Strengthening Statistical and Inter-Institutional Capacities for Monitoring the Millennium

Strengthening the capacity of African countries to use mobile technologies to collect data for effective policy and decision making

Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

An inter-regional project for 2013 – 2015

US$1,845,000

1EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Title: / Strengthening the capacity of African countries to use mobile technologies to collect data for effective policy and decision making
Duration / 24 months (2013-2015)
Implementing entities / Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) - United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD)
Target Countries / ECA selected member states
Development partners / stakeholders / National Statistics Offices in selected member states
Ministries/Government departments producing statistics
Non-Governmental Organization
Civil Based Organizations
Mobile Operators
Training and Research Institutions
Sub-Regional Offices
African Development Bank
African Union Commission
Budget / US$1,845,000
Objectives / The objective of this project is to improve the capabilities of project countries to use mobile technology to make statistical data available and accessible to support their sustainable development agenda

2BACKGROUND

2.1Introduction

Statistics play a crucial role in the overall development policy making process of countries by providing the evidence for setting objectives, targets and priorities. The Rio+20 outcome reiterates the role of statistics in providing evidence for setting development objectives, targets and priorities at the national and regional levels and for fitting the objectives into global frameworks. It also emphasizes the need to make statistics available and accessible to people for tracking progress and holding implementing institutions accountable.The statistics on which such evidence would be based are not always available in a timely manner in many African countries. And their reliability is not always assured.Sometimes, they are not available at all because they have not been collected by the national authorities.

The sixth joint conference of African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development of the Economic Commission for Africa have therefore endorsed the refocusing of ECA’s programme structure to give greater emphasis to statistics and support the generation of data in member States which will be used to make informed decisions. The compiled data will also feed into global development efforts in line with the Rio+20 outcome document’s call to regional economic commission to compile such data. .The main reasons for statistics not being collected, compiled and made available to national and global users include financial constraints, lack of adequate appreciation for the use of data for evidence-based decision making and monitoring of implementation, low of awareness of the advantage to them of their data being disseminated to the international community, inadequate human capacity and low technology base.

Due to the low technology base, mostAfrican national statistical systems use mostly manual, paper-based data collection methods for specialized surveys, which provide the bulk of statistical data. Paper-based methods involve printing of the paper questionnaires, transporting them across to the fieldworkers, and getting them back to a central location. The lengthy processes not only delay the production of data for decision making, but also require a lot of personnel for data collection and capture, thereby exacerbating the financial constraints. Due to these and other problems, computer assisted interviewing (CAI) methods are increasingly replacing pen-and-paper methods of survey data collection. The advantages of CAI methods include: automatic transfer of the survey to central database; automatic validity checks; automatic data cleaning, more control of question sequencing by the interviewer; easier to scale up (or down) and adapt for other surveys; more privacy due to the reduction in intermediate processing and cleaning, and concomitant reduction in operators involved. One of the disadvantages of CAI methods is the initial and running costs of computer hardware and related infrastructure. However, the increasing power of handheld devices such as mobile phones, tablets and personal data assistants (PDAs) has resulted in affordable CAI alternatives.

While accepting that the problems of statistical capacity are multi-faceted, this project will target the problems associated with data collection, particularly the technology issues. It will build on the lessons learned from statistical activities that are already using handheld devices for data collection and dissemination across multiple sectors, such as health, socio-economic development, agriculture, natural resource management, and disaster relief. It will also make use of the existing statistical structures in national statistical systems (NSS) to test, adapt and where necessary develop new mobile data collection systems. It seeks to ensure that NSSs are empowered to produce reliable, comprehensive, timely and integrated statistics by utilizing CAI methods on android powered devices. The android OS is being adopted because it is currently the most commonly used platform for tablets and smartphones, compared to similar platforms such as iOS and windows mobile and is supported by many different device manufacturers. The scope of the project will include developing a model data import and processing system for consolidating the collected data into a single database, based on agreed processes and data exchange mechanisms.

To build the capacity beyond the narrow scope of the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and ensure acceptability and sustainability, it is envisaged to have most of the conceptual and methodological studies, as well as the applications that will power the systems developed in collaboration with training and research institutions (TRIs) in Africa. These institutions will be expected to develop their own research projects based on the results, thereby ensuring sustainability of the capacities being developed.

In implementing the project, specific indicators to be collected in each of the project countries will be determined during an initial scoping exercise. In doing that, the potential indicators will be grouped into three categories, namely: (i) those accepted as official statistics that are already being collected by manual processes, with a view to improving the process through the application of mobile technology; (ii) those accepted as official statistics, but which are not being collected regularly, to identify why they are not being collected regularly and where the application of mobile technology might alleviate the current problems and improve their availability ; and (iii) those that are not usually classified as“official statistics”, but for which there is a recurrent need, with a view to establishing procedures for collecting them regularly using mobile technology. The system will be deployed initially in five pilot countries.

Whatever data are collected would be of no use if they are not processed and disseminated. Therefore the project necessarily includes developing interfaces to existing data processing and dissemination arrangements, and in some cases, developing and installing new components. Also, to make the data available to the international user community, an appropriate regional data dissemination platform will be installed at ECA headquarters and sub-regional offices, to receive the data from the national platforms and disseminate to regional and global users. However these dissemination aspects cannot be fully covered in one DA project. It is also necessary to roll out the systems to other countries in Africa. A follow on project is therefore being developed as Phase 2 of a comprehensive two-phase project, of which this particular project is its Phase 1.

2.2Link to the Programme Budget

ECA / This project fits well with the overall normative and analytical work of ECA under its various subprogrammes, especially those dealing withStatistics;Subregional activities for development; Macroeconomic policy;Regional integration and trade; Innovation and technology; andSocial development. The project will also address all the MDGs.
DESA / Subprogramme 5 (Statistics)

2.3Link to the internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs), including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Development Agenda

The data generated from the various surveys conducted through this project can provide accurate and timely data required for compiling some of the indicators in the MDGs. Data collected on economic activities and prices will contribute to assess the progress made towards achieving Goal 1 on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Administrative data will contribute to improved statistics on education (Goal 2 on achieving universal primary education), child and maternal mortality (Goals 4 and 5 on reducing child mortality and improving maternal mortality). While the country-specific focus of targeted survey campaigns will be determined during the situation analysis, it is expected to include agricultural and environmental topics (Goal 7 on ensuring environmental sustainability). All the data collection campaigns will strive for both geographic and gender disaggregation, the latter contributing to monitoring the progress on Goal 3 on promoting gender equality and empowering women.

3ANALYSIS

3.1Problem Analysis

Both the post 2015 development agenda and the Rio+20 outcome reiterate the role of statistics in providing evidence for setting development objectives, targets and priorities at the national and regional levels and for fitting the objectives into global frameworks. They also emphasize the need to make statistics available and accessible to people for tracking progress and holding implementing institutions accountable. The statistics on which such evidence would be based are not always available in a timely manner in many African countries. Sometimes, they are not available at all. And their reliability is not always assured.

The effects of these factors are:

• National development decisions are made with incomplete evidence that may also be outdated and unreliable, putting the quality of the decisions to question;
• The people cannot adequately participate in the decision making process;
• Implementation of the development activities cannot be properly monitored to adjust strategies and to hold the implementers accountable;
• It is difficult for the international community to compare national development objectives and targets with global frameworks to decide on appropriate allocation of resources from development partners.

The main reason for statistics not being collected, compiled and made available to national and global users are financial constraints, lack of adequate appreciation for the use of data for evidence-based decision making and monitoring of implementation, lack of awareness of the advantage to them of their data being disseminated to the international community, lack of human capacity, and low technology base.

3.2Stakeholderanalysis and capacity assessment

The major stakeholders of the project are National Statistical Offices (NSOs), National Training and Research Institutions (NTRIs), development partners and United Nations Agencies.

NSOs are responsible for compiling statistics on various socio-economic indicators about countries and making them available to both national and international users. Currently, they lack the capacity to produce timely statistics on all indicators expected of them. The use of mobile technology for data collection will reduce the errors, gaps and delays associated with paper-based methods, improving the capacity of NSOs to perform their mandated functions. The resulting improvements in efficiency will also reduce the problem of low human capacity.

NTRIs will serve as quasi consultants developing tools, concepts and methodologies to be used in the project through applied research projects jointly conceived and supervised with the NSOs and ECA staff.The project will therefore support them in creating and maintaining a network of researchers and developers, as well as identifying relevant areas of focus.

The development community, especially those working in Africa and/or on African issues, has been hampered by the dearth of reliable statistics, preferably sourced from national sources. This issue has been discussed at several forums and several proposals have been made for solutions. For example, the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and the Center for Global Development recently (September 2012) empanelled a Data for African Development Working Group to review and discuss the disincentives, inefficiencies, systemic political and economic challenges on both the supply and demand sides of data production and use in Africa. The African Development Bank and the African Union Commission have been working with ECA to build harmonize statistics and build the capacities of member States to produce comparable statistics. In implementing this project, synergies will be built with these and similar organizations and initiatives.

United Nations organizations, especially ECA and UN Statistics Division, have constant need for statistics from Africa to inform their programmes and monitor the effectiveness of their interventions, including defining baselines for indicators of achievements. ECA also needs statistics to inform its research work in several socio-economic thematic areas. They have had to deal with the perennial problem of lack of reliable and timely statistics. This project will improve the availability of data for ECA, UNSD and other UN organizations.

The incentives for these stakeholders to participate and collaborate with the project are:

• NSOs: improved efficiencies to perform their mandated functions and access to new knowledge, tools and methodologies;
• Policy makers: increased availability of timely data to provide evidence for development decisions and for monitoring and tracking progress during implementation;
• NTRIs: opportunity to advance their research agenda in support of national development priorities, access to research results that can be used to produce papers for publication, opportunity to develop subsequent research activities based on the project results;
• Development partners: opportunity to build synergy and pool resources together towards the common objective of increasing the availability of data on Africa, and enhancing comparability of African countries;
• ECA, UNSD and other UN agencies: increasing the availability of data for their thematic specialists to analyze policy options.

3.3Analysis of objectives

The main objective of the project is to strengthen data collection through the use of mobile technologies by building capacities of national statistical offices and government departments in Africa for effective policy and decision making.

The development paradigm articulated by the post-2015 development agenda and the Rio+20 conference process places emphasis on inclusiveness and participation. This development paradigm increases the demand for disaggregated data and information to be collected at all levels. This project aims to improve the capacities of African countries to meet these increased demands through the increased use of mobile technologies.

This implies developing methodologies and toolsfor:

• Automating the process of collecting data on selected indicators that have hitherto been undertaken through manual methods by NSOs and other line ministries;
• Identifying scheduled statistical data products that have not been offered regularly by NSOs, determining why they have not been made available as scheduled and exploring the feasibility of collecting them using mobile technologies;
• Identifying statistical data products that users have expressed a need for, but have not been on the scheduled offering of the NSOs and exploring feasibility of collecting them using mobile technologies.

Whatever data are collected by the project would be of no use if they are not processed and disseminated. Therefore the project necessarily includes developing interfaces to existing data processing and dissemination arrangements, and in some cases, developing and installing new components. Also, to make the data avail to the international user community, an appropriate regional data dissemination platform will be installed at ECA to receive the data from the national platforms and disseminate to regional and global users.

4PROJECT STRATEGY: OBJECTIVES, EXPECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS, INDICATORS OF ACHIEVEMENT AND STRATEGY

1. Objectives

The objective of this project is to improve the capacity of project countries to use mobile technology to make statistical data available and accessible to support evidence-based policy making.

1. Expected Accomplishments

Increased capacity of NSOs to work with training and research institutions to develop methodologies and systems for mobile data collection.

Increased capacityin project countries to develop geo-enabled data collection systems running on mobile devices.

The project will select 5 countries each in two phases to implement the activities of data collection using mobile devices. The lessons from the first phase countries will be used to modify the implementation of the second set of five countries. The selection of countries will be guided by the geographical placement of countries, language and the level of development in using ICT tools for data collection, manageable size of the country and willingness to implement mobile devises for data collection.

The exercise will be rationalized with the countries’ plan for conducting surveys. A preliminary assessment will be made in the various countries to look into when and what types of surveys are conducting during the project period. This strategy helps the project to make greater impact by aligning the project resource and the resource planned for the survey under consideration.

1. Indicators of achievement

IA1.1:Number of geo-enabled mobile data collection systems adapted or developed through partnerships with training and research institutions established and functional.

IA1.2:Number of countries that have adapted project methodology and work-flow for data collection and processing.

IA2.1:Number of pilot countries using mobile devices to collect and analyse data.

IA2.2:Number of data collection campaigns undertaken as part of the project

IA2.3:Number of publications and reports attributing their data sources on the pilot countries to national and regional data collected by the project.