Transcript Group Discussions - IT - Luanda Dec 06

Workshop on Statistical Organization
and Management for SADC Member
States – UNSD
Information Technology
Group 1 Discussions
Luanda, 05 December 2006
KEY CURRENT CHALLENGES
Lack of IT strategies
 Lack of trained personnel
Qualified IT personnel
 Lack of connectivity
- Internally
- Externally: between organisations and
countries
Lack of Connectivity (Cont.)
 Need to keep-up with changing pace in IT
 Choice of Soft wares: many soft wares and
choosing correct one is a problem.
OUTSOURCING
 Comparability of equipment and systems
 Lack of expertise
 When it’s intergraded part of the business have
to do it otherwise forgo mandate.
OUTSOURCING (Cont.)
 Instead of outsource in source is better but
be ware that it does not disturb
organisation’s rewarding system.
INTERGRATED IT STRATEGY
 Train more staff especially statisticians in
IT
 Balance Human Resource
POTENTIAL ROLE OF
INTERNATIONAL
ORGANISATIONS
 Softwares and Data bases be made easier
for countries to cope with.
 Bring countries together and standardize
softwares and programmes.
 Communicate problems and solutions.
OPEN SOURCE
• Can unload freely programs but it defies
standardisation.
• Since its free there is no body responsible
for it.
USE OF COLLABORATIVE TOOLS
 Can be used by different organisations
 No guarantee of confidentiality.
COLLABORATIVE TOOLS (Cont.)
• No security for information.
• Watch and correct misleading information.
Workshop on Statistical Organization
and Management for SADC Member
States – UNSD
Information Technology
Group 2 Discussions
Luanda, 05 December 2006
Key challenges
Issues
•
The prohibitive / high cots of ICT
•
Lack of appropriate technical skills to evaluate ICT systems
•
The inherent high risks that go with the ICT environment
•
The extra resources that come with new ICT systems
•
The ICT opportunities for a NSO are usually large-scale
Recommendation
•
To draw an integrated ICT policy which should be linked to the
NSDS
•
Keep it manageable
•
We need to create a regional (SADC) inventory of SADC counties
that have experienced particular ICT packages
Outsourcing
Challenges
• Outsourcing is inevitable
• NSOs sometimes receive government-wide ICT packaged that do not
necessarily serve their interest
• Outsourcing sometimes affects timeliness
• Sometimes outsourcing does not leave behind capacity to deal with
ICT systems
Solutions
• Outsourcing should include a capacity aspect, and that should be builtin into the contract
Role of international organisations
Challenges
• Countries sometimes do not know where to go for help, even on ICT
packages that other countries have already tried and tested
Solutions
• The UN should ensure that all statistical packages required by NSOs
are highly subsided or entirely free of charge
• Collective regional acquisition of ICT resources should be encouraged
rather than countries acquiring ICT resources individually
• International organisations should collaborate with our SADC region to
create an inventory of counties that have experienced particular ICT
packages