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

Background Over-all objectives 1.Fully integrate statistics in decision making 2.Promote wider and open access to statistics 3.Increase resources for statistical systems In each objective : Progress Challenges Actions OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

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 BACKGROUND

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 Obj: Fully integrate statistics in decision making PROGRESSPROGRESS

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 Obj: Fully integrate statistics in decision making CHALLENGESCHALLENGES

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 Obj: Fully integrate statistics in decision making A C T I O N 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 Obj: Promote wider and open access to statistics PROGRESSPROGRESS

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 Obj: Promote wider and open access to statistics CHALLENGESCHALLENGES

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 Obj: Promote wider and open access to statistics A C T I O N S

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 Obj: Increase resources for statistical systems PROGRESSPROGRESS

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 Obj: Increase resources for statistical systems CHALLENGESCHALLENGES

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 Obj: Increase resources for statistical systems A C T I O N S

Thank You