Zimstats needs US$116m to enhance efficiency

enhance its operational efficiency, the agency has said.
Addressing delegates at the launch of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (2011-2015), Zimstats acting director-general Mr Moffat Nyoni said the national statistical system suffered immensely during the hyper-inflationary years and now required extensive funding.
“Around US$116 million is required to boost the operations of our systems,” he said. “The figure seems like quite a lot. But just try to imagine the alternative. The effects of an inefficient statistics system could be disastrous for the economy at large.”
But he indicated that the US$116 million excluded employment costs.
“There is need for the agency to improve conditions of service, so as to retain skills, otherwise the aims envisioned in the NSDS could amount to nothing,” he said.
The NSDS was established to strengthen the national statistical agency and the respective sectors to build sustainable statistical capacity for the collection and dissemination of critical data.
The NSDS is basically a bottom-up strategy that will see sector statistics committees steering implementation within the respective sectors, while the Zimstats board will coordinate and oversee implementation of the national strategy.
In her keynote address, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe noted the role played by the Government in ensuring the development of a functional national statistics system.
“The need for statistics by the Government of Zimbabwe cannot be over-emphasised. This has been shown by the commitment of the Government in reforming the National Statistical system.” Government has already committed US$13 million for statistical production in 2011-2012. The Government would fully integrate the strategic statistical plans into national policy processes.
Zimbabwe has experienced a sharp decline in respect of its statistical production capacities, largely due to the period of hyperinflation, which eroded an established funding mechanism and resulted in the loss of human capital in the field.
According to the World Bank Bulletin Board statistical capacity indicator for Zimbabwe, the country’s score has declined from 63 out of 100 in 2004 to 42 out of 100 last year. This is below the sub-Saharan African average of around 55 out of 100.
At its peak in the 1980s the country recorded scores in excess of 80 out of 100 as one of the best statistical systems in Africa. In recent times, capacity constraints have resulted in Zimstats producing a limited number of censuses and surveys. For instance, the agency last year failed to produce some 12 statistical series namely the Labour Force and Child Labour Survey (2009), Census of Services (last conducted in 1981/82), Women and Men in Zimbabwe, Construction Statistics, Quarterly Digest of Statistics, and the Compendium of Statistics.
Other surveys that were not produced included StatsFlash, Retail Trade Indices, Education Report, Mortality report, Agriculture and Livestock Survey Report and the Production Account of Agriculture Forestry and Fishing.
But the complete implementation of the NSDS is expected to result in the resuscitation of these statistical programmes.
The New Census and Statistics Act, enacted in 2007 and became effective in July 2009 has been a critical element in the revamping of the national statistical system as it ushered in a new Zimstats board that will oversee the implementation and evaluation of the NSDS.