Development of Information For Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) In Zambia

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Development of Information For Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper (PRSP) In Zambia
Oliver J. M. Chinganya Central Statistical
Office Zambia
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PRSP Process

• Zambia is preparing the PRSP which is intended to
  map out its development goals and indicate the
  strategies that will be employed to attain the
  set goals.
• The PRSP is being co-ordinated by the Ministry of
  Finance and Economic Development (MOFED). A unit
  has been set up to specifically manage the
  process.

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PRSP Process

• The government realized that in order to achieve
  sustainable poverty reduction, strong pro-poor
  economic growth and continued strong social
  action programmes are required.
• In order to achieve this, relevant accurate and
  timely data should be made available.

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Development of the PRSP

• The preparation of PRSP began with an I-PRSP.
• The process involved interactive consultation
  with
• - Government institutions
• - NGOs
• - Civil Society
• - Other stakeholders.

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Development of the PRSP

• Various sensitization workshops were held for
• - Senior Government officials
• - Programme managers
• - MPs and Cabinet Ministers
• Discussions were made on how best to prepare the
  PRSP.

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Development of the PRSP

• Under economic and social themes, the following
  expert groups were formed
• - Macro-economic
• - Agriculture
• - Tourism
• - Mining
• - Industry
• - Governance
• - Health
• - Education

• In order to develop the paper, 3 themes were
  considered
• - Economic theme
• - Social theme
• - Cross-cutting issues

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Development of the PRSP

• The cross cutting issues included
• - HIV/AIDs
• - Gender
• - Water and Sanitation
• - Energy
• - Environment and Natural Resources
• - Roads
• The groups discussed at various forums and it was
  clear that in order to write an informative and
  comprehensive paper, data and information was
  needed.

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PRSP Process Links with PARIS21

• Whilst in the preparation of the PRSP was going
  on, OECD countries and other international
  agencies formed the PARIS 21 Consortium. Its
  objectives are
• - Developing evidenced based culture for
• setting and monitoring policy.
• - Developing well-managed statistical systems,
• utilizing available resources effectively.
• These objectives were complementary to achieving
  the PRSP initiative.

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SADC/Paris21

• As a follow-up to PARIS 21 objectives, a meeting
  was held in December 2000 with a theme
  Developing Partnership for Information needs of
  Poverty Reduction Strategies and other Priority
  Policy Areas
• The workshop was attended by
• - SADC member countries
• - Programme managers
• - Government and Private sector
• - NGOs
• - Representatives of International agencies such
  as
• World Bank, IMF, AFRISTAT, etc including an
• expert on Poverty from Uganda.

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Issues Discussed at the SADC/Paris21 Workshop

• The status of information requirements of PRSP
• Current issues around the information
  Requirements and Poverty Monitoring
• Priority Information Needs of sector ministries.
• Information Needs of other stakeholders
• SADC and other Regional organization information
  needs

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Issues Discussed at the SADC/Paris21 Workshop

• Information Needs of Civil Society
• Information Needs of the Private Sector
• Experiences and progress in Poverty Monitoring.
• Dissemination and Information Accessibility
• Supporting Poverty Monitoring and Information.
• As a follow-up to this meeting another meeting
  was planned
• to specifically look at the data requirements of
  the PRSP in
• Zambia.

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Consultative Process in Developing an Information
Strategy for PRSP

• The CSO is the main government organ mandated to
  carry out all censuses and surveys.
• CSO organizes a coordinated scheme of social and
  economic statistics relating to Zambia and
  ensures that data is available.
• The OECD through Euro-stat and CSO agreed to
  undertake a feasibility study to assess the
  knowledge and practice in the production and use
  of comprehensive statistical poverty data.

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Consultative Process in Developing an Information
Strategy for PRSP

• In order to undertake the study, a consultant was
• engaged. The mission consultant was to
• To determine facts about poverty issues.
• Examine basic information (concepts and
  definitions).
• Data gathering.
• Identify participants for the workshop.

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Planning of the Workshop

• The Mission Consultant had a series of meetings
  with stakeholders to look at institutional data
  requirements and obtain their perspective on
  poverty issues.
• The mission consultant also discussed the plan
  and focus of the Data Requirements workshop.

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Planning of the Workshop

• It was agreed that the workshop would cover
• A comprehensive analysis of the needs of all
  users.
• A comprehensive review of all types of poverty
  data.
• Analysis of the major data gaps and
  methodological weaknesses.
• Analysis of where action is needed to strengthen
  the underlying data required for target setting,
  monitoring, and further policy making.

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Planning of the Workshop

• A review of the areas where poverty analysis is
  weak.
• Consultation for such a workshop was important as
  this resulted in facilitating those working in
  different areas, with different approaches and
  methodologies to engage in a dialogue in order to
  develop techniques to achieve better synthesis
  between their methods and sources.
• Secondly, it would foster a more effective and
  sustainable dialogue between users and producers,
  so that producers have a clearer idea of users
  needs, that users are better able to interpret
  the data and analyses which are made available to
  them.

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Workshop Brief Proceedings(a) Policy Remarks

• The workshop was opened by the Minister of
• MOFED and attended by stakeholders. Also
• Stats. South Africa sent representatives. The
  Head
• of EU Delegation was also in attendance.
• The Minister emphasized on-
• A comprehensive review of the needs of users of
  poverty data.
• That the data to be used in the PRSP must be
  supported by evidence based policies which must
  be growth oriented and politically implementable.
  

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Workshop Brief Proceedings(a) Policy Remarks
(Contd)

• The EU Delegation leader raised concerns on
• Information not penetrating to the ordinary
  people.
• Translation of information so that the ordinary
  people can benefit.
• Collection and analysis of data should be based
  on quantitative and qualitative approaches.

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Workshop Brief Proceedings(b) CSOs Position

• The CSO which operates under the Census and
  Statistics Act Cap 425 of the Laws of Zambia gave
  an overview of the Zambian Statistical System.
  It also highlighted on its products, particularly
  in relation of the PRSP data requirements

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Workshop Brief Proceeding(b) CSOs Position
(Contd)

• The CSO presentations raised in the discussions
  concerns on
• Collection of certain type of information.
• Analysis of certain data not comprehensive.
• Also that even if it was the main central organ
  which is supposed to overall surprise the data
  collection including methodology it did not have
  administrative authority/control
• It was therefore recommended that a National
  Statistical
• Coordinating Committee be setup to oversee the
  production of
• all statistics.

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Workshop Brief Proceedings(c) Poverty Unit at
MOFED

• The unit presented an overview and the current
• status of PRSP. In addition, the working groups
  and
• respective institutions presented papers.
•  
• The presentation and follow-up discussions
  revealed
• the need for PRSP data to
•  
• Understand the status in terms of poverty and
  what data were needed.
• Understand the relationship between sector
  interventions and poverty.

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Workshop Brief Proceedings(c) Poverty Unit at
MOFED (Contd)

• Monitor and evaluate the impact of intervention
  and the ultimate objective for PRSP.
• Discussions also confirmed that the PRSP had
• brought an opportunity to prioritize the data
• requirements and created a stronger relationship
• between producers and users of information.

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Workshop Brief Proceedings(d) Other Papers
Presented

• The private sector and the civil society.
• Both dwelt on specific data generation, including
• data mining of exiting data.
• The donor/international agencies concentrated on
  their programmes which played an intervention
  role in poverty alleviation. 

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Workshop Brief Proceeding(e) Papers on Data
Production and Procedures

• The papers discussed about the classical
  quantitative methods by CSO and, the qualitative
  methods by PAG.
•  
• It was recommended that both methods be used
  together to obtain best results.

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Conclusion

• Need to co-ordinate the activities of various
  agencies dealing with poverty for effectiveness
  of poverty reduction.
• Data mining of existing data should be
  encouraged.
• Analytical skills for poverty analysts,
  programmer managers, policy makers and
  statisticians should be enhanced.

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Provisional Future Agenda

• Taking stock of available data.
• Establishment of a body to oversee and provide
  guidelines to the production of statistics.
• Establishment of Producer/Producer Committee and
  User/Producer committee.
• Develop an integrated database for poverty
  statistics.
• Develop a system of disseminating data and
  information regularly.

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Follow-up Activities

• Transformation of CSO into a semi-autonomous body
  being rigorous done.
• Preparation for an integrated database 2gldb .
• Dissemination strategies being developed.

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• It is clear from the Zambian experience of
  involving policy makers, programme managers,
  major data users and producers in the process of
  statistical development that, statistical
  capacity building to support the PRSP planning
  and implementation will require the participation
  of all concerned at all levels. It is not a one
  persons or institution issue but all
  stakeholders.

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THE END