United Nations Economic Commission for Africa African Centre for Statistics Addressing Data Discrepancies in MDG Monitoring: The Role of UN Regional Commissions Workshop on MDG Monitoring 5-8 May 2008, Kampala, Uganda Ben Kiregyera, Ph.D.

Director African Centre for Statistics

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Outline

Background Data discrepancies: potential role for the UN Regional Commissions Meeting data challenges: National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) The way forward

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Background

MDG monitoring

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The Millennium Declaration (2000)

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Mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate the MDGs include the establishment of the IAEG on MDGs Indicators

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Coordination among international agencies and an attempt to fully use available data at international level

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There are still a number of challenges hampering the smooth monitoring of MDGs

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Concerns with the reporting mechanism (1)

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Report of the Friends of the Chair of the UN Statistical Commission on MDG indicators (2006) identified following challenges:

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inadequate mechanisms for reporting international agencies to

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lack of coordination within countries among data sources

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international agencies visit countries to collect data rather than build capacity

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Concerns with the reporting mechanism (2)

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indicators in countries often differ between countries and agencies because of country priorities

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for most goals, more data available at national level & used in national MDG reports than used at international level

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poor metadata for some indicators

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use of imputation to fill data gaps at international level

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data discrepancies between national and international sources

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Concerns with the reporting mechanism (3)

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Not all available data are used by agencies responsible for providing the MDG indicators

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In many cases population estimates used to produce MDG indicators are not the same

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Inadequate coordination within the country and between the country and international organizations in charge of reporting on given indicators

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Data discrepancies: potential role of UN Regional Commissions

Strengthening the role of UN RCs in MDG monitoring

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Several calls for UN RCs to be involved in reconciling discrepancies between national and international data on MDGs:

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Report of the Friends of the Chair on the MDG indicators (E/CN.3/2006/15)

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Report to the Secretary General on Indicators for monitoring the MDGs (E/CN.3/2007/13)

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IAEG meeting on MDG Indicators (Paris, November 2007)

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Rationale behind the UN RCs involvement UN RCs: not directly responsible for collecting data on the MDGs

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Play a pivotal role and serve as a useful bridge between countries and international agencies

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Strong knowledge of country statistical systems

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Close collaboration with countries in their respective regions

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Potential to play an important role to address the issue of MDG data discrepancies between national and international estimates

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What the UN RCs have been doing

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Providing technical assistance to countries:

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Statistical advocacy

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Assessments

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Development Account Project on MDGs in Africa (ECOWAS, SADC)

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Regional databases and reports

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Establish and/or improve coordination mechanisms at country and regional levels through various initiatives (capacity building initiatives)

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UNECA’s role in the MDG Africa Working Group (established 2007)

Cascading framework for meeting data challenges in Africa International Regional National African Charter for Statistics MAPS RRSF NSDS Sub regional

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Meeting data challenges: Designing National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS)

National Strategy for the Development of Statistics

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Coordination is paramount in the delivery of coherent information for MDG monitoring

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Designing NSDS is overarching action point of MAPS & headline strategy of the RRSF

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NSDS:

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Assists to mainstream statistics in national development policies, processes & budgets

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A plan aimed at strengthening statistical capacity across the entire NSS

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Comprehensive and coherent framework: cover entire NSS & all sectors

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Framework for mobilizing, prioritizing use of resources & coordinating donor assistance to countries

Types of coordination

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Coordination between data producers and users

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Inter-institutional (horizontal & vertical – sub national ) coordination among data producers

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Technical coordination of data sources: standardization of concepts, definitions, classification

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Coordination between data producers and research and training institutions (academic statisticians/official statisticians)

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Coordination of partners at country level

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Partially coordinated NSS Agriculture etc Health NSO Transport Labour Education

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Fully coordinated NSS Agriculture etc Health NSO Transport Labour Education

NSDS process Bottom-up approach NSDS SSPS (Agric) SSPS (Health) SSPS (NSO) SSPS – Sector Strategic Plan for Statistics Approach gives greater meaning to concept of National Statistical System ( liberating effect ) SSPS (Edn. )

Rationale for integration of sectors

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A lot of development data are collected, compiled by sectors:

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Agriculture, Health, Education, Labour, etc

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Need for voice in sectors and NSS

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Need to reinforce the capacity of sectors to produce reliable information

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Scope of the NSDS 1.

Organizational development (statistical awareness, coordination, networking, information sharing, statistical legislation – official statistics, professional autonomy, data access ) 2. Institutional development (Management Information Systems, Capacity building human resources, staff motivation, etc )

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3. Infrastructure development and equipment (offices, survey infrastructure, IT infrastructure including databases, library, etc.)

4. Data development (enhancing data quality, improving censuses and surveys, improving administrative data, civil/vital registration system , new statistical products – poverty maps ) 5. Data management (data archiving, integration, analysis and mining, storage and security, databases, reporting including to agencies, dissemination, access & use) 6. Implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting (action plan, policies, performance indicators, targets, benchmarking, reporting system )

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7. Proposed budget and financing (recurrent and development budget, investment plan basket funding, sustainability )

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The way forward

RC’s assessment of data discrepancies: a first step

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Examination of current data sources: census, survey or administrative system

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Review national agencies responsible for data collection and coordination mechanisms

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Sustainability of data production: periodicity of censuses, surveys

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Examination of data quality issues: coverage, consistency, reliability, timeliness and disaggregatability

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The feasibility of using estimation or imputation methodologies

Sharing the outcomes of the assessment

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Present the results of the assessment to the November 2008 IAEG

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Consolidation of assessments from all UN RCs

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Organize regional workshops to discuss existing discrepancies and remedial measures, involving all stakeholders

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Follow up actions

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Develop subsequent, targeted capacity building activities:

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Training

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Technical or financial support

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Promote and strengthen the coordination at the national level within NSDS

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Strengthen the coordination between national and international agencies to improve data availability and consistency

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Thank you!

African Centre for Statistics Visit us at http://www.uneca.org/statistics/