SDI

STATISTICAL DATA AND INFORMATION

The implementation of results based policies increasingly necessitates the use of dependable and timely statistics produced within a coherent conceptual and technical framework. The national poverty reduction strategies and the MDG focused activities highlight the need for social statistics including those of education.

The "actors of education", whether they are institutional or on the ground, need a wide range of data sets to establish, pilot, monitor and evaluate education policies and outcomes. The reliability of the analyses, the relevance of the policies and the effectiveness of the actions undertaken are closely dependent on the quality of the data used and their comparability over time.

Majority of national statistical systems (NSS), in Africa, are evolving and data quality, coverage and the transversality of the statistical tools are increasingly prioritized at the national and sub-national level. The integration of sectoral statistics in the NSS implies that it is necessary for significant improvements to the quality of the statistical processes in the Ministries of Education to be considered.

Many African countries lack reliable and quality data “to manage their educational systems. Several challenges are faced by countries including: (i) Poor quality data (ii) Weak statistical systems (iii) High staff turn-over in MoEs more particularly for key roles including statisticians and IT staff (iv) Limited collaboration between data-producing agencies (in particular NBS) (v) Lack of statistical awareness within the MoEs.

Responding to these challenges, the adoption of an EMIS approach has been singled out by the AU to facilitate the deployment of monitoring systems using high quality data to support evidence-based policy development

At the more technical level, EMIS is a prerequisite to enable and/or facilitate sectoral analysis through the availability of several data categories including: population, enrolment, finance data, quality of education, impact of the education system, etc.

In general, the EMIS implementation in a country should follow this cycle:

Identification of issues

Policy implementation

Monitoring and evaluation (EMIS)

UNESCO Africa work:

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in conjunction with partners can promote, organize and facilitate regional, sub-regional and/or national activities following this global sequence:

1. Carry out a diagnosis using DQAF methodolog
2. Validate this diagnosis with national authorities through

Consultation with technical partners;

Stakeholder meetings / seminars.

1. Conduct advocacy / to ensure commitments

Integration into existing structure;

Creating a national team;

Ensuring that funding is available.

1. Execute plan, modalities of implementation.

Implementation of action plan;

Evaluation;

Adjustment based on evaluation findings.

UNESCO Africa results:

7 Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF) pilot exercises have been conducted in the SADC countries in 2008- 2009 (priority for SADC in the framework of UNESCO-SADC Joint Program)

Sub regional workshop has been conducted in Maputo to present the 7 reports and define the strategy for 2010-2011

Support for the Fast track initiative request in different countries (CAR, CHAD,…)