STATAFRIC, in partnership with Paris 21 and funded by the World Bank, has successfully organized the first meeting of the Specialized Technical Group of the Strategy of Harmonization of Statistics for Africa (SHaSA2) on National Strategy for the Development of Statistics(STG-NSDS)and atraining for its members on the alignment of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) with the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa 2017-2026 (SHaSA2). The event, which took place in Cairo, Egypt from May 1st to 3rd, 2023 aimed to enable the African Statistical System to generate quality, timely, and harmonized statistics to monitor regional integration policies and support national, regional, continental, and international development agendas.
The NSDS is a strategic planning framework and process that enables developing countries to build a reliable statistical system capable of producing and disseminating quality data and statistics necessary to formulate, implement, and monitor national, regional and global development policies and programmes. NSDS is consistent with national development plans and provides a country with a vision of the development of statistics.
The STG-NSDS meeting and training workshop provided participants with a thorough understanding of the modern NSDS lifecycle and discussed the challenges in aligning global, regional, and national development agendas data priorities and the capacity for data supply. It also focused on critical topics such as the NSDS process and gender statistics, adaptation of the NSDS process to the vulnerability of fragile states, and the NSDS process and the Roadmap for the Transformation and Modernization of official statistics in Africa.
After three days of extensive discussions, the workshop made several recommendations:
- Members of STG-NSDS must send their comments on the Terms of Reference no later than June 15, 2023; STATAFRIC in collaboration with PARIS 21 and the UNECA, must finalize the Terms of Reference of the STG-NSDS and send it back to the country no later than July 31, 2023
- Requests STATAFRIC to organize the second meeting of the STG-NSDS during the fourth quarter of 2023 for the validation of the terms of reference of the STG-NSDS, to discuss technical questions on the development of the NSDS and RSDS, the Guidelines on the integration of the various sectors in the NSDS;
- Request STATAFRIC, PARIS 21 and the ECA support the development the methodology, tool and implementation of the impact assessment for NSDS and RSDS;
- Request STATAFRIC, PARIS 21 and ECA to encourage South-South cooperation in the development of NSDS and RSDS;
- Request STATAFRIC in collaboration with PARIS 21 and the ECA to continue supporting the Member States of the African Union to develop and implement the NSDS which are sector and gender sensitive;
- Given the broad partnership consideration with development partners in the process of the NSDS design, production and mainstreaming, all support must be focused and aligned/channeled through the NSDS, to enhance the coordination of the NSS and rolling out statistics legal framework adequately.
- Request that guidelines be developed to mainstream the modernization and transformation of NSS trough the NSDS development process
- Request that STG-NSDS supports advocacy for better funding for development data and for establishment of Statistics Funds at continental, sub-regional/RECs and country levels
- Request to support soft skills for NSS, especially in communication, visualization, leadership, innovation, use of new and alternative data sources, etc. to promote and increase data use for sustainable development and better lives and respond to user’s needs adequately.
- Request to accelerate support countries in capacity building/Training in gender statistics and better help them to integrate it in the NSDS process
The successful conclusion of the STG-NSDS meeting and training workshop is a significant step towards aligning NSDS with SHaSA2 and promoting sustainable development in Africa. STATAFRIC remains committed to supporting the African Statistical System in generating quality and harmonized statistics that can facilitate monitoring of national development plans, the AU Agenda 2063, and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
For more informations, please contact Mr Samson Bel-Aube Nougbodohoue, statistician at STATAFRIC (bel-auben@africa-union.org) or Mrs Leila Ben Ali, Ag. Executive Director of STATAFRIC (leilab@africa-union.org).
