ADDIS ABABA, Jan 10 (IPS) – The fact that one in three Africans is not considered a country that has missed its census deadline is a major setback for development plans.
As the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approaches, research shows that Africa is lagging behind in achieving these critical goals. A bigger problem is that many African countries do not have accurate information about the socioeconomic needs of their populations to better plan their development programs.
But there is a way forward. It’s about investing in strong data and statistical systems, says Oliver Chinganya, director of the African Statistical Center (ACS) and chief statistician at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
African governments talk about the importance of data, but often underinvest, Chinganya tells IPS. He emphasized the urgency, noting that Africa has been unevenly represented in UN-led censuses since 1990. He warned that 376 million people risk going uncounted if more countries do not participate in the census.
Chinganya told IPS, “Accurate and reliable statistics can help governments improve their SDG targets as they can track what they have achieved while better planning for the allocation of development expenditures, thereby promoting ‘new ways to drive national economic growth.’” ‘Oil,’” he said.
Without accurate data and statistics, development planning is difficult for many African countries, who are forced to rely on statistics not generated on the continent, he said.
At the 2023 SDGs Summit, the UN launched The Power of Data to unlock the data dividend as one of 12 impactful initiatives to help scale the SDGs. African governments have pledged to invest 0.15% of their national budgets in statistics, but few have followed through.
IPS spoke with Chinganya following the 11th meeting of the Forum for Statistical Development in Africa (FASDEV), an initiative of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) that fosters links between countries, partners and institutions supporting statistical development.
extract:
IPS: What are we really talking about when we refer to data and statistics, and why are they important for African development?
Oliver Chinganya: Data and statistics are very important. It is used at various levels of planning. It’s not just governments that demand data these days – everyone needs it. Before you go to the market to buy what you want, you always need data first to make a decision before buying. That is, how much it costs and what it takes to get these items home.
Similar decisions are made at the government level as at home, and the government asks questions about what we need to plan to do to help us progress. For example, how many schools do we need and what kind of curriculum should we have in place? What type of road do you need? What kind of production system is needed in Korea? You need a variety of data and statistics to make decisions.
Statistics provide evidence for policy. It helps you set goals, identify needs, and monitor progress. Without good statistics, it is impossible to learn from mistakes and hold policymakers accountable.
Good statistics are critical to managing the provision of basic services efficiently and effectively and play a key role in improving transparency and accountability. Statistics contribute to development progress not only as a monitoring tool, but also as a tool for deriving statistically measured results. Statistics play a very important role in national development.
IPS: How would you describe the state of statistics in Africa?
Chingaya: If you ask about the statistical status of the continent, it’s a mixed bag, considering that some countries are actually making very good progress and some are not. For example, the 2020 census covered 39 African countries. For the rest, censuses could not be conducted and by December 2024, one in three people were still uncounted on the continent. This is unfortunate and affects service delivery and development.
Currently, there are countries that have not modernized their statistical systems. One of our main focuses at the moment is exploring how we can help countries modernize and transform their national statistical systems. This means moving away from traditional methods of collecting data using paper-based systems and modernizing data collection using devices such as tablets and phones. We help countries modernize and transform their national statistical systems. However, many countries are nonetheless struggling to build and use modernized systems. The biggest challenge is access to technology. Technology is driven by energy. Without energy, a country cannot have an efficient and technologically driven system. With access to efficient internet services, countries can use gadgets to gather information.
IPS: What have been your achievements and what challenges have you faced?
Chingaya: African countries have made really good progress in conducting censuses. Previous censuses took countries two to five years to collect and disseminate data, but modernized systems have shortened this period to 45 days in some countries. This is a big milestone.
ECA introduced its Statistical Leadership Program to bring about change across the continent. In this program, statisticians learn how to manage statistical systems and build overall competency.
The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has exposed vulnerabilities in both the day-to-day operations of African national statistical systems, particularly field data collection activities. To respond to these challenges, ECA has provided technical assistance and strengthened the capacity of Member States to produce and disseminate harmonized and comparable economic statistics and national accounts in accordance with international statistical standards.
IPS: What should be done to help countries that have failed to conduct a census to impact the SDGs?
Chingaya: Countries that have made progress towards the SDGs need support to accelerate progress to achieve them by 2030.
The government needs to invest more in data and statistics. You shouldn’t wait for others, including your development partners, to do it for you. This is their data. All governments recognize the importance of data. But if it’s important, you should value what’s important. What is needed is the resources, prioritization and assurance to ensure that data and statistics become part of the national development process by developing a national statistical strategy.
IPS: ECA has developed a roadmap for the transformation and modernization of official statistics in Africa from 2023 to 2030. What progress has been made in implementing this?
Chingaya: We’ve made a lot of progress. For example, during the 2020 census, countries used tablets to collect data. That’s modernization. That means moving away from traditional data collection methods.
The Consumer Price Index also allows data collectors to go online and look at prices of consumer goods or go to a supermarket and scan the data. It’s part of modernization. Moreover, countries are now using what we call administrative data. This is part of our system modernization. Records from public health centers and hospitals are now being converted to digital form so that they can be collected digitally.
IPS UN Secretariat Report
Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau.
Follow the IPS News UN Secretariat on Instagram
© Interpress Services (2025) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Interpress Service
