AFRISTAT and the Development of Social Statistics and Poverty Reduction Strategies
Table of Contents
1. Missions of the Department of Social Statistics and Poverty Reduction Strategies (DSSRP) 2
2. Activities During the Last 10 years 2
2.1 Household Surveys 2
2.2 Social Statistics 3
2.3 Demographic Statistics 4
2.3.1 Census 4
2.3.2 Civil Status 5
The different supports to Member States for civil status consisted of: 6
2.3.3 Gender Statistics 6
2.3.4 Statistics from Administrative Sources 7
2.4 Agricultural Statistics 7
2.5 Projects and Conventions Implemented for the Countries 9
2.6 Participation in Technical and Financial Partner-Initiated Work Projects and Think Tanks 10
3. Methodological Documents Prepared 10
Conclusion 11
1. Missions of the Department of Social Statistics and Poverty Reduction Strategies (DSSRP)
Headed by a coordinator, the Department of Social Statistics and Poverty Reduction Strategies is responsible for supporting Member States in developing, improving and harmonising methods and tools for collecting, processing and analysis of demographic and social statistics.
These statistics concern especially education, health, the labour market, rural development and the environment, as well as the population’s living conditions. The department also contributes to the development of information systems to make proposals for poverty reduction strategies and implementation of Millennium Development Goals.
2. Activities During the Last 10 years
2.1 Household Surveys
Between 2003 and 2013, the Department has supported several household surveys in AFRISTAT Member States and other countries. The Department has especially supported the design, implementation, processing and analysis of data from surveys on employment, the informal sector and household consumption in order to assess poverty.
Overall, AFRISTAT has helped more than fifteen countries to implement household surveys. A non-exhaustive list of these is summarised in the following table.
Country and Year / Survey Title / AFRISTAT Involvement / Results /Burundi / National survey on living conditions of Burundi households, 2013-2014 / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / Data processing is underway
Cameroon / Survey on employment and the informal sector, 2006, 2011 / Support for data processing and analysis / The reports are published.
Comoros / Survey on employment, the informal sector and household consumption, 2013-2014 / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / Data processing is still underway
Congo / Poverty assessment survey of Congolese households, 2005 / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / The poverty profile has been developed and published.
Survey on employment and the informal sector, 2009 / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / The analysis reports have been developed and published.
Ivory Coast / National survey on the employment situation, 2012 / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / The report has been published.
Democratic Republic of Congo / National household survey on employment, the informal sector and consumption (2004-2006) / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / Analysis reports have been published on each theme of the survey. The DRC poverty profile has been developed and published.
Mali / Permanent modular survey, 2011 / Data processing and analysis / The analysis report has been published.
Permanent household survey, 2004, 2007 and 2010 / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / The analysis reports have been published.
Sao Tome and Principe / Survey on household expenditure, 2011 / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / The poverty profile has been developed and published.
HIPC-WAEMU concerning the 8 WAEMU countries / Survey on household expenditures in the main urban areas, 2008-2009 / Design, performance, processing and analysis of results / The weighting coefficients of consumption prices of the WAEMU countries have been calculated.
2.2 Social Statistics
Three sectors are covered by AFRISTAT interventions during the last 10 years. They are health, education and employment. In the first two sectors, AFRISTAT drafted methodological work documents to improve the quality of data and analysis of indicators.
For employment statistics, since 1996, the AFRISTAT Observatory has set as its objective to develop harmonised tools for production of labour statistics and to accompany African States in the implementation of surveys and studies in this area. As a result, AFRISTAT published in 2006 a bilingual document on development of information systems for the labour market, organised an international seminar on the informal sector in Africa and participated in several international work groups on improving the concepts and indicators in the labour market.
In addition, between 2001 and 2004, AFRISTAT conducted type 1-2-3 surveys on employment, the informal sector and household consumption in the main urban areas of the WAEMU country members and the results have been published. In addition, since 2004, AFRISTAT conducted a project for improving labour market information systems (in French, “système d’information sur le marché du travail”). The project was in two phases: (i) 2004-2008, pilot phase, (ii) 2008-2014, consolidation of results phase. The project was financed by African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and benefited two French-speaking countries (Mali, Cameroon) and three English-speaking countries (Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia). These countries developed regular publication of data analysis of the labour market for taking political decisions.
AFRISTAT also participated during 2010-2011 in two consortiums for the analysis of the labour market and the improvement of employment statistics and the informal sector. The first consortium, led by the Institute of Social Sciences (ISS) based in The Hague, Netherlands, worked on the general theme “Unlocking Potential: Tackling Economic, Institutional and Social Constraints of Informal Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa”. The results of the research were distributed in 2011 in a workshop organised by AFRISTAT and ISS in Bamako.
The second consortium was led by the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITC-ILO) based in Turin, Italy, with financing from the European Union, from 2010 to 2013, for the implementation of a project for Strengthening the Capacity to Devise and Analyse Decent Work Indicators (RECAP). The programme covered Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador in Latin America and Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal in West Africa. The ITC-ILO project focused on the improvement of labour market information systems (LMIS) for monitoring progress concerning decent work. In the context of this project, AFRISTAT performed a technical and institutional review of the labour market information system in four West African countries and led national, regional and inter-regional workshops on implementing an LMIS and collecting representative data on decent work.
2.3 Demographic Statistics
2.3.1 Census
The activities of AFRISTAT in general population and housing censuses (RGPH) covered organising workshops and seminars in partnership, reflections on census questions and technical support to the countries.
Organisation of Workshops/Seminars on the RGPHs
In connection with strengthening the capabilities of countries in the census area, AFRISTAT co-organised seminars in Bamako (Mali) with the United Nations, including:
· in 2006, the United Nations workshop on the principles and recommendations for the 2010 worldwide program on population and housing censuses, during which the participants immersed themselves in the contents of the second revision of the principles and recommendations concerning general population and housing censuses;
· in 2008, the regional workshop on new technologies for processing census data which allowed the NIS management from twenty-five African countries to learn about processing census data through optical mark recognition (OMR).
· in 2009, the United Nations regional workshop on CensusInfo which allowed INS management to learn about software for distributing census results prepared from DevInfo technology.
Technical Support to Member States
Few countries have called on the institution for technical support in censuses. The main support was given to Mali in connection with the fourth general population and housing census of April 2009 and covered:
· manual and guide preparation and finalisation;
· assessment of the pilot census and implementation of the post-census survey programme;
· finalisation of the Post-Censal Survey (EPC);
· support for Post-Censal Survey matching and collating and EPC report plan preparation;
· assistance in assessment and checking the EPC input template and methodological processing documents;
· assessment of the processing system.
2.3.2 Civil Status
The tasks performed by AFRISTAT in the area of civil status come in various forms: (i) direct technical support to Member States and (ii) reflections on production of statistics from civil status information.
Direct Technical Support to Member States
AFRISTAT had a financial contribution from the French Foreign and European Affairs Ministry in 2007-2009 to support implementation of AFRISTAT’s Strategic Work Program 2006-2010 (PSTA).
Aware of the difficulties national statistical systems have in taking into account its activities and also to reaffirm its role in strengthening statistical capabilities of its Member States, AFRISTAT, with the support of its partners, provided financial support to the NSIs during 2007-2009 for implementation of certain of their activities. Direct support to countries is summarised in the following table.
Country / Civil Status ActivitiesBenin / Diagnostic of the operating system of the civil status information in Benin and re-launching use of the civil status data (2009);
Collection and use 2009 civil status information (2010)
Burkina Faso / Support for strengthening the collection, use and analysis system for civil status data (2010)
Gabon / · Re-launch of civil status data exploitation activities (2007)
Niger / · Diagnostic of the functioning of civil status in Niger and re-launch of the use of civil status data (2009)
· Implementation of labour convention No.007/AFR/FSP07/08 and activity 5 concerning the re-launch of the use of civil status information in Niger (2010)
· Exploitation, processing and analysis of birth data from 2003 to 2007 (2011)
· Exploitation of births from 2007 to 2011 and deaths and marriages from 2003 to 2011 (2012)
Senegal / 1- Diagnostic of the statistical operating system for civil status in Senegal (2007)
2- Pilot survey of civil status information in the regions of Dakar, Diourbel and Tambacounda (2010-2011)
· definition of the strategy to implement
· updating of questionnaires
· field employee training
· processing and analysis of data and results distribution
Ivory Coast / · Preparation of regional statistics for the Lacs and N’zi Comoe regions (including civil status)
· Diagnostic of the operating system for civil status information in the city of Abidjan (2010)
Togo / Technical support for the use of civil status data and establishment of a framework for coordinating the civil status system in Togo (2009)
Collecting and using civil status data from 2009 (births and deaths) in 2010
The different supports to Member States for civil status consisted of:
· assessment of the collection and use system for civil status data;
· support in defining a strategy for appropriate collection and training the collection personnel;
· support in improving the civil status data collection and use system;
· support in identifying and calculating demographic and management indicators;
· support for the creation of a civil status data base;
· support for the mobilisation of resources from technical and financial partners.
2.3.3 Gender Statistics
Faced with the small production of gender statistics from Member States, despite efforts to take gender into account in collection documents, and taking into account one of the recommendations of the United Nations statistics commission for the production of gender statistics from the minimum set established by the United Nations, AFRISTAT is in the process of proposing an appropriate approach to produce the indicators at the least cost.
This activity is part of the PTSA 2011-2015, with an overall objective of: “strengthening AFRISTAT’s interventions and extending them to sectorial statistics and new themes, especially statistics for education, health, the environment and climate change, infrastructure, governance and decentralisation, gender and the digital economy, as well as those allowing the measure of a society’s progress.”
To reach this objective, in the last quarter of 2013 AFRISTAT launched a collection of data and an analysis of indicators on gender available in five countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Chad. Out of 76 indicators proposed, an average of 55 were calculated by Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Chad. The analysis summary report is being prepared by AFRISTAT.
2.3.4 Statistics from Administrative Sources
Faced with concerns over producing quality statistics at lowest cost, AFRISTAT has undertaken its strategic work programme 2011-2015 for development and implementation of alternate methods for producing statistics. In this regard, it has set a general objective of “developing the use of alternate sources, especially administrative sources, for a durable and high quality production of statistics at the least cost". Specifically, a complete assessment must be done on the processing of data from administrative sources.
To reach this objective, AFRISTAT has begun reflection on the preparation of a general methodology for using administrative sources for statistical purposes. In this regard, a questionnaire was prepared for an inventory of administrative sources that can be used for statistical purposes and which would provide information on the indicators produced in them. To better perform these activities, certain Member States were chosen as pilot countries. They are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, the Central African Republic and Senegal. This choice was made due to the preparatory activities these countries had already begun in this connection. However, because of the conflict in the Central African Republic, information collection could not be done there.
In all, twenty-five statistical areas were covered by the administrative sources, with variations in the list of indicators by country, with 450 indicators in Burkina Faso and 198 in Niger.
2.4 Agricultural Statistics
From the beginning of its activities in 1998, AFRISTAT has been involved in a reflection on the best way to take care of agricultural statistics. It was decided to orient its activities in this area in line with its missions and in synergy with the institutions already present in the field. As with other areas covered by AFRISTAT, a state of affairs of agricultural statistics was drawn up by member countries. This activity resulted in the publication of a report called “Organisation of the System of Agricultural and Food information in the AFRISTAT Member States – Summary report of a survey performed in 1998-1999, study series No. 5, April 2000”. Based on this diagnostic, activities were undertaken to prepare methodological documents, to strengthen collection capabilities and processing of agricultural statistics and to organise workshops/seminars.