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Statistical Capacity Building Program of the AfDB

Statistical Capacity Building Program of the AfDB

FASDEV - V Meeting17 January 2012

Cape Town – South Africa

M. MubilaChief Statistician

Statistics Department

African Development Bank

Website: www.afdb.org/statistics

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AfDB SCB Activities

Outline • Introduction

• AfDB SCB Activities

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Introdcution (1)

• Over the past decade, the Bank has significantly scaled up its activities aimed at building statistical capacity in 52 countries in Africa.

• AfDB mobilized close to 100 million US dollars in direct grants to African countries.

• Tomorrow on January 18, 2012; the AfDB Board will be considering another proposal to mobilize about 50 million US dollars over the next 2 years (2012-2013) to support statistical development efforts on the continent.

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Introduction (2)

• In addition to direct grants, the Bank also provides substantial resources for statistical capacity-building as components of the many projects and programs it finances in African countries.

• The Bank now requires that every project or program it finances incorporate a well-defined an M&E mechanism to measure results on the ground. This is becoming a major source of financing for statistical activities in member countries.

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AfDB SCB Activities (1)

• The initial phase of the Bank’s SCB support involved a major region-wide Technical Assistance Program using the International Comparison Program for Africa (ICP-Africa) as a framework (Phase I, 2004-2007).

• The Bank again implemented a SCB- Phase II program for a three year period 2009 - 2011.

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AfDB SCB Activities (2)

• Both Phase I and II aimed to strengthen the regional statistical system for Africa based on:

a country specific element, focusing on strengthening institutional capacity for generating reliable and timely statistical data;

a sub-regional element, involving strengthening the capabilities of Sub-regional Organizations (SROs); and

a regional element, managed by the Bank.

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AfDB SCB Activities (3)

• Under the program almost all African countries were supported to participate in the global International Comparisons Program (ICP).

• Phase II provided continuity and helped to sustain the gains made under Phase I.

• The program was also able to provide support for national priorities identified in National Statistical Development Strategies (NSDS).

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AfDB SCB Activities (3)

• The Bank assumed lead role in the area of support for Infrastructure statistics through the Africa Infrastructure Knowledge Program (AIKP)

• AIKP is a long-term framework for generating knowledge on infrastructure on a more sustainable basis through:

regular collection of data on infrastructure defining and developing analytic knowledge products to guide

policy building of necessary and adequate in countries, SROs

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AfDB SCB Activities (4)

• Action Plan for Africa (2011-2015) on Improving Statistics for Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development.

• A progress report on the Action Plan will be presented during the Stat-Com III meeting later this week.

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AfDB SCB Activities (5)

• The Bank has further initiated Phase III of SCB to run for a two year period 2012 – 2013.

• Phase III objective is to further improve the availability, coverage and quality of statistics

• Phase III designed to improve the availability and use of statistics for decision making and policy management at national, sub-regional and regional levels.

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AfDB SCB Activities (6)

• One major component of our Phase 3 program is the emphasis on increasing access to quality data needed for managing and monitoring development results in African countries.

• To this end, the Bank recently launched “Open Data for Africa” platform which is a one stop center for development data on Africa.

• I invite you to visit our stand in the Exhibition Hall to see this useful tool.

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AfDB SCB Activities (7)

• And as part of our continuing efforts to strengthen statistical systems and promote open access to statistics across the continent, the Bank plans to support the development of similar platforms in all African countries that would want to have them.

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FASDEV-V

Thank you