'Statistical systems need harmonising'

 
THE Paris21 peer review methodology for national statistics systems in Africa need to be harmonised to conform to the economic and social needs and realities of the continent, the Director General of Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics (TNBS), Dr Albina Chuwa, has said.

Dr Chuwa said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that methodology for peer review have to be harmonised to become true representation of the fact and realities in Africa and enable national statistical system become relevant to the continent as it pursues its social and economic growth and development agenda.

"We need to harmonise all methodologies, approaches that will be employed in the APRM-NSS and that will suite African specificities and topicalities. We should not be driven by anybody," she said during the opening of the seminar on Framework for Conducting Peer Reviews in African Countries.

PARIS21 is a partnership of national, regional and international statisticians, policy makers, analysts, development professionals and other users and producers of statistics, including civil societies.

It was established as a global forum and network to promote, influence and facilitate statistical capacity building activities and the better use of statistics. It facilitates south-south learning in statistical development through a peer review mechanism.

The focus of the peer reviews is on governance of the national statistical system (NSS), its organisation, strategic planning, service to users, funding and sustainability.

Dr Chuwa said harmonisation of peer review mechanism would address challenges of statistics production using methodologies that do not always reflect Africa's realities and are not always comparable across countries.

That weakness is due to a number of factors including inadequate resources being allocated to statistical activities, a lack of institutional capacity and the low profile of statistics on the continent.

Others are inadequate coordination of statistical activities and minimal consideration of African specificities in setting up international standards, she said. Dr Chuwa said availability of quality data and statistics has become crucial for better planning and evidence-based decision making, noting that the main national and international development agenda required quality statistics in order to guide policy makers.

The idea to conduct peer review of the national statistical system originated from the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), which was established to assess NEPAD achievement.

Tanzania completed its second peer review of the national bureau of statistics (NBS) on Friday which is expected to reinforce areas of strength and to identify areas for development or improvement in order to better respond to the statistical needs of the vision 2025.

Tanzania envisions to transform from a low productivity agricultural economy to a semi-industrialised one led by modernised and highly productive agricultural activities by 2025.