Assuring Quality of Statsitical Data for better M&E system in Africa

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Permalink Reply by Peter Warui Kinyanjui on April 8, 2010 at 3:05am

Dear Yakob,

The main objective of statistical data collection is to assist in decision making for future desired outcome. The issue at hand is how each country takes advantage of the administrative data and other information generated in its day to day operation, not only for purpose of M&E, but for improvement in decision making. While the past might not be the best guide of the future, it offers of the best basis for learning and therefore forms a key factor in continuous improvement.

My experience in the Public Sector that huge investments, in form of human and financial resources are expended for 'scientific based studies' which are promptly filed and moved from one office to the other and finally lost in the various public offices. This happens mostly when ministries and departments are merged, mandates changed or abolished altogether. The new ministry embark once again to commission new studies of the same problem. To me this is a major issue in the African context.

Adoption of best knowledge management practices in Africa would address most of the basic data needs and lower the cost of scientific based studies and also improve decision making by adopting continuous improvement management style. I concur with you the need of the statistical offices to use the data generated for administrative purpose. African countries would save a lot of its financial resources by managing the knowledge that it has acquired. Say a rain floods happening every year in one country does not require new studies. The scientific data is there....... but where?


Peter Warui Kinyanjui

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Permalink Reply by Yakob Mudesir on April 8, 2010 at 6:47am

Dear Warui;

I will start by taking your final statement up and to remind everybody that it is not only the where but also the quality of the data has to be investigated.. So, how we preserve administrative data for better M&E system is one and againg assuring the quality of data generated is also an issue. You know availing the data only doesn't resolve the problem but also assuring the data.. so how should we assure the quality of administrative data, what procedures should we follow, how should we involve stakeholders for this process... etc... should be thourougly discussed

Yakob

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Permalink Reply by Patrick O. Kokonya on April 8, 2010 at 9:46am

Hi Yakob and Warui, I am a very critical person when it comes to replication of programs and agenda without complementarity in terms of program implementation, particularly in Africa and other developing countries. I am personally not a Data Analyst or a Statistician; however, as a Productivity Improvement and Result-Based Management Practitioner, I understand too well that a number of factors contribute to the scenario raised by Yakob and Warui. I cannot dispute the responses given but I must add that - Honest and Critical Transformational Leadership must be exercised at all levels and be enabling as much. We must also learn to build from the past efforts however defective they may be. This is the root and hence informs the future projections of an organization. The relationship between the Private and Public Sectors must be very cohesive and exhibit Team-Work.

Normally, when new institutions come up, I agree with Warui that there is a tendency to re-invent the wheel. To avoid this, there must be both strong Legal and Administrative structures to mid-wife the impending changes. Institutions must also be ready as and when need arises, carry out Institutional Capability Reviews so as to create strong linkages. Best practices are very critical and need to inform the future plans of any institution. Other areas that cognizance should be given is the Institutional Memory (to inform the future), Efficient Tools for Monitoring and Evaluation with an able team from both Private and Public Sectors. There are many other areas of competence that I believe other stakeholders on this forum can contribute to. This are my opinions; others can have their say but the end result is to avoid to much processes and deliver quality services to the citizens on time. Thank you. Kokonya O. Patrick, RBM / RRI Coach & Productivity Improvement Practitioner (Kenya)

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Permalink Reply by Anne W. Ndirangu on April 8, 2010 at 11:34am

Dear Brethen,

Ensuring Quality of Administrative Records: One way of ensuring this in my view is to first develop standards for record keeping. While developing these standards we should have in mind the "Expected Outcome". If for instance there are monthly meetings to review progress, how should these meetings be conducted and minutes captured? - Recording is important.

Secondly: Storage and recording what we have done. As Warui has said we tend to redo things because when we assume new offices we want to be seen to be working. But also we all have short memories and we cannot always recall what was done say 5 years ago. What am I saying? We should have information management systems that keep records as reference (Library) for those who NEED TO KNOW!!. eg a record of studies showing name of study, name of consultant, nationality, cost main findings, recommendation etc - before we file the bulk reports!!!

anne

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Nazifi Abdullahi Darma on April 8, 2010 at 12:03pm

Dear Yakub.

From the tone of your opening statements as I logically read and undertood them, the major challenge you are facing is the inability of various data using agencies in the public sector to properly utilize the administration records generated for conversion into statistics data that can be used for M&E activities.

It is true that data should be the basis for any M&E system in any country of the world. It is also true that basis baseline data that should provide a basis for clearly defining the extent of development need/gap in any sector and the specific policy/programming that should address the development need is costly and beyond the affordability of most developing countries.

I have my serious doubts as to wether administrative data that is collected unscientifically can be used for M&E activities? Secondly, do you have a central statistical agency that shoud conduct the aforementioned process of collecting data scientifically? If you have the agency, is it adequately funded to conduct baseline data collection activities across sectors on a timely basis? If the agency is adequately funded are the results of the survey widely disseminated and used for M&E activities? Is there a strong link/connection between the central agency and provincial/regional offices?

Based on your submissions, these questions would represent a tall order, for your statement indicate the absence a srong institutional framework for baseline and other data collection and processing activities in Ethiopia.

So the bottom line now is for you to use the administrative data for your M&E activities. The administarative data collection may serve as a tool for generating data for M&E on a skeletal basis in the absence of a strong institutional framework for statistical data collection and analysis. The option then is to institutionalize a process of improving the quality and reliability of the administrative data collection process for your M&E activities as a short term strategy and initiate a process of institutionalizing a statistical framework as a long term strategy, using public resources and leveraging on donor agencies support to complement public sector resources that are always in adequate relative to our developmental needs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Nazifi Abdullahi Darma
Deputy Director and Head, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit
National Planning Commission, Abuja, Nigeria.

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Permalink Reply by Yakob Mudesir on April 9, 2010 at 5:22pm

Dear Dr. Nazif;

Thank you for your statment. But I think you missed the core of the problem. I am not saying that we needed to use administrative data for M&E system becuse Ethiopia has an institutional framwork problem. We have a strong statistical Agency which conduct about 12 different socio economic surveys per annum for M&E purposes. This agency is the central arm for government and development partners in providing reliable and timely statistical data in different sectors of the economy and the social aspect as well.

Now, any country can not really satisfy the need of statistical data just by conducting surveys. In developed countries, like Finland for example, the administrative records are the basis for statistical information and the Statistics Finland obtaines 95% of its statistical information through administrative registers. Look, this is the issue, in our continent as well there are a lot of administrative records which should be converted to statistical data... now, my question is how should we really strengthen this administrative data since they are really very useful, they really minimize cost and they can be obtained on time if properly handeled. So the question is how can we really assure the quality of this administrative records found in different sector ministries so that they can be used as a basis for statistical information then to be used for M&E purposes... I am sure I really make my point clear now... It is not really related to institutional framework or not having a statistical agency in Ethiopia.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Nazifi Abdullahi Darma on April 10, 2010 at 1:35pm

Daer Yakub.

I really understood the problem you are stating, perhaps if you have explained it more clearly, the ambiguity created by the perceived absence of an institutional framework for statistical data collection and analysis would not have arisen.

In the last paragraph of my previous comment, I did suggest the need for strengthening the process and mechanisms for the collection of various types of administartive data to make it useful for your M&E activities. In addition, a noble idea is to identify specific change agents in various government departmets, improve their capacity for data collection and find a way of linking up the various departments for timely deployment of the administrative data generated by the trained change agents into the national statistical database, which would ultimately be used for your M&E activities.

The challenge for most countries is to find the needed resources for the capacity building activities and the stability of tenure of the trained change agents in the respective government departments.

I hope my elaborate suggestion would provide useful insights towards addressing the challenges of assuring the quality of administrative data for your M&E activities.

Nazifi Abdullahi Darma PhD
National Planning Commission, Abuja, Nigeria.

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Permalink Reply by Bimerew Alemu on April 21, 2010 at 8:12am

Dear Colleagues

Greetings


Thank you Yakob for initiating this discussion. Sorry for joining you late because of being occupied on some other urgent tasks.

The issues raised by Yakob are very pertinent for all of us. To enrich the ideas being raised the points that we want to forward need only focus on experience sharing. On that angle I don’t see any need of discussing particularly Ethiopian context. About the information system in Ethiopia no body else is expected to know better than the Ethiopians in general and the central Federal Authority Senior Executives in particular.

Are we cognizant of why and when the information is needed? In my experience in rural areas the recording and reporting is obviously poor. This is because of capacity problems. Information needs to be sent on time; otherwise it wouldn’t be serving its purpose. We don’t want a historical data but information based on which we could be able to decide. Why is it poor? May be some consider the information under their disposal is only their own resource; others may lack the capability to process the data and submit them promptly; may be high turnover of staff in the planning and budgeting area. Why I mention this is that there arise problems in reporting specifically in financial aspects such as expenditures reports.

So to have quality administrative information it is good to strengthen the human element and capability; which I think are the weak links for poor information flows.

Bimerew Alemu

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