DESCRIPTION

X. Program Description

10.1 Program Strategy and Design

10.1.1 The strategic thrust of the proposed Program is anchored on the Bank's Strategic Orientation for the 2018-2020 Work Program for Scaling up the High 5s Implementation through Greater Focus on Results, and the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. The program responds to meeting their data needs for measuring development results.

10.1.2 By engaging academic and research institutions in RMCs and elsewhere, additional statistical knowledge would be generated including development of new, innovative and improved methods for measurement and new indicators. The International Comparison Program, the Africa Infrastructure Knowledge Program, Regional Integration Index, Gender Equality Index, African Infrastructure Index and Civil Registration and Vital Statistics are prime areas that would significantly benefit from increased engagement with research and academic institutions.

10.1.3 Through increasing engagement and co-financing of country statistical projects with other development partners, additional financing can be mobilized for RMCs. This would also require that SCB V is strategic in its engagement with RMCs, in that it will consolidate resources each year in 7-10 countries for clearly defined data generation objectives while ensuring all ADF countries are covered with sustained statistical capacity at the conclusion of the 3 years (2018-2020).

10.1.4 By engaging Bank country and sector operations on M E, additional resources can also be mobilized for micro-level data generation through surveys at national or sub-national levels to support sector specific needs. The program will therefore fundamentally focus on data generation including support to countries to undertake harmonized household and population based surveys using identical methodologies; increased analytical work to generate new and robust indicators for current and emerging data needs; and improving overall knowledge management and sharing of methodological issues on economic and social statistics produced in RMCs and within ECST with the rest of the Bank.

OBJECTIVES

IX Development Objectives of Proposed Program

9.1 SCB V will aim to respond directly to the Bank High 5 operational data needs and those of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 as enshrined in SHaSA2. This will involve deeper engagement with the High 5s sector expertise, researchers and country economists on a regular basis to understand their data needs and reinforce use of already available data. Under SCB V, ECST will set up expert teams comprising Bank High 5 sectors, other key data users, researchers and country economists within the Bank, academic and research groups, and other natural partners such as UNIDO, ILO, UNSD, UN Women, and UNECA with the primary objective of developing innovative methods for data generation on critical development indicators, new innovative methods for measurement, and new knowledge in various statistical domains.

9.2 The impact of the program outcomes will be measured by the level of engagement with the respective High 5 sectors and other data users in the Bank by the extent of availability of relevant, reliable, timely and disaggregated statistical information for the implementation and monitoring of the High 5s and SDGs respectively; and by the availability and accessibility to micro data for deeper analysis at High 5 project level. ECST will periodically conduct user satisfaction surveys as part of understanding its clients within the Bank and vice- versa.

9.3 The broader and long term objective of the proposed program is to improve availability, coverage and quality of statistics on economic, social and environmental situation of people and societies in Africa in line with international and regional standards, supporting their use to promote development and poverty reduction.

RATIONALE

VIII. Program Rationale and Context (SCB V)

8.1 The SCB V Program is fundamentally aimed at improving results measurement and responding to data needs in alignment with the Bank's 2018- 2020 work program for scaling up the High 5s implementation. Under the program, ECST sets out to engage more deeply with the High 5 sectors and draw on sector expertise, academic institutions, research think tanks and others for development of innovative methods for measurement and for knowledge generation.

8.2 SCB V is aligned to global commitments first and foremost, to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 (SDGs) through helping countries to generate and report timely and reliable Tiers 1 2 indicators.

8.3 The SCB V program will also be guided by the need to support RMCs to design effective National Strategies for Development of Statistics (NSDS) that encompass national, regional and international statistical agenda. In this regard, the Bank will scale up its statistical capacity building activities in RMCs in clearly defined and targeted areas that would be used to generate data for meeting Bank's priorities on one hand, but also RMCs' obligations.

8.4 The Bank's intervention is imperative through this project to enhance the capacity gains made so far and help to address the challenges of generation of reliable and timely statistical information being experienced in RMCs and for Bank operations. Through the project, the SCB V grant will contribute to the promotion and collaboration with other development partners. This will increase available resources to support data capacity development. This collaboration should significantly contribute to increasing the efficiency of all public and private investments in RMCs, by reducing the cost of generating information. The value addition from the grant will enable strategic orientation of the program's scope in RMCs and sub-regional organizations.

BENEFITS

Project Benefits:

Through this program, engagement with High 5 sectors and other data users within the Bank will be strengthened to ensure their statistical needs are being met. ECST will set up High 5s sector expert and focused teams, together with Bank researchers, country economists, external research and academic institutions in Africa and elsewhere, and key Development Partners to develop robust statistical methodologies for data collection and generation, and for development of new indicators. At the country level, RMCs will continue to be engaged through technical assistance in various statistical domains and on development of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDSs) to guide statistical development using best practices.

LAWSON Fessou Emessan - ECST2

*Further contact details not provided at the time of disclosure*

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/.