Anne Madzara, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative has said that by launching national statistical standards, the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) is meeting several of the objectives of the African Charter on Statistics.
Madzara was speaking at the launch of the NSA national statistical standards in Windhoek last week.
Some of objectives mentioned by Madzara include serving as policy framework and advocacy tool for the development of statistics in Namibia and Africa as a whole; to ensure improved quality and comparability of the statistics; strengthen the coordination of statistical activities and facilitate the harmonisation of development partners’ interventions to avoid duplications in the implementation of statistical programmes; promote compliance with the fundamental principles of public statistics in Africa and instil a culture of evidence-based policymaking; and build up the institutional capacity of African statistical authorities by ensuring their autonomy in operations.
“The standards are an entry to enabling and accelerating the process of the continental, political and economic integration to not only ensure the Africa we want to see, but also to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century and hold its rightful place on the global stage,” Madzara stated.
She went on to emphasise that the production of reliable, timely statistics and indicators of a countries’ progress is indispensable for informed policy decisions and monitoring the implementation of the agenda 2030 and the National Development plan.
“This milestone resonates very well with the UNDP and the UN agencies’ aspiration for such standards in the national statistical system – which will allow Namibia to collect reliable statistics using consistent procedures, enhance the ability to integrate data over time and across different data sources, and allow data to be used beyond the immediate purpose for which it was produced. Let me once again end by congratulating the NSA in achieving this milestone,” Madzara noted further stating that timely and reliable statistics are fundamental to measure progress in planning and decision making and reaching development goals and to provide essential information about the effectiveness of policies and programmes.
“Additionally, they help governments improve their policies which have to be evidence based, and to be transparent and accountable about the delivery of development results2. Statistical quality is essential and must be ‘fit for use’ by end users. Quality therefore depends on data uses and users, and adequate analysis of statistical quality permits the identification of target areas for capacity building and resource allocation. The ability to provide regular and reliable data on the economy and the wellbeing of the population is an important indicator of good policies and institutions.”
Also speaking at the launch, NSA CEO, Alex Shimuafeni said that there is a growing need for quality and timely statistics to support and inform public policymaking.
“Achieving and maintaining public trust in official and other statistics requires that those statistics are produced in an objective, transparent and professional manner which should be adhered to by all statistic producers. That is simple so because wrong or inaccurate statistics are of no use as they can mislead users of statistics and cause inadequate planning. In accordance with the Statistics Act no. 9 of 2011, the Statistician-General must issue by notice in the Gazette a Code of Practice setting out professional and ethical standards applicable to statistics producers,” he said.
He also said that the Code of Practice may impose requirements concerning any of the following – ethical and professional standards that must be adhered to in the collection, production, analysis, and dissemination of statistics; measures to ensure the optimum quality and the comparability of official and other statistics; measures to minimize unnecessary overlapping or duplication in the collection, production, analysis and dissemination of statistics.
“As a statistics office, we will not do justice to our mandate or fully fulfill our duties if we do not have Statistical Standards in place, which are a set of rules used to standardize the way data are collected and statistics are produced. I want to emphases on this because oftentimes the public might think it is as easy to collect and produce statistics, however, there is a format that should be followed for statistics to be stamped as official,” he said.