The Busan Action Plan for Statistics: A Developing Country Perspective Abdul Rahman Ghafoori

1. The Busan Action Plan for Statistics: A Developing Country Perspective Abdul Rahman Ghafoori President General Central Statistics Organization, Afghanistan Meeting on the Busan Action Plan for Statistics 25 February 2012 New York

2. OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION • Background • Over-all objectives • Fully integrate statistics in decision making • Promote wider and open access to statistics • Increase resources for statistical systems • In each objective : • Progress • Challenges • Actions

3. BACKGROUND • Afghanistan suffered 30 years of war and still insecurity exists in about one-third of the districts in the country • Statistics a heavy casualty – physical and statistical infrastructure have been badly damaged and skill levels depleted • But huge demand exists for data for national reconstruction and development • International community provides about 50% of national recurrent and investment budget • CSO receives about $2.5m a year from the government and $2m to $5m from donors  • Statistics system needs to be rehabilitated 

4. Obj: Fully integrate statistics in decision making • Afghanistan National Statistics Plan (ANSP) – national priorities • sets out manageable data collection given resource and capacity constraints; • CSO briefs the Council of Ministers on progress and key economic and social indicators; • Discussions with policy makers in ministries about priorities, e.g., Deputy Minister of Ministry of Labor on the labour force module; • Statistical Task Force meeting bringing key stakeholders together (national and international) to discuss latest developments and priorities  P R O G R E S S

5. Obj: Fully integrate statistics in decision making C H A L L E N G E S • Fast moving environment and priorities change frequently; • Capacity of decision makers to use statistics for decision making and monitoring is weak; • National processes for planning, budgeting and M&E are still underdeveloped. Hence, difficult to ensure statistics is fully integrated

6. Obj: Fully integrate statistics in decision making • Seminars for users and producers of statistics as well as other workshops and conferences; • Council of Ministers updated on the key economic and social indicators available; • Build the capacity of statistical cells within line ministries to enable them to better link into the planning, budgeting and M&E processes within their ministries; • Continue with Statistical Task Force meetings • Need to better integrate statistics into the National Priority Programme process A CT I O N S

7. Obj: Promote wider and open access to statistics P R O G R E S S • Efforts to improve the timeliness and reliability of data is continuous; • Improvements to the website; • Micro data access policy; • Statistical Year Book; • Accelerated Data Program (ADP) documenting datasets

8. Obj: Promote wider and open access to statistics C H A L L E N G E S • Sharing and dissemination of information by Government Ministries; • Capacity to analyse data and be confident of its quality; • Different methodologies and concepts used across government can lead to confusion  

9. Obj: Promote wider and open access to statistics • Development of AMIS - cross government databank/base accessible to all users; • Further enhancements to the website; • Develop and implement a dissemination strategy; • Maintain a catalogue of available surveys/statistics of forthcoming reports; • Improve publishing capacity within CSO; • Improving CSO analytical capacity to improve presentation of information for stakeholders use A CT I O N S

10. Obj: Increase resources for statistical systems • System wide approach to the development of statistics in place.  Donors coordinate behind ANSP - in line with national priorities; • Statistics for Results Facility (SRF) funding received to support implementation; • Statistics Task Force (STF) provides a forum to ensure coordination of support and activities; • CSO in the lead in terms of coordinating the national statistical system and donor support • Lack of resources is currently not a major problem for Afghanistan but could be in 2015. P R O G R E S S

11. Obj: Increase resources for statistical systems • Some donors still prefer to operate outside ANSP; • Large demand for data from International Community (including military); some are prepared to pay for what they need rather than aligning behind a prioritised strategy;  • This leads to: • i) spreading CSO capacity too thinly across many activities, • ii) distorted incentives for data collection, and;   • iii) duplication of efforts  • Fiscally constrained environment means limited funding from the Government for statistics. Dependence on donor support will be required in the long term C H A L L E N G E S

12. Obj: Increase resources for statistical systems A CT I O N S • To continue efforts to bring donors into line; • UN is trying to better coordinate their agencies’ efforts in support of statistics; • CSO to continue to lobby for the government and donor funds to support the statistical system

13. Thank You