Over and beyond census work
Lilian Mogami | Monday January 16, 2023 06:00
This is not surprising because the census is notably the organisation’s largest and most complex undertaking, which involves participation by the entire country. Through the authority vested on it by the Statistics Act of 2009, Statistics Botswana is responsible for collecting, processing, analysing, publishing, disseminating and archiving all official statistics in Botswana.
This statistical data comes from different sources such as individuals, companies, government departments, schools, other institutions and is collected through censuses, surveys and administrative records.
In addition to conducting the widely known Population and Housing Census decinally, Statistics Botswana implements an inter-censal survey programme, which consists of the agricultural census, the census of enterprises and establishments, business surveys that produce indicators like the Consumer Price Index, which is used to calculate monthly inflation and household surveys that produce indicators on poverty, unemployment, literacy, demography, ICT, HIV/AIDS and Informal Sector amongst others.
Government entities collect administrative data from administrative records from their day-to-day operations. They use administrative data to support planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of their programmes. Statistics Botswana works collaboratively with these entities to produce official statistics from the administrative data.
Key indicators produced in this manner include, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), international trade (imports and exports), tourism, environment, crime, vital statistics (births and deaths), health, education, agriculture, transport and infrastructure and mining production. Coordination of the National Statistical System (NSS) is central to Statistics Botswana’s mandate.
The NSS comprises data producers, suppliers and users of statistics in the country. In this regard, Statistics Botswana provides advisory to government and other agencies on policy, procedures and regulations relating to the development of official statistics.
To effectively coordinate the NSS, Statistics Botswana develops and promotes the use of statistical standards and methods in keeping with the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.
For statistics to be considered official statistics, they should be produced using the correct methodology, definitions, classifications and concepts. Statistics are qualified as official by the Statistician-General, and are thus under the authority of Statistics Botswana. Official statistics are essential for effective tracking of the country’s performance on national and international development plans such as the National Development Plans, Vision 2036, Africa’s Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Statistics Botswana, as the custodian of official statistics, is responsible for ensuring that quality statistics are produced within the NSS to enable the country to answer to the national and international development agendas as well as to facilitate evidence-based decision making. As part of its coordination, SB has developed the Botswana Strategy for the Development of Statistics, which identifies the data shortcomings across sectors and provides sector specific solutions while also addressing cross cutting data gaps identified within the NSS.
The Botswana Data Quality Assessment Framework (BQDAF), Compendium of Concepts and Definitions, Code of Practice for Official Statistics, Compliance Guidelines for Statistical Censuses and Surveys and Statistical Classification Schemes are some of the key frameworks which Statistics Botswana has developed and are being implemented within the NSS to ensure adherence to production standards. These frameworks are available on the Statistics Botswana website www.statsbots.org.bw. Statistics Botswana is currently assessing and reviewing data collection tools at line ministries/sectors for their ultimate digitisation.
This is to address data gaps that exist in the current National Development Plan (NDP) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Core Mandate Indicators (CMIs) as well as indicators for international development frameworks such as SDGs and Africa’s Agenda 2063 among others.
This work continues against the backdrop of production of monthly, quarterly and annual official statistics, conduct of the various routine and inter-censal business and household surveys and census data processing and preparations to disseminate the 2022 Population and Housing Census main report.