quarterly progress report · quarterly progress report third quarter 2012/13 1 quarterly progress...

QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT - THIRD QUARTER 2012/13 1

QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORTTHIRD QUARTER 2012/13

QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT - THIRD QUARTER 2012/132

MISSION STATEMENT

“In a coordinated manner produce and disseminate relevant, quality and timely statistics that are fit-for-purpose in accordance with international standards and best practice”

VISION STATEMENT

“be a high performance institution in statistics delivery”.

CORE VALUES

Performance

Integrity

Service focus

Transparency

Accuracy

Partnership


INTRODUCTION 4

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVES 4

PROGRESS VERSUS STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVES 5

SUSTAINABLE CAPCITY BUILDING 5

Consultancies 5

Training 5

Workshops and meetings 6

Travelling 6

RELEVANT, QUALITY AND TIMELY STATISTICS 6

The population and housing census 6

The 2012 labour force survey 7

Surveys, cartography and geographical information system 8

Other social and vital statistics 9

Economic statistics 9

EFFICIENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 10

Financial administration 10

Human resource management 11

Information technology and data processing 11

RISKS AND CHALLENGES 11

CONCLUSIONS 12

Contents


The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) was created by an Act of Parliament, Statistics Act No 09 of 2011. Under this Act the NSA is the central statistics authority and the central repository for all statistics produced in Namibia. The Agency recently adopted a four and a half year business plan that covers the period 1 October 2012 to 31 March 2017. The business plan was compiled in close collaboration with key role players. Based on the Balance Score Card, the business plans also forms the basis for managing the NSA’s performance and promote accountability. In this connection, one important activity is to present quarterly internal and external progress reports. This is the first quarterly progress report of the Agency and covers the period 1 October 2012 to 31 December 2012. It is the intention of the Agency to publish quarterly progress reports within one month of the reference period.

The NSA has adopted 4 strategic priorities and 15 objectives in it its business plan that covers the period 2012/13 to 2016/17. The strategic priorities and accompanying objectives are outlined below:

• Building sustainable institutional capacity in the NSA and the National Statistics System (NSS)

• Use of statistics and value creation to ensure maximum impact of statistical delivery

o To exhibit improved process management.o To exhibit improved project management, planning and production of core statistics.

• Efficient resource management

o To produce relevant and responsive statistics.o To deliver statistics of assured quality.o To deliver statistics on time.

• Producing relevant, quality and timely statistics needed for evidence based policy making

o To have sufficient, competent and motivated staff within a supporting structure, with a culture of high performance characterised by good internal communication, interpersonal relations, teamwork, openness and knowledge sharing.o To exhibit good corporate governance, characterised by developed and implemented policies, processes and systems, including per-formance management, project management and risk management systems.o To have supporting physical infrastructure, including offices, national ICT infrastructure, spatial data, a website, a one-shop stop, a help desk, a data processing centre and a fleet management system.o To have a coordinated NSS with harmonized standards and processes.o To improve the NSS human resources capacity.o To ensure a high degree of public awareness of the NSA’s role in the value of statistics.

o To enable statistics to be marketed and disseminated to all users.o To have more frequent and better use of statistics through improved user-friendly access to statistics and user training.o To add value to statistics through analysis, research and development.o To enable evidence-based decision making in the public and private sectors for improved planning, monitoring and evaluation.

To drive attainment of these strategic priorities and objectives the NSA identified a number of initiatives and actions that must be carried out at agreed intervals. The next section review actions according to strategic priorities that were carried out during the third quarter of 2012/13 financial year. It is followed risks factors and concluding remarks.

Introduction

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVES


PROGRESS VERSUS STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVESSUSTAINABLE CAPCITY BUILDING

Consultancies

During the quarter under review the Agency benefited immensely from the assistance of the two data processing experts sponsored by the UNFPA. One expert was contracted to review the edit specifications for secondary validation, while the other expert assisted with the structure edit of the population and housing census. Staff members got opportunities to learn new aspects of CSPro such as programming of tables.

Training

The NSA continues to directly and indirectly support training initiatives of its staff. In this regard, the following are worth noting during the third quarter of 2012/13:

• Three staff members were enrolled for Masters in Statistics and Demography at the University of Namibia.• One staff member was pursuing a Bachelor Degree in Geographic Information Systems.• One staff member was pursuing a BTech in economics at the Polytechnic of Namibia.• One staff member attended a course on project management.• Two staff members attended training workshops on ICP-Africa and HCPI, as well as on NCPI Workshops and meetings

During the reporting period staff members of the NSA attended the following workshops and meetings.

• One staff member attended the 8th Africa Symposium on Statistical Development with a Theme “Standardization of Causes of death and Statistical Classifications in Africa” and the specific topic of ‘improving death registration and certification of causes of death in Africa’.• One staff member attended the 9th ICC International Seminar on Carto-Technology “Operational Airborne Remote Sensing: from Data to Products” November, 12th – 21st 2012 in Barcelona, Spain.• One staff member attended a technical working group meeting on SADC employment and Labour draft policy instruments in Pretoria, South Africa.• One staff member attended the 2012 SADC year book validation workshop in Pretoria, South Africa.• One staff member attended a labour harmonization workshop in Maputo, Mozambique.• Two staff members attended a SACU task team workshop on trade data reconciliation.• One staff member attended the 18th SADC Trade Negotiating Forum (TNF) Services meeting.• One staff member attended the terminal review on programs supported by UNFPA in Katima Mulilo.

Travelling

During the reporting period staff members of the NSA undertook the following external and internal work related travel.

• The Statistician-General paid a one week official visit to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), where he was exposed to all operations of the KNBS.• The Statistician-General accompanied by the Chairperson of the Board and two senior staff members went on a four day study tour to Germany.• One staff member travelled to regional offices to configure regional IT infrastructure.

RELEVANT, QUALITY AND TIMELY STATISTICS

The population and housing census

The 2011 population and housing census continued to be one of the major undertakings of the NSA during the 3rd quarter of the cur-rent business year. It is important to note that the census activities are currently in the post enumeration phase in which data cleaning and data validation receive the greatest attention. In this regard, the main goal for the third quarter was to finalize the primary valida-tion and cleaning of data to enable secondary validation, tabulation, analysis and ultimately production and dissemination of the basic report to take place in the final quarter of the current business year.

In order to achieve the target the following critical activities were undertaken during the quarter under review:

• Ensure completeness of the scanned data• Correction of forms B11, B12 and B14• Correction of forms E2 and E3• Correction of ID section• Removing of duplicates


As a result of the above interventions the following outcomes were achieved:

• All forms are accounted for• There is a complete and useful census database• All records have an identification section• Secondary validation editing specifications have been finalized• Documentation of editing programs have been completed

The 2012 labour force survey

Taken into consideration the flaws and criticisms of the 2008 Namibia Labour Force Survey, the overall goal of the 2012 survey, is to pro-duce a sound labour force survey of internationally accepted standards using the best practice methodologies. The specific quarterly goal was to complete all aspects of phase 1 of the survey which included: training of trainers for the fieldwork; training of enumerators, listing of households to be included in the survey; conducting interviews with sampled households; and capturing the information into a structured and computerized database using Structure Query Language software for further analysis.

To achieve the set goal, the following critical activities were successfully carried out during the quarter under review.1. Receipt of questionnaires2. Content verification3. Primary validation4. Guillotining of questionnaires5. Secondary preparation6. Scanning of questionnaires7. Manual capture of questionnaires8. Verification of questionnaires9. Loading of data into database and10. Checking for the completeness of data

Surveys, cartography and geographical information systemsThe main goals for the survey, cartographic and geographic information function during the quarter under review included: documenta-tion of the sampling frame methodology; provision of technical assistance to the labour force survey, demographic health survey and the agricultural census; review of the national spatial data infrastructure policy; training of office staff and preparation for spatial data analysis of the 2011 census data.

The main activities and associated outcomes of each of these goals are stated below.

Documentation of the sampling frame methodology

• The updating of the national sample frame was finalised early October and was subsequently used for the Labour Force Survey. Going forward it will be used for all upcoming national and other surveys in the country.• The documentation of the methodology used to develop and update the sampling frame is being finalised and will be circulated in due course.

Technical assistance and training to various surveys

• PSU Maps and training manuals were produced on time for the labour force survey.• Captured dwelling unit points of listed households were collected from the regions and are currently being validated for the purpose of linking survey results to geography.• Capturing of listed households from listing forms was done and first stage weight calculation was also done for the labour force survey.• The Agency has been participating in the preparations of the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) and two staff are members of DHS technical working group. The sample for the actual survey has been designed and selected with the assistance ICF International (former Macro International).

Data requests

• During the quarter under review the Agency received high volume of data, including spatial data requests; these requests were handled on time and were filled.• The sample selection and calculation of weights for the barometer survey by Survey Warehouse was done.• PSU maps (-+200) for the afro barometer survey were printed.NDSI policy Review• The current NSDI policy was reviewed with the assistance of an NSDI specialist from the World Bank.• Several consultation meetings were held with key stakeholders.• Suggested priority actions for the NSDI policy implementation were made.Spatial Analysis on 2011 census data preparations• The 2011 census data processing is nearing its end and it is envisaged that once data is processed spatial data analysis is expected to be carried out in line with the basic report.• The Agency started identifying the type of maps to be produced in line with the proposed tabulation plan including maps for the Population Atlas.


Other social and vital statistics

The key goals under social and vital statistics were to finalise and launch the child poverty and poverty dynamics in Namibia reports. Both reports were successfully launched on the occasion of African statistics day. The Agency also produced two videos based on the results of the income expenditure survey.

Economic statistics

The objective of the Economics Department is to collect, compile, and process and disseminate economic statistics. The specific goals of the third quarter of 2012/13 were to:

• Release monthly consumer price indices• Release the third quarter GDP• Release the third quarter trade statistics• Prepare agriculture census planning documents

The specific outcomes on each of the above goals are as follows:Regarding the Agriculture Census, the following milestone were achieved

• An Agriculture Census Planning Team was established comprising of staff members of the NSA and the Ministry of Agriculture Water and Forestry (MAWF).• A number of documents were developed to form the basis for planning of the Agriculture Census operations, includingo the census organisational structure/organogram;o work plan for the pilot and the census; ando the Logical Framework for the census.• A one day focus group discussion forum was conducted with NSA, MAWF, as well as the Ministry of Local Government that worked on some relevant thematic topics for the initiation/planning phases for both the pilot and the main census.• About five Thematic Working Groups with Chairpersons were established, and terms of references for these were drafted.• The pilot census instruments were developed, equipment and material needed for the pilot was also prepared.• A draft questionnaire based on the core-modules was completed.• A MOU between NSA & MAWF that will improve the collaboration between the two Institutions was prepared.

Regarding the goal on consumer price indices the following activities were carried out:

• Data was collected for the production and compilation of both Namibia CPI and Harmonised CPI.• The September and October 2012 NCPI was released to the users while the HCPI was forwarded to SADC.• The weights for the Namibia CPI based on the 2009/10 NHIES were derived with the assistance of a IMF consultant.• The collection of the new identified items during the derivation of weights process was undertaken in December 2012.

On trade statistics the progress was as follows:

• The importation of custom data into the NSA database for the months of September, October and November was successfully ex-ecuted and all data banks were updated.• During the period two Quarterly Bulletins i.e. Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 of the year 2012 were finalised and published.

Regarding quarterly GDP, data for the compilation of GDP was collected, compiled and processed which culminated in the publication and dissemination of the third quarter GDP 2012 on 13 December 2012.

EFFICIENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The Agency continues to develop its systems, procedures and process to ensure efficient management of all operations.Financial administrationWith respect to financial administration the Agency implemented the following activities:• Procurement of a fleet management system.• Establishment of a fixed asset register.• Adoption of a supply chain management/procurement policy.• Installation of Pastel software on the server of the Agency, to enable capture of all transactions on the system.• Appointment of external auditors.

Human resource management

Another important aspect of efficient resource management is human resource management. In this connection, the following activi-ties were carried out:

• Provisional adoption of recruitment, remuneration, leave and performance management policies.• Appointment of the executive team comprising the Director of IT and Data Processing, Director of Operations, Director of Economic Statistics and Director of Demographic and Social Statistics.• Identification of a medical aid scheme for the Agency.• Identification of a pension fund scheme for the Agency.


Information technology and data processing

Another important aspect of efficient resource management entails acquiring the necessary IT infrastructure to ensure that statistics get produced in the most efficient manner. In this regard, a key objective of the Agency has been the establishment of a modern data processing centre with the assistance of the German Government. Some of the activities carried out in the third quarter with respect to the establishment of the data processing centre included: installation of internet/telephone lines at the data processing centre; instal-lation of network points to all network devices; and installation of security cameras. By the end of the third quarter the data processing centre was 90 percent completed and on track for inauguration in the new year.

RISKS AND CHALLENGES

Notwithstanding good progress made during the third quarter of 2012/13, the Agency continues to face a number of risk and chal-lenges. These risks which are being addressed proactively include:

• Skills shortage in particular for critical technical positions, such as accounting, finance, human resource consultants, and data process-ing continues to hamper the efficient operations of the Agency.• Funding continues to be a risk high on the radar of the Agency. If the Agency does not get sufficient funding the business plan will have to be scaled down.• Lack of critical policies, such as transport policy, payroll policy, financial policies and HR related policies, such as compliance to health and safety also present a risk to the operations of the Agency.• Inadequate data security related to the protection of data warehouses and databases, as well as transmission mechanism presents a risk to the operations of the Agency.• The need for an organisational culture change continues to be a priority area for the Agency.

CONCLUSIONS

During the third quarter of the current business year the Statistics Agency made good progress towards the objective of becoming fully operational by March 2013, in the context of continued data production.

With respect to data production the Agency managed to deliver on all its quarterly targets. In this connection, the Agency is now up to date with the release of quarterly GDP and quarterly trade statistics. Good progress was also made with regard to the planning of the Agriculture Census. On the social demographic side progress has also been satisfactory, the census projects as well as the labour force is on track to be finalised and released before the end of the current business year.

Progress with respect toward operationalizing the Agency has also been satisfactory. Four critical HR policies have been provision-ally approved to kick start recruitment and appointment of seconded staff. By the end of the 3rd quarter the top management of the Agency has been put in place with the rest of appointments to be prioritized in the final quarter. The Agency also adopted a supply chain/procurement policy in its quest to promote good governance.

Despite good progress made, the Agency is still in the infancy stage of development and faces a number of challenges. These include lack of adequate policies and regulations and the lack of sufficient competent and experienced staff.


NOTES

P.O.Box 2133FGI House, Post Street MallWindhoek, NamibiaTel: +264 61 431 3200Fax: +264 61 431 3253 | +264 61 431 3240Website: www.nsa.org.na

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