‘ZIMSTAT statistics must be researched’

Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) should disseminate instructive and thoroughly researched statistics that provide evidence for sound policy and programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to meet set targets and goals, a Cabinet minister has said. Officially opening the User/Producer Symposium in Nyanga on Monday, Finance and Economic Development Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa said ZIMSTAT should be the key advisor to Government and to the Treasury on all statistical issues and statistics are more instructive if they are undisputable.

The symposium was the fifth in the country’s history and helps the statistical body to come up with a five-year National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) document for 2016 to 2020.

The User/Producer Symposium is the first stage in the 2016/20 NSDS design of what needs to be done to produce relevant statistics in Zimbabwe, the changes and resources are needed to achieve the objectives in an efficient manner.

Cde Chinamasa said: “Talking about ZIMSTAT products being demand driven, permit me to convey to ZIMSTAT my one demand, namely the imperative of data on the informal sector following the structural changes that have taken place in our economy. With the shrinkage of the formal sector and the expansion of the informal sector, Government will need good statistics on this sector to act as the basis upon which polices can be formulated. We need to understand the diversity of activities in which players in the informal sector are involved. We need to scout for champions among the players in the informal sectors. Above all we also need to identify the skills and capital needs with a view to scaling up their skills and facilitating their access to capital,” said Cde Chinamasa.

He also appealed to the development partners to assist in the data collection, saying Treasury, which is in control of all Government’s financial transactions, was dogged by cash flow challenges to support successful implementation of the National Strategy Development Statistics (NSDS).

An NSDS is expected to provide a country with a strategy for developing statistical capacity across the entire national statistical system (NSS). The NSDS will provide a vision for where the NSS should be in five to 10 years and will set milestones for getting there. It will present a comprehensive and unified framework for continual assessment of evolving user needs and priorities for statistics and for building the capacity needed to meet these needs in a more co-ordinated, synergistic and efficient manner. It will also provide a framework for mobilising, harnessing, and leveraging resources (both national and international) and a basis for effective and results-oriented strategic management of the NSS.

“The successful implementation of an NSDS depends on timely and adequate provision of financial, technical and human resources. As a developing country, Zimbabwe’s budget is constrained. Support from international community is therefore crucial. In this case, the Government and development partners should commit themselves to NSDS (2016-2020) in much the same way they did during the implementation of the outgoing strategy,” he said.

“ZIMSTAT should be the key advisor to Government and to the Treasury on all statistical issues and statistics are more instructive when regional comparisons are also proffered.

“I expect ZIMSTAT to play a leading role in articulating the correct information on the Poverty Datum Line (PDL). I understand that all our neighbouring countries use a family of one for the purposes of calculating PDL instead of a family of five. It is not best practice that as a country we have been running and rallying behind calculating PDL based on a family of five. The result of course is that we end up paying much higher and become uncompetitive,” added Cde Chinamasa.

The Poverty Datum Line (PDL) represents the cost of a given standard of living that must be attained if a person is deemed not to be poor. The food poverty datum line (FDP) represents the minimum consumption expenditure necessary to ensure that each household member can (if all expenditures were devoted to food) consume a minimum food basket representing 2 100 calories.

An individual whose total consumption expenditure does not exceed the food poverty line is deemed to be very poor.