Transcript ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS IN ZIMBABWE: A COUNTRY …

ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS
WORKSHOP,ADDIS ABABA,
ETHIOPIA,
By
Manasa Viriri and Tinashe Njovana
07 – 11 March 2011
Background of Environment Statistics
and Accounts
•Zimbabwe intensified efforts to collect environment statistics after the 1991
User/Producer workshop
•a booklet on Environmental Statistics was produced in 1994.
•Zimbabwe was invited to participate at an environmental statistics and accounts
workshop held in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The efforts were coordinated by CEEPA, RANESA.
cont.
•Every five years ZIMSTAT conducts User Producer Workshop, at which a paper on
Environment Statistics is presented
•Zimbabwe has initiated a program for the implementation of the System of
Environmental Economic Accounting for Water with ZIMSTAT as the lead agency
•ZIMSTAT conducted its first ever Stakeholder Workshop dedicated to Environment
Statistics in April 2005.
•ZIMSTAT conducts user inquiries before the next issue of an Environment Statistics
Report targeting users and producers of environmental information.
Environment Statistics Stakeholders
•In Zimbabwe, there are many organisations that are involved in the collection of
environment statistics and these range from government ministries, and departments,
local authorities, parastatals, Non-Governmental Organisations.
•ZIMSTAT also coordinates the provision of environmental data to the United Nations
Statistics Division/United Nations Environmental Programme (UNSD/UNEP) through
completion of questionnaires.
Data Sources
•With environmental data existing scattered in various institutions through out the
country, there is need to strengthen the coordination of the production of the
statistics.
•Most of the data come from specialist organizations such as the Meteorological
Office, Environmental Management Agency and Zimbabwe National Water
Authority.
• Other sources of data are administrative records, monitoring data and remote
sensing. Hence, most of the statistics exist scattered in various primary and
secondary data producers.
Dissemination of Statistics
ZIMSTAT produces the Environment Statistics publication after every three years
incorporating recommendation of the previous user inquiries.
One of its strongest dissemination tools is the Zimbabwe Statistical Database
(ZIMDAT)
External Assistance
ZIMSTAT received assistance from Energy and Environment Programme under the
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management. The programme was
supported by United Nations Development Programme.
Challenges of Statistics Production
While a lot of relevant information resides with a number of institutions, there is very little
information sharing that takes place between stakeholders for a number of reasons such
as, inter-alia, inadequate information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure
and inadequate capacity to use information.
Compilation of Environment –
Economic Accounts
•Currently there is nothing that has been compiled for environment-economic accounts.
However a proposal outlining the plan of implementation has already been submitted
to UNSD for support.
•It is in our interest that we start with the water sector as the pilot project.
Way forward
CSO was transformed to ZIMSTAT which is a semi-autonomous
agency. The new Act allows the creation of a National Statistical
System (NSS) that is foreseen to bring mechanisms for better coordination and organization in the production of all statistics.
There is need for strengthened capacity of other data producers.
There is also need for establishment of databases which are continuously
updated at national levels whose data will be supplied to UNSD/UNEP.
Thank you