| OPINION/ ANALYSIS
|
The trials of the past and the challenges for the future
December 9, 2004
By Pali Lehohla
Four years ago I was appointed South Africa's first statistician-general. Last week, when cabinet extended this appointment for another three years, I began pondering the successes and failures of the past four years, and the challenges for the next three.
The past four years have been tumultuous. Statistics SA has reconfigured the way in which the economy is measured. This has involved the introduction of new surveys and the revision of key series, including manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade.
We delivered a population census, in which data were captured and processed through state-of-the-art technology. We continue to capture data on causes of death to elicit changing patterns of mortality in the era of HIV/Aids.
We conducted a census of agriculture, a sector of the economy that had been inadequately measured for over 10 years.
We began publishing the results of an economy-wide survey that provides key ratios of economic development.
We have created an infrastructure and architecture for the collation, management and dissemination of statistics; set up an institutional framework within which the collection and production of data takes place; and promoted the use of official data in decision making.
We have introduced statistical collections that cover economic and functional classification of national and provincial state expenditure for national departments, provincial governments, extra-budgetary accounts and funds, universities and technikons, and local government institutions.
We have re-engineered our business-based survey of employment and earnings, which has become comparable with the household-based labour force survey, thereby presenting a coherent picture of labour market trends.
Stats SA has developed Web-based technologies for sophisticated online data access and mapping functionality; released digital and interactive products that measure favourably to those produced by the world's best statistical agencies; and initiated a project to build a warehouse for storage and retrieval of statistical data.
We have started on the long road of addressing capacity constraints in mathematics and statistics. Our first group of students sent to the Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics at Makerere University and the East Africa Statistics Centre have rejoined the department.
In the next 18 months, Stats SA will conclude the switchover from postal to direct collection of prices. Apart from administered prices, the consumer price index (CPI) will then be compiled exclusively from price quotations collected directly at retail outlets.
Stats SA is in talks with the Statistics Council over a large sample survey to build on the population censuses of 1996 and 2001. The extension of our business register to businesses registered for income tax but that fall below the VAT threshold of R300 000 per annum, will further enhance coverage and measurement of the economy.
We will benefit from a strengthening of the three main administrative sources of statistical information: the business register, the address register and the population register.
None of this will be achieved easily or smoothly. Mistakes in calculating the CPI remind us of the difficulties and challenges, and the CPI error associated with 2003 reminds us of the dangers in data collection.
A major challenge for the country is the creation of a national statistics system. The success of the system depends on advocacy and transparency, but more importantly in the substantial improvement of quality and public confidence in the products.
Stats SA has demonstrated weaknesses in its governance. Continued improvements in establishing this balance between flexibility and rapid delivery, and compliance with government's regulatory environment, should not mask the challenges ahead.
On the international front, Stats SA has made tremendous strides. South Africa is one of the five African countries that are members of the UN Statistics Commission and has acted as rapporteur in the commission. As statistician-general, I co-chair Partners for the
Development of Statistics in the 21st Century, a consortium hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as part of the UN system of statistics.
Edward Wilson, one of the world's finest living scientists, has said that "the greatest enterprise of the mind has always been, and always will be, the attempted linkage of the sciences and humanities". The application of this linkage to public policy is at the core of official statistics.
Pali Lehohla is South Africa's statistician-general and head of Statistics SA. His weekly column will resume next year
|
|
|
Social bookmarking allows users to save and categorise a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. This is different to using your own browser bookmarks which are available using the menus within your web browser.
Use the links below to share this article on the social bookmarking site of your choice.
Read more about social bookmarking at Wikipedia - Social Bookmarking
|
|
|
News
Markets
Technology News
Company News
International
|
