuel Hailu CSA Business Statistics Member
10 Zemecha Abdela CSA Price Statistics Member
11 Hailu Bekele CSA Population Statistics Member
12 Wondwosen Berhanu Revenue and Information Technology Member Customs Authority
6 Annex 3:
Project MTF/GLO/345/BMG – CountrySTAT for Sub-Saharan Africa Ethiopia Fourth Technical Working Group Workshop
Addis Ababa, 25 – 27 July 2013
AGENDA July 24, 2013, Wednesday
08:30 – 09:00 Registration
09:00 – 10:30 Collecting and validating data on area harvested, production, land use, livestock, and seeds from the 2012 Main season agricultural survey at Core and Sub-national levels.
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30 Collecting and validating data on area harvested, production, land use, livestock, and seeds from the 2012 Main season agricultural survey at Core and Sub-national levels. (cont. . .)
12:30 – 02:00 Lunch Break
02:00 – 03:30 Identifying and validating the “Belg” season agriculture data in the Standard Core and Sub-national domains.
03:30 – 04:00 Coffee Break
04:00 – 05:30 Collecting and validating data on prices and trade (export & import)
July 25, 2013, Thursday
09:00 – 10:30 Collecting and validating data on prices and trade ... (Cont ...)
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30 Analysis and resolution of discrepancies/inconsistencies in the data at the Core and respective Sub-national levels; inconsistencies between the FAOSTAT Questionnaire of and CountrySTAT data; Verification of dissemination structures of Data tables in accordance with the FAO CountrySTAT report/comments; coherence between core & respective sub-national data.
12:30 – 02:00 Lunch Break
7 02:00 – 03:30 Analysis and resolution of discrepancies/inconsistencies ... (Cont...)
03:30 – 04:00 Coffee Break
04:00 – 05:30 Collection and validation of the 2001 Agricultural Census datasets
July 26, 2013, Friday
09:00 – 10:30 Collection and validation of the 2001 Agricultural Census … (Cont...)
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30 Collection and validation of data from Agricultural Statistics Abstract.
12:30 – 02:00 Lunch Break
02:00 – 03:30 Collection and validation of Agricultural Statistics Abstract. (Cont...) Reviewing and updating the Correspondence Table
03:30 – 04:00 Coffee Break
04:00 – 05:00 Preparation of metadata for the datasets collected & validated
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