Workshop on Statistical Organization and Management for SADC Member

States – UNSD

Group 1 Discussions

Legislation

Leadership

PlanningLuanda, 03 December 2006

Legislation

A. Statistical Policy1. Regional Level

• SADC countries should formulate statistical policy in order to guide statistical operations of member states

• SADC countries should develop appropriate rules and regulation, in line with UN recommendations, to govern the Protocol on statistics

2. National Level• Member states should update their statistical legislation

in line with SADC policy as well as the Protocol on statistics .

B. Statistical Framework• SADC countries should set up statistical

frameworks to cover the entire statistical system• The frameworks should specify the modus

operandi for the coordination of the players in the system

• SADC secretariat should strengthen its statistical operations by filling up all vacant positions

Leadership

A. Technical Level• The head of the Statistical Office should be appointed

on professional merits

B. Personal Level• Consideration for selection should take into account the

culture and environment of the statistical system of the country

• The leader should be able to build team spirit• The leader should mentor others to take up leadership

roles in the institution

Planning

• Plans should be medium to long term

• Countries should adopt National Statistical development plans (NSDS)

• The NSDS should be flexible

• The NSDS’s should be sustainable

Workshop on Statistical Organization and Management for SADC Member

States – UNSD

Group 2 Discussions

Legislation

Leadership

PlanningLuanda, 03 December 2006

Leadership

Training

Problems

• There is no structured training programme;

• We have problems of performing at a leadership level

Solutions

• We need to have co-ordinated training programme on leadership.

• We need to have a co-ordinated cadreship development programme, for next levels of management.

• We also need to differentiate between Leadership training and Management training.

• Examples: Strategic management, Risk management, Communication, etc.

Taking risks

Problems

• Limitations and constraints: financial, decision-making.

• Personality issues also play a role in how a leader can take risks.

Solutions

• Environment should allow the person to exercise a high level of independence, professionally and in making decisions.

• The powers of the leaders should be adequately legislated.

• Executive coaching (formal and informal) and peer group support, such as SADC Statistics Committee.

• Study tours, budget available in the Development Account.

Capacity

Problems

• When a leader is not able to deliver the necessary figures due to capacity (e.g. expertise, skills, financial)

Solutions

• We need high profile professional authority; our business requires high level technical / intellectual competence: especially that we are faced with emerging agencies that are in the business of statistical production.

• Leaders of NSOs should assert their authority internally so that they can get their teams to deliver.

• Study tours, budget available in the Development Account.

Legislation

Position of Chief Statistician

Problems• The level of appointment of the Chief Statistician within member

states can also pose a problem on how the NSO and the entire national statistics system are positioned.

Solutions• We need minimum recommended standards for the UN Handbook

on Official Statistics on the level of the Chief Statistician.• NSOs should be assisted (e.g. through the SADC protocol) to

revise their legislation and use this to position the level of the Chief Statistician: a framework for the SADC Statistics Protocol has already agreed upon.

• We need proper co-ordination of regional and world intervention.

Stats programmes & resourcing the agency

Problems

• Governments sometimes do not support the work programme of the NSOs.

Solutions

• We need clear legislation on statistical programmes and how such programmes are approved as well as the necessary financial support.

• We need to make our governments understand that the responsibility for funding the NSOs lies with them.

Intellectual/ technical competence

Problems

• We have problems in advancing the technical competence regarding the use of legislation, sometimes to the detriment of intellectual / technical excellence, e.g. the use of confidentiality.

Solutions

• We need to empower our staff to deal with data: unonymised micro-data issues.

• We need an Ethics Committee to implement and monitor aspects of the statistics legislation that deal with confidentiality.

• SDX and DevInfo initiatives.

Planning

Prioritisation

Problems• Donors sometimes arrive with programmes they need to implement

and the need data urgently, and therefore want NSOs to prioritise their data collection programmes, sometimes with a signed government agreement.

• Staff members are tempted to participate in donor sponsored projects for financial gain.

Solutions• We need comprehensive statistical master plans (long-term), strategic

plan (medium-term) as well as business plans (implementation) with the inherent resource (financial, human, time) requirements.

• We need procedures on acting allowances fro staff members seconded to donor sponsored projects.