ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS WORKSHOP,ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA, 07 – 11 March 2011 By Manasa Viriri and Tinashe Njovana

Background of Environment Statistics and Accounts Zimbabwe intensified efforts to collect environment statistics after the 1991 User/Producer workshop a booklet on Environmental Statistics was produced in Zimbabwe was invited to participate at an environmental statistics and accounts workshop held in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The efforts were coordinated by CEEPA, RANESA.

cont. Every five years ZIMSTAT conducts User Producer Workshop, at which a paper on Environment Statistics is presented Zimbabwe has initiated a program for the implementation of the System of Environmental Economic Accounting for Water with ZIMSTAT as the lead agency ZIMSTAT conducted its first ever Stakeholder Workshop dedicated to Environment Statistics in April ZIMSTAT conducts user inquiries before the next issue of an Environment Statistics Report targeting users and producers of environmental information.

Environment Statistics Stakeholders In Zimbabwe, there are many organisations that are involved in the collection of environment statistics and these range from government ministries, and departments, local authorities, parastatals, Non-Governmental Organisations. ZIMSTAT also coordinates the provision of environmental data to the United Nations Statistics Division/United Nations Environmental Programme (UNSD/UNEP) through completion of questionnaires.

Data Sources With environmental data existing scattered in various institutions through out the country, there is need to strengthen the coordination of the production of the statistics. Most of the data come from specialist organizations such as the Meteorological Office, Environmental Management Agency and Zimbabwe National Water Authority. Other sources of data are administrative records, monitoring data and remote sensing. Hence, most of the statistics exist scattered in various primary and secondary data producers.

Dissemination of Statistics ZIMSTAT produces the Environment Statistics publication after every three years incorporating recommendation of the previous user inquiries. One of its strongest dissemination tools is the Zimbabwe Statistical Database (ZIMDAT)

External Assistance ZIMSTAT received assistance from Energy and Environment Programme under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management. The programme was supported by United Nations Development Programme.

Challenges of Statistics Production While a lot of relevant information resides with a number of institutions, there is very little information sharing that takes place between stakeholders for a number of reasons such as, inter-alia, inadequate information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure and inadequate capacity to use information.

Compilation of Environment – Economic Accounts Currently there is nothing that has been compiled for environment-economic accounts. However a proposal outlining the plan of implementation has already been submitted to UNSD for support. It is in our interest that we start with the water sector as the pilot project.

Way forward CSO was transformed to ZIMSTAT which is a semi-autonomous agency. The new Act allows the creation of a National Statistical System (NSS) that is foreseen to bring mechanisms for better co- ordination and organization in the production of all statistics.

There is need for strengthened capacity of other data producers. There is also need for establishment of databases which are continuously updated at national levels whose data will be supplied to UNSD/UNEP.

Thank you