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A new initiative has been launched to support African countries generate quality data to inform better decision making in a bid to address numerous challenges facing the continent.

The plan, spearheaded by The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) followed the Roadmap for Transformation and Modernization of Official Statistics in Africa for 2023 to 2030, which was approved by the UNECA’s Conference of Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning held last week.

The UNECA said in a statement that administrative data sources offer high-frequency disaggregated information which is critical in the sustainable development goals context of leaving no one behind, reducing production costs as data is collected routinely for administrative activities and decreasing respondent burden.

Two workshops, UNECA said, are also held this week in Cameroon and Uganda to set off the process as part of the new initiative.
Adama Coulibaly, chief of the Sub Regional Initiatives Section at UNECA’s Office for Central Africa, underlined the need for national statistical systems to “transform and modernise to be more agile and resilient to crises.”

“Covid-19 has shown that our statistical systems need to move away from current traditional ways of operating to be able to effectively support countries’ sustainable development and transformation agendas,” the UNECA statement quoted Coulibaly noted while addressing the three-day workshop in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.

Roadmap for Transformation and Modernization of Official Statistics in Africa for 2023 to 2030 recognizes official statistics as essential to policymaking and wider decision-making efforts to achieve sustainable development across Africa.

The road map, UNECA says, is a first step towards supporting African countries in better planning for and carrying out the transformation and modernization of official statistics in the face of common challenges and opportunities.

In the road map, principles and priorities for transformation and modernization across a wide range of data ecosystems in modern Africa are defined and actions at the continental level to support this process are identified,” UNECA says on its website.

“Targeted actions need to be further developed and implemented to make the road map fully effective. The implementation of international standards, the harmonization of outputs and the provision of mutual support for the development of official statistics will continue to be essential.”

Under the plan, each African country is required to develop its own road map on the basis of the present road map, in accordance with national circumstances and development priorities.