Group 1 Recommendations

1
Workshop on Statistical Organization and
Management for SADC Member States UNSD Group 1
Discussions Legislation Leadership Planning Luanda
, 03 December 2006
2
Legislation

• Statistical Policy
• Regional Level
• SADC countries should formulate statistical
  policy in order to guide statistical operations
  of member states
• SADC countries should develop appropriate rules
  and regulation, in line with UN recommendations,
  to govern the Protocol on statistics
• National Level
• Member states should update their statistical
  legislation in line with SADC policy as well as
  the Protocol on statistics .

3

• B. Statistical Framework
• SADC countries should set up statistical
  frameworks to cover the entire statistical system
• The frameworks should specify the modus operandi
  for the coordination of the players in the system
• SADC secretariat should strengthen its
  statistical operations by filling up all vacant
  positions

4
Leadership

• Technical Level
• The head of the Statistical Office should be
  appointed on professional merits
• Personal Level
• Consideration for selection should take into
  account the culture and environment of the
  statistical system of the country
• The leader should be able to build team spirit
• The leader should mentor others to take up
  leadership roles in the institution

5
Planning

• Plans should be medium to long term
• Countries should adopt National Statistical
  development plans (NSDS)
• The NSDS should be flexible
• The NSDSs should be sustainable

6
Workshop on Statistical Organization and
Management for SADC Member States UNSD Group 2
Discussions Legislation Leadership Planning Luanda
, 03 December 2006
7
Leadership
8
Training

• Problems
• There is no structured training programme
• We have problems of performing at a leadership
  level
• Solutions
• We need to have co-ordinated training programme
  on leadership.
• We need to have a co-ordinated cadreship
  development programme, for next levels of
  management.
• We also need to differentiate between Leadership
  training and Management training.
• Examples Strategic management, Risk management,
  Communication, etc.

9
Taking risks

• Problems
• Limitations and constraints financial,
  decision-making.
• Personality issues also play a role in how a
  leader can take risks.
• Solutions
• Environment should allow the person to exercise a
  high level of independence, professionally and in
  making decisions.
• The powers of the leaders should be adequately
  legislated.
• Executive coaching (formal and informal) and peer
  group support, such as SADC Statistics Committee.
• Study tours, budget available in the Development
  Account.

10
Capacity

• Problems
• When a leader is not able to deliver the
  necessary figures due to capacity (e.g.
  expertise, skills, financial)
• Solutions
• We need high profile professional authority our
  business requires high level technical /
  intellectual competence especially that we are
  faced with emerging agencies that are in the
  business of statistical production.
• Leaders of NSOs should assert their authority
  internally so that they can get their teams to
  deliver.
• Study tours, budget available in the Development
  Account.

11
Legislation
12
Position of Chief Statistician

• Problems
• The level of appointment of the Chief
  Statistician within member states can also pose a
  problem on how the NSO and the entire national
  statistics system are positioned.
• Solutions
• We need minimum recommended standards for the UN
  Handbook on Official Statistics on the level of
  the Chief Statistician.
• NSOs should be assisted (e.g. through the SADC
  protocol) to revise their legislation and use
  this to position the level of the Chief
  Statistician a framework for the SADC Statistics
  Protocol has already agreed upon.
• We need proper co-ordination of regional and
  world intervention.

13
Stats programmes resourcing the agency

• Problems
• Governments sometimes do not support the work
  programme of the NSOs.
• Solutions
• We need clear legislation on statistical
  programmes and how such programmes are approved
  as well as the necessary financial support.
• We need to make our governments understand that
  the responsibility for funding the NSOs lies with
  them.

14
Intellectual/ technical competence

• Problems
• We have problems in advancing the technical
  competence regarding the use of legislation,
  sometimes to the detriment of intellectual /
  technical excellence, e.g. the use of
  confidentiality.
• Solutions
• We need to empower our staff to deal with data
  unonymised micro-data issues.
• We need an Ethics Committee to implement and
  monitor aspects of the statistics legislation
  that deal with confidentiality.
• SDX and DevInfo initiatives.

15
Planning
16
Prioritisation

• Problems
• Donors sometimes arrive with programmes they need
  to implement and the need data urgently, and
  therefore want NSOs to prioritise their data
  collection programmes, sometimes with a signed
  government agreement.
• Staff members are tempted to participate in donor
  sponsored projects for financial gain.
• Solutions
• We need comprehensive statistical master plans
  (long-term), strategic plan (medium-term) as well
  as business plans (implementation) with the
  inherent resource (financial, human, time)
  requirements.
• We need procedures on acting allowances fro staff
  members seconded to donor sponsored projects.