Our year-long collaboration with the rest of Africa
We straddle the continent from the south to the east and west and through the Africa Symposia for Statistical Development (ASSD).
AS WE END the Africa Month of May and transit into the Youth Month of June, at Statstics SA the machinery has been humming like clockwork, with a special focus on the continent where we have ceaselessly continued to participate at a bilateral level, particularly and more generally in a multilateral approach.
We have demonstrated that not only statistics count, but management does too.
A south-south collaborative approach has proven to be the most effective and one which yields results. This article is about the collaborative work that Stats SA has been engaged in across the continent in the last twelve months.
In July 2016 we paid tribute to the head of statistics Cabo Verde, who stepped down.
He had made a significant contribution to the global statistics system by hosting the Praia City Group, which is the only city group Africa has in the UN Statistics Commission.
The focus of this group is on governance, peace and security statistics. These statistics are now part of the rubric of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Antonio Duarte has been an elegant steward of our African agenda and we are very pleased with his achievements and recognise them as he steps down. South Africa is a member of the Praia City Group.
In August of 2016, Risenga Maluleke and I represented South Africa at the SDG workshop held by the Tanzania Statistics office and one of the crucial contributions was how in South Africa we have succeeded in making the value of statistics visible.
Recognised globally through a variety of dissemination strategies we continue to make value of statistics visible and its content accessible. We got accolades all round for implementing these innovative solutions and as a consequence next week we shall be hosting The Gambia statisticians to share lessons on dissemination.
Towards the middle of September 2016 we convened African statisticians to formulate measurement requirements for Agenda 2063.
This we did at the behest of the then chairperson of the African Union Commission. She sought to see how as Africans the SDGs complemented Agenda 2063 the Africa we want. Out of this request we have concluded technology and resource mobilisation strategies for Africa’s statistics systems. These build on a costed statistical development strategy that as Africans we concluded in 2015.
All these efforts point to the fact that Africa is at work to align itself to solve its problems and also align itself to the international agenda.
In September as part of our contribution to measurement we showcased how we measure poverty on the margins of the UN General Assembly. Minister Radebe hosted a special side event entitled “Measuring and Tackling Poverty in All Its Dimensions” on behalf of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network on the margins of the 71st UN General Assembly.
In addressing the many dignitaries the minister reminded us by quoting from Nelson Mandela that “As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persists in this world, none of us can truly rest!”
As statisticians we are not only concerned by churning numbers but governance is also pivotal to our enterprise and over the last four years we have had clean audits. We thus attracted other offices in the Southern African Development Community region. Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe visited our shores to benchmark themselves against our practices.
One of the premier systems we developed being applied across the government, and particularly Namibia, was interested in is the Invoice Tracking System (ITS).
Since 2009, we have successfully paid clients in less than thirty days. The strategy for implementing ITS included, amongst other things, establishing a creditor’s payment unit with an objective of improving compliance and relations with creditors.
Benchmark
Beyond the ITS the delegation from Statistics Botswana that we hosted from October 12 to 14, 2016, wanted to benchmark corporate services processes and systems in the areas of human resources management, finance, procurement and internal audit.
Through our project management processes and the establishment of the programme office we were able to demonstrate how project management processes for finance, audit, and procurement are executed, as well as how the implementation of projects by core business, internal auditing and controls, and risk management are led.
More importantly, our colleagues from Zimbabwe were interested in many other governance issues and promotion of use of statistics.
The 13 member-delegation from Zimbabwe on this study visit from November 18 to 19, 2016, had the main purpose of understanding how Statistics South Africa has promoted access to data; regulated policy protection; and safeguarded survey and census data confidentiality.
The head of the delegation, Kumbirai Hodzi, the deputy attorney-general, spoke of the fact that the country is in the process of undertaking various policy reforms in an attempt to stimulate economic recovery and re-engage with international development partners.
The government has acknowledged the importance of statistics in rebuilding the country, and is undertaking a series of study tours to various countries as they seek clarity of purpose.
We straddle the continent from the south to the east and west and through the Africa Symposia for Statistical Development (ASSD).
Statistics South Africa is secretariat to the ASSD. We headed north to Tunis for the 12th instalment of the ASSD in November last year.
The focus was on “strengthening basic economic statistics for the compilation of national accounts in Africa”. The national accounts phase happens parallel to preparations for the 2020 Round of Population and Housing Censuses, which should see increased use of Information and Communication Technology.
Historic
In January we hosted the very first historic UN World Data Forum (UNWDF), which ushered in a new era in measurement. We emphasised that “Statistics is a conduit of trust. It is the most publicly transacted currency and therefore has to imbue trust.” The data landscape will change forever after this historic event. In many ways the first ever UNWDF was expected to be a governing force for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
From February 27 to March 3, 2017, Statistics South Africa hosted Dr Tamer Tandogan, a consultant from an international group of consultants commissioned by the African Development Bank.
The study focused mainly on industrial statistics areas and the statistical business register, coupled with quality, survey methodology, training, planning, budgeting and other economic statistics topics.
In March I joined the global community of statisticians at the 48th Session of the UN Statistical Commission, held in New York. The theme for the session was “Celebrating 70 years of global statistics”.
I was one of the two who delivered key note addresses on this auspicious occasion. My point was that “Statistics is a conduit of trust. Only the trusted are its stewards and custodians.”