Strengthening the capacity of Member States to collect and produce high quality data (ECA)

The availability and utilization of quality statistical information are key for evidence-based policy formulation and for tracking progress towards the achievement of national and international development targets. With the support of the Development Account, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has helped its Member States to strengthen their civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems and strengthened the capacity of African countries to use mobile technology to collect data for effective policy and decision making.

With support from the 8th and 9th tranches of the Development Account, ECA has implemented projects that contributed to strengthening the capacity of Member States to produce and collect high quality data.

Advancing civil registration and vital statistics

The project Strengthening the capacity of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems in Africa, Asia and the Pacific regions to produce reliable data for measuring progress on the development indicators, implemented jointly by ECA and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) from 2014 to 2016, significantly contributed to advancing the CRVS improvement agenda in both regions.

The project activities in Africa fed into the implementation of the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of CRVS (APAI- CRVS), the Secretariat of which is based in the African Centre for Statistics (ACS) at ECA. Achievements include the harnessing of political commitment for improvement of the CRVS systems at the highest level of governments through the Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration; promotion of country ownership and leadership and systematic and coordinated approaches at the regional and country levels; building capacity of CRVS functionaries; and facilitating knowledge and sharing of experiences between countries. Overall, more than 200 officials from civil registration offices, national statistics offices and Ministries of Health of 48 African countries participated in meetings and workshops supported by the project, which built their capacity and were an important forum for better coordination of CRVS improvement activities and initiatives at country and regional levels. During the implementation of the project, 17 countries embarked on the CRVS improvement process under the APAI-CRVS framework by initiating comprehensive assessments and developing strategic plans using tools, guidelines and capacity developed throughout the project, with the technical support of ECA and its partners. In most countries, a country-led, comprehensive assessment was a crucial step to build national capacity, establish coordination mechanisms, increase the importance of CRVS on the political agenda and develop long-term multi-sectoral strategies for CRVS improvement. For example, Namibia, one of the target countries, established a national coordination mechanism and introduced notification of birth occurring at hospitals to the civil registration office. Namibia is also about to produce their first vital statistics report and is planning for the digitization of their CRVS system.

The project was implemented in partnership with the members of the Regional CRVS Core Group, led by ECA, including the African Union Commission, African Development Bank, Secretariat of African Symposium on Statistical Development, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WHO, PARIS21, Plan International and INDEPTH Network, enabling coordination of efforts, leveraging each partner’s strengths and ensuring a holistic approach to CRVS improvement on the continent. The degree of achievement of the project’s objectives owes much to the significantly strong partnerships behind the project.

Capacity development to use mobile technology in data collection

The project on Strengthening the capacity of African countries to use mobile technology to collect data for effective policy and decision making provided important contributions to beneficiary countries in terms of effective data collection. Impacts at country level include reduced data entry errors, real time data collection and transmission, and easy ways of detecting anomalies. Concretely, the beneficiary countries developed in-house capacity and gained skills and confidence to use mobile technology in data collection. Another noticeable impact in the beneficiary countries is the increased buy-in and understanding of the benefits of using mobile devices for data collection across a range of stakeholders. For example, in Zimbabwe, there has been buy-in within the National Statistical Agency ZIMSTAT as the use of mobile technology for data collection is now an option as part of its mandate. In Kenya, the Bureau of Statistics is using mobile technology to conduct the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey and the Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises survey.

After the project, there were emerging trends in target countries to move towards the use of mobile-based technologies in conducting, for instance, the National Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia and the Consumer Price Index survey in Tunisia.

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