The statistical act, its application and challenges
The central statistical agency of Ethiopia is an autonomous federal government agency having its own legal personality.
Vision
To be a credible and recognized national statistical system for better decision making, in support of sustainable socio economic development.
Mission
To produce and disseminate nationally coordinated, timely and good quality statistical data for planning, monitoring and evaluation; for socio economic analysis, research and policy formulation.
The statistical laws of the country plays significant role in producing quality data on timely basis. The law will also helps to facilitate coordination in the National Statistical System.
Two issues should be considered with respect to the statistical law
1) The comprehensiveness of the statistical law (legislation)
2) The knowledge, efficiency and willingness to implement the statistical law
A strong comprehensive and practical statistical law is required to produce good quality data and to coordinate the NSS efficiently.
The following are a comprehensive check list on possible contents of a statistical legislation provided by T. Holt. (2003) and summarized by Ben Kiregeyera
1. Establish the scientific independence and objectivity of statistics
2. Establish that national statistics serve all users and reaffirm the role of statistics in the democratic process and as a public good
3. Establish the head of the national statistics office as a statutory post and define his or her roles and responsibilities
3.1. Authority to collect and analyze data and publish statistics and related material
3.2. Authority to determine concepts, definitions, methods and choice of data sources
3.3. Authority to determine the form, content and timing of statistical releases
3.4. Authority to determine the scope of official statistics
3.5. Duty to maintain and enhance the professional independence and integrity of official statistics
3.6. Duty to maintain a culture of openness and transparency in relation to methodology and quality
3.7. Duty to establish user consultation process
3.8. Duty to ensure that data collected under the act are used for statistical purposes only and confidentiality of respondents is protected
4. Define the responsibility of head of the national statistics office for the national statistical system
5. Determine arrangement for the appoint and dismissal of the head of the national statistics office
6. Establish the statistical council and provide for regulations to govern its activities
7. Determine arrangements for the appointment of the chair and members of the statistics council
8. Define ministerial responsibility for statistics
9. Establish statutory responsibility of other ministers who have responsibility for staff producing official statistics
10. Provide provision for annual planning arrangements
11. The head of national statistics office to create and maintain a professional code of conduct for statisticians
12. Authority to access administrative information held by government and other public bodies
13. Authority to require business and natural persons to provide data as requsted by the head of national statistics office
14. Authority to require government and other public bodies to provide data as requested by the head of national statistics office
15. Set out the basis for collecting data from household surveys (could be mandatory, but may be better to be voluntary)
16. Authority of the head of national statistics office to set charges for statistical out puts and services
17. Provide for data linkage for statistical purposes (ability to link sets of data)
18. Define statistical purposes
19. Authorize the head of national statistics office to promote international cooperation
20. Authorize the head of national statistics office to coordinate requests for data from international and regional agencies
21. Require the head of national statistics office to promote the quality of national statistics through out the producing system
22. Authorize the head of national statistics office to have full access to administrative records through out the public service for statistical purposes
23. Duty of the head of national statistics office to coordinate the national statistical system
24. Authority of the head of the national statistics office to release suitably anonymized micro data
25. Provide for delegation to place statutory obligations on staff for confidentiality etc
26. Provide for appropriate penalties for a failure to provide information and for breaches of confidentiality etc
27. Responsibilities for annual reports to national assembly
28. Arrangements for pre release and release of preliminary data
29. Repeal existing acts
Accommodating the above issues in the statistical act will help and facilitate the implementation of the UN fundamental principles of official statistics
UN fundamental principles of official statistics
1. Official statistics provide an indispensable element in the information system of a democratic society, serving the government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation. To this end, official statistics that meets the test of practical utility are to be compiled and made available on an impartial basis by official statistical agencies to honor citizens entitlement to public information
2. To retain trust in official statistics, the statistical agencies need to decide according to strictly professional considerations, including scientific principles and professional ethics, on the methods and procedures for the collection, processing, storage and presentation of statistical data.
3. To facilitate a correct interpretation of the data, the statistical agencies are to present information according to scientific standards on the sources, methods and procedures of the statistics
4. The statistical agencies are entitled to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of statistics
5. Data for statistical purposes may be drawn from all types of sources, be they statistical surveys or administrative records. Statistical agencies are to choose the source with regard to quality, timeliness, costs and the burden on respondents
6. Individual data collected by statistical agencies for statistical compilation, whether they refer to natural or legal persons, are to be strictly confidential and used exclusively for statistical purposes.
7. The laws, regulations and measures under which the statistical systems operate are to be made public
8. Coordination among statistical agencies with in countries is essential to achieve consistency and efficiency in the statistical system
9. The use by statistical agencies in each country of international concepts, classifications and methods promotes the consistency and efficiency of statistical systems at all official levels.
10. Bilateral and multi lateral cooperation in statistics contributes to the improvement of systems of official statistics in all countries.
The current proclamation to establish the central statistics authority, proclamation No. 442/2005, was passed on 20 April 2005. The proclamation incorporates
1. objectives of the authority
2. powers and duty of the authority
3. organization of the authority
4. powers and duties of the directors
5. establishment of statistics council
6. powers and duties of the council
7. budget
8. obligation to provide statistical data
9. confidentiality of information
10. prohibition
11. penalties
12. power to issue regulation and directives
Even though the statistical act of Ethiopia incorporates almost all issues which are suggested as check list, there are some gaps in the law that needs to be clearly stated. Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia tried to identify the gaps of the statistical act during the development of the NSDS.
· The law does not prescribe the responsibilities of other agencies in the NSS. However, the CSA does have the authority to ”issue and follow up the implementation of programs and directives with a view to improving the countries statistical system and to avoid duplication of efforts in the statistical activities and “to design and monitor the implementation of the statistical recording and reporting systems to be followed by government agencies and institutions and other organizations”.
· Other government agencies are also obliged to supply information and data to the CSA. This gives a devolved, but rather voluntary, flavor to the wider national statistical system. The act in use does not oblige the other statistical agencies to submit their statistics to the CSA for quality endorsement.
The gaps of the statistical law were also analyzed compared with the UN fundamental principles of official statistics.
· The first principle requires that statistics be compiled on an impartial basis. Official statistics are currently compiled on an impartial basis. Currently, access to reports and publications is not constrained. Hard and soft copies of reports are sold on a cost recovery basis. Basic results of the surveys are also available on the web. Access to the micro data is administered by a data release protocol, which describes the principles and costs of users accessing the unit record information.
· The second and third principles which involve using scientific methods are observed by the CSA, but other producers in the NSS do not routinely supply meta data. To facilitate the use of scientific methods, capacity building for the NSS will be required. The CSA publication contains methodological chapters and annexes, and the methodologies are developed using scientific principles. This is not always the case for publication of official statistics produced by NSS partners. In the future, all published NSS data should have meta data publicly available.
· Principle 4 relates to the power of statistical authority to comment on erroneous interpretation of data. The statistics law needs to clearly specify this issue. In addition, the clear guide line on the assessment of data collection and interpretation should be set to implement this principle. This might be added to any amended statistics law or future proclamation.
· Principle 5, relating to choice of method , appears un problematic
· Principle 6, relating to confidentiality, is covered by the law. The law applies to all statistical data collection by the CSA.
· Principle 7, regarding access to the law, is not problematic; the laws relating to data access are found on the CSA web cite.
· Principle 8 concerns coordination between statistical producers. This needs to be strengthened by creating a formal agreement with in the NSS.
· Principle 9 suggests that there should be standard concepts, definitions and classifications in place among data producers. The CSA should set common standards for the national statistical system in close collaboration with NSS stack holders. These standards should ensure comparability consistency and compatibility with international standards. Now a new unit “National statistical Data quality and Standards Coordination “ is established in CSA whose major duty is to deal with methodological issues, capacity building, setting standards, conducting quality control and coordination of the NSS.
· Principle 10 appears unproblematic in respect of the legal frame work.
Challenges
To facilitate coordination of the NSS and to produce quality data some challenges that needs to be faced may happen. These challenges may be parts of the statistical act that needs to be improved or other activities that needs to be done by the NSS. These challenges include
1. Some improvements in the statistical act are required. This includes the specification of the responsibilities of the sector ministries in the NSS.
2. The coordination activity is at a lower stage at this point. This should be facilitated with the preparation of MOU in the NSS. The statistical council will play a significant role in the coordination.
3. Common standards for the NSS should be developed. The CSA should set common standards for the NSS in close collaboration with the NSS stockholders. This activity is already started and needs to be facilitated.
4. The data quality in the NSS should be assessed. The data quality assessment frame work (DQAF) should be developed. CSA is trying to develop DQAF with the help of consultants with the fund from World Bank.
5. Capacity building is one of the challenges in the NSS. The NSS members have to be aware of current up-to-date statistical procedures and standards. Statistics office and NSS members should identify the gaps in the NSS. Some of these gaps are identified in the development of NSDS. The development partner should play significant role in helping the NSS to fill this gap by arranging short term trainings and sharing experiences.
6. The senior staff in the NSS is better qualified. But retaining these staff may need to have better payment.
7. MOU should be signed by NSS members to avoid conflicting data and duplication of effort, to improve the data quality, to set statistics calendar, to use standard concepts, to create meta data and to coordinate with statistical aspects.
8. In order for the statistics offices to perform their duties, they have to be autonomous. This will help to better implement the duties and responsibilities of the statistics office and will also help to retain the professionals.