Statistical capacity building in Somalia World Data Forum 2017 Thomas Bjurenvall, Statistics Sweden Mohamed Moalim, Directorate of National Statistics Somalia facebook.com/statistiskacentralbyranscb @SCB_nyheter statistiska_centralbyran_scb www.linkedin.com/company/scb
Statistics Sweden s International Cooperation Office Established in 1983 Experiences from more than 40 countries worldwide Largest financier is the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
Business model Institutional co-operation in statistics Head office SCB coordination, administration Study visits to SCB, other NSO s of relevance to project goals Long term Advisor/resident advisor Short term missions from SCB experts
Cooperation projects
SCB s view of capacity building Long-term, no quick fixes Ownership of the benificiary NSO Partnership in knowledge and development On the job training
The project in Somalia Started november 2015, runs 3 years Project partners: Federal Government Directorate of Statistics Statistics department in Puntland Statistics department in Somaliland
Coordination with donors High Level Task Force on Statistics for Somalia World Bank International Monetary Fund UNDP UNFPA AfDB Others
Cooperation with other NSO s Djibouti Ethiopia Rwanda South Africa
Somalia s Road to recovery - Data ecosystems in Somalia for Sustainable Development First National Development Plan since 1986; Articulating Government development priorities. Providing structure for resource allocation and management. Guiding Development Partner support within the defined FGS priorities in the coming three years. Serving as an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy for Somalia and aligning it with the global SDG initiative. In 2015, Somali government endorsed the SDGs along with the international community; Somalia is committed to contributing to the realization of the goals, and they are therefore integrated in the present national development plan. As far as feasible, the outcomes and the associated indicators/milestones of the National Development Plan will be aligned with the SDGs. Already started process of NDP/SDGs alignment;
Filling Data Gaps Embarking on a Yearly High Frequency Survey for the measurement of household income and expenditure; Demographic Health Survey in 2017; Somalia s big count in 2018 (The Census); Better use of the our existing data such as the administrative data; Roadmap for our first National Strategy for Development of Statistics (NSDS) It will help us address the priority data needs of the country and development partners who are able to support for the next 5 years;
Somali/SCB Cooperation A practical experience, capacity support, Knowledge Sharing and beyond; A development project that focuses on capacity building of the Somali Statistical authority; Based on Somalia national stats priorities i.e economic statistics, social statists and the improvement of statistical production; Cooperation with STATS SA that will host Somali Statisticians, provide capacity development in Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP); Sharing of knowledge and experience with Rwanda Institute of Statistcs; Many of the capacity building workshops are held in Rwanda (exploring learning methods from the Rwandese experience); Seek partnerships at national, regional and international levels; and apply, build upon lesson learnt in the context of Somalia;
Strengthening National economic statistics for the compilation of National Accounts Successfully obtained a list of Business Register Data in collaboration with relevant government institutions; In the process of generating new weights for Somalia for price statistics - Development partners to support; Harmonization of the existing data whilst using 310 items categorized in 12 categories; Creating partnership in the continent and outside of the continent with reference to price statistics; Plenty of emphasis given on the calculation and compilation of GDP on current prices and constant prices by using (currently) expenditure approach; Harmonization of systems and to develop Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) to produce reliable and accurate data for users;
Exploring Potential Solutions & Opportunities Access to Somali Diaspora Network and local academic institutions (Creating pools for Capacity Development Initiatives); linking statistical activities to our very new National Development Plan ( NDP to SDGs alignment); Partnerships at national, regional and international levels; South- Africa, Rwanda, Arab countries; Modernisation of Statistical Law New act in-front of the cabinet and set go to the Federal Parliament when new government is formed; Better use of administrative and big data in order to reduce costs - Less dependency of primary data collection;
Existing Challenges Too many existing data Uncorrelated & not Harmonized; Statistics not always considered as top national priority; Lack of continuous funding for statistical activities; Insufficient allocation of funding for statistical actions and activities; (Budgets); Data owned by private sector/ngos (Data access from mobile operators); No strong Legal framework or Legal basis and objectivity to release official data; Lack of data investment and new technologies;
Final Thoughts More support should be given to post conflict countries and fragile states, and help build their country statistical systems; Capacity building programs to prepare for next generation for data producers and data users; Enhancing use of new technologies to accommodate current data revolution and narrow capacity gaps; Sharing experience at regional, continental and international levels; Reduce gaps - Level of differences in NSOs capacities sometimes at regional level (Significant gaps); Paradigm of shift (Change of culture) Look those around you; Please remember No-one should be left behind!;
Thank You!