Katalin Bokor Economic Statistics and National Accounts Section African Centre for Statistics

1. Session 5: Progress Report for Phase I of African Project on SNA (actions, achievements, challenges) KatalinBokor Economic Statistics and National Accounts Section African Centre for Statistics AGNA meeting 12-15 May 2015

2. Outline of the presentation • I. Actions and achievements • Country plans and follow-up actions (Pillar 1) • Capacity building (Pillar 2) • Institutional strengthening (Pillar 3) • Compiling technical documents and practical guidebooks (Pillar 4) • Advocacy (Pillar 5) • Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (Pillar 6) • II. Challenges • Countries’ needs for training, TA and financial assistance • Challenges and actions to resolve issues

3. I/1. Country plans and actions • As of March 2015, 22 countries reported to have already formulated country plans • Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe • 16 countries are currently elaborating country plans • Angola, Botswana, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Togo and Zambia

4. I/1. Country plans and actions (Cont’d) Figure 1: Activities that have been incorporated in the national action plans and have been followed up

5. I/1. Country plans and actions (Cont’d) • Most countries have already taken one or more of the following actions: • Strengthening the institutional framework and management structure for national accounts; • Adhering to international classifications (activities, products, etc.); • Harmonizing with other statistical systems such as the balance of payments, public finances, etc.; • Administering statistical operations including censuses, surveys, studies, etc.; • Improving conditions to access different data sources; • Updating the business register; • Conducting training for national accountants; • Changing to a new base year and software for compilation of national accounts.

6. I/1. Country plans and actions (Cont’d) Figure 2: Timeline of transitioning to the 2008 SNA

7. I/1. Country plans and actions (Cont’d) • Survey on countries’ needs assessment (Dec 2014 – March 2015) • Survey on partners’ assistance provision (April-May 2015) Matching demands to supply

8. I/2. Capacity building • AFRISTAT: strategy based to implement the 2008 SNA in its Member States • Progressive approach to consolidate knowledge and correct shortfalls • Six pillars: • (i) help Member States to migrate with success from the 1993 SNA to the 2008 SNA; • (ii) reinforce institutional and organizational capacity of national accounts sections; • (iii) assist countries to put in place an operational and efficient system to produce and analyse national accounts; • (iv) develop an operational system for the publication of national accounts; • (v) assist and monitor the implementation of the 2008 SNA; and • (vi) coordinate assistance with other partners.

9. I/2. Capacity building • Training Workshop on the Implementation of the 2008 SNA (21-23 January 2014, Nouakchott, Mauritania) • By ECA SRO-NA and ECA ACS. • 31 participants from NSOs, Ministries of Planning and Central Banks of 11 francophone African countries. • Training on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) • By ECA in collaboration with GIZ and the United Nations Statistical Division • (i) an online training over 8 weeks and 5 modules during September-November 2014; • (ii) an on-site workshop on 2-5 February 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. • 20 African countries have participated and completed the online training course and on-site training workshop.

10. I/2. Capacity building • Seminar on Supply and Use Table (10-14 November 2014 in Mauritius) • By IMF AFRITAC South • Workshop on the preparation of quarterly national accounts (19-23 January 2015 in Bamako, Mali) • By IMF AFRITAC Central, AFRITAC West and AFRISTAT • National accountants from 9 Member States. • Seminar on quarterly GDP (16-20 March 2015 in Mauritius) • By IMF AFRITAC South

11. I/3. Institutional strengthening • ECA launched a “community of practice” on the compilation of supply and use tables as well as the use of administrative data in national accounts. • The purpose is to produce country contributions, in the form of case studies and sharing country experience for the two technical documents and practical guidebooks.

12. I/4. Compiling technical documents • Exhaustive survey on the use of administrative data in the compilation of national accounts carried out among African countries • December 2013-January 2014 • 46 responses • Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on Administrative Data • By ECA in collaboration with the Sub-Regional Office for Eastern Africa (SRO-EA) • 23-27 June 2014, Kigali • 16 countries

13. I/4. Compiling technical documents (Cont’d) • Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on Supply and Use Tables • ECA in collaboration with the Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA) • 2-6 June 2014, Port Louis • 25 countries • Drafts of Guidebook of administrative data and Handbook on supply and use table (SUT) are being finalized.

14. I/4. Compiling technical documents (Cont’d) • AFRISTAT: • Member States are validating a Methodological Guide on the Production of National Accounts in AFRISTAT Member States (According to the 2008 SNA) • On-going work on a Methodological Guidebook on the Retropolation of National Accounts

15. I/6. Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting • Inaugural Meeting of the CSC in September 2013: CSC will meet every 6 month during Phase I, and once a year in Phase II of the Project • ToRs of the CSC were established during its Inaugural Meeting held in September 2013 in Addis Ababa. • 2nd CSC Meeting (or the Friends of the Chair of the CSC) was held on 2-4 April 2014 in Addis Ababa • 3rd CSC Meeting convened on 8-9 December 2014 in Tunis

16. I/6. Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (Cont’d) • Progress report template for the African Project endorsed by the Friends of the Chair meeting • Updated on a biannual basis by the Secretariat • Presented to both AGNA and the CSC • As part of the transition to Phase II of the project, consultation with stakeholders about the experience, progress and gaps observed so far • Report will be circulated

17. II/1. Challenges Figure 3: Training needs of countries (by activity and planned date for moving to 2008 SNA)

18. II/1. Challenges Figure 4: Technical assistance needs of countries (by activity and planned moving date)

19. II/1. Challenges Figure 5: Financial assistance needs of countries (number of countries by activity)

20. II/2. Challenges and actions to resolve issues • Institutional coordination: • Avoid duplication of activities, improve communication • Secretariat has proposed to the three pan-African institutions (AfDB, AUC, ECA) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to assist African countries to implement the 2008 SNA • Reporting mechanism: • A template has been developed to provide stakeholders a tool to follow the progress made • Stakeholders are invited to report biannually to the Secretariat on activities

21. II/2. Challenges and actions to resolve issues • Supporting countries to play a key and central role in the project • the report on the needs assessment of countries is expected to help to match countries’ individual needs to partners capacity for assistance provision. • Financial resource mobilization • the expected MoU can help pan-African institutions to show their engagement for the project and pool together resources

22. Thank you Participants are invited to: Comment on the progress that has been made Comment on challenges not mentioned above Provide advice on how to improve and strengthen the implementation of the Project