Mandate of STATAFRIC

Statafric Mandate

The mandate of STATAFRIC is to lead in the provision and promotion of harmonised quality statistical information and good practice in support and monitoring of the implementation of the Agenda 2063 for the integration and the development of Africa.

Objectives

The Institute shall have the following objectives:

  • a) Provide to the African institutions the harmonized and aggregated statistical information needed to design, implement, monitor and evaluate African policies;
  • b) Develop and promote standards, nomenclatures, methods and procedures that allow the cost effective production and dissemination of harmonized, comparable and reliable statistics throughout the AU and beyond;
  • c) Promote the production of official statistics of the African Union mainly by collecting, gathering, harmonizing and aggregating data published by the NSO/NSI of AU Member States for a better knowledge of Africa’s social, financial, economic and demographic situation;
  • d) Steer the African Statistics System, strengthen cooperation among its partners, build capacity and ensure its leading role in official statistics in Africa.

Principles

The Institute shall function in accordance with the following principles :

  1. Non-interference in the internal affairs of any Member States, respect for the sovereignty and National Laws of AU Member States;
  2. Respect of democratic principles, human rights, the rule of law and good governance in accordance with the Constitutive Act, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other relevant instruments;
  3. Respect for ethics of law enforcement agencies of AU Member States, the principle of neutrality, integrity and the presumption of innocence;
  4. Respect and recognition of African Union’ ownership of the Institute;
  5. Respect of the African Charter on Statistics Principles and UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics to ensure the independence of statistics at national, regional and continental level

Core Functions

In order to achieve the above objectives, the institute shall have the following core functions :

  1. Assemble timely, reliable and harmonised statistical information on all dimensions of political, economic, social, environmental and cultural development and integration of Africa including Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030 for sustainable development indicators in order to shed light on the decisions of African institutions and educate African citizens accordingly;
  2. Identify specific statistical data and indicators related to all AU and its organs’ activities, formulate policies for statistical development and capacity building for the AU and its member states;
  3. Coordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the African Charter on Statistics, as regulatory continental framework for statistics development, and capacities building of the African Statistics System and its Statistical Peer Review Mechanism in collaboration with partners ;
  4. Coordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the second Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA 2) and its various sectorial strategies; the work of the Specialized Technical Groups and prepare annual progress report for AU decision organs;
  5. Develop and promote statistical standards and procedures, concepts and definitions, methods, scientific methodologies, nomenclatures and classifications;
  6. Lead and coordinate the development and production of statistics within the African Statistics System in order to optimize existing statistical information and manage and consolidate stakeholder relations, partnerships, communication and technology;
  7. Provide African Union, RECs, NGOs, universities, African research centres and other Pan-African organizations with quality statistics, vital for the elaboration, monitoring and evaluation of programmes and decision-making in Africa ;
  8. Provide technical assistance to NSO/NSI of AU Member States and RECs, financial and non-financial institutions on establishing and operating the necessary regulatory frameworks on statistics, as well as in engaging with other stakeholders;
  9. Organize technical assistance to countries upon request; promote South–South cooperation, particularly between NSOs on the continent; encourage the sharing of innovation and good practices, and experiences, etc.
  10. Advocate for statistics and promote the decision-making culture based on statistical facts at all levels;
  11. Provide technically and financially support AU Member States in the organization and execution of industrial, agricultural, land and population censuses and all other socio-economic and statistical surveys;
  12. Carry out technical statistical audits with RECs and African countries to verify statistical operations, collection methodologies and instruments used, collection processes etc., certification of data with a view to guarantee the quality of the statistics produced on Africa, and the uniqueness of the sources given on the continent. It will also have to carry out organizational audits (peer evaluation of the NSS, etc.).
  13. Put in place a system allowing the protection of the profession of African statistician
  14. Build institutional and operational capacities of the African Statistics System.