Economic Commission for Africa
African Centre for Statistics
STATCOM-AFRICA III
Third meeting of the Statistical Commission for Africa
Cape Town, South Africa, 18-23 January 2012
African Statistics Award
Citation
Timothy J. Marchant
Mr. Timothy Marchant, has contributed greatly to African development, mainly through methodologies for the measurement of social and economic outcomes of development policies and projects. His contributions have consistently emphasized the importance of sound statistical information for promoting transparency and good governance. His technical expertise has been most visible in the area of large scale sample survey, design and implementation. This has included household budget surveys, agricultural surveys, and various forms of integrated and poverty monitoring surveys.
Mr. Marchant has worked on development issues for over 40 years, primarily in Africa, the Middle East and India. He has worked for NGOs, national governments and international agencies including the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization which has given him a special understanding of the diverse, yet interlinked nature of statistical information needs at different levels: global, national and sub-national.
Since his retirement from the World Bank in 2003, Mr Marchant has been a freelance consultant for various clients,including FAO, the World Bank, Paris21/OECD and UNDP. His assignments have included (i) the joint Assessment Mission to the Sudan to prepare the multi-donor post-conflict investment program following the signing of the North/South peace agreement; (ii) the Independent External Evaluation of the FAO, focusing specifically on the FAO statistics program and statistical databases; and (iii) acting as principal consultant for the preparation of a joint FAO - World Bank monitoring and evaluation sourcebook for agriculture and rural development indicators for tracking results in less-than-ideal conditions.
Prior to his retirement he worked in different departments of the World Bank, his last position being: Lead Statistician - Africa Region. He headed the M&E Unit which was the focal point in the region for supporting the establishment of M&E systems to monitor the implementation of Bank-supported development projects and programs in client countries; it also had the responsibility for maintaining the region’s own statistical databases, including the Africa Live Database (LDB) and the Africa Household Survey Databank, and for publishing the annual African Development Indicators.
Mr. Marchant also led a task force that developed a household survey methodology that would be robust, yet easy to implement, for tracking the implementation of national poverty reduction programs and their outcomes. This has come to be known as the Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ) survey and has been integrated into national statistical survey programs in more than 20 countries worldwide.
Before joining the World Bank Mr. Marchant had been the Director of the Longacre Agricultural Development Centre which, among other things, was responsible for carrying out a methodological study that challenged traditional crop-cutting methods for measuring agricultural production and suggested alternative approaches. The Centre also worked extensively on the development of simple monitoring systems for tracking the effectiveness of agricultural extension programs.
On account of his statistical services in several African countries, his research in crop estimation and his contribution of the Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire survey which has been widely integrated into national statistical survey programs in many countries, the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa) at its third meeting held in South Africa on the 18th day of January 2012, honors Mr. Timothy J. Marchant with this “Recognition from the African Statistical Community.”