QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT - Mycms.my.na/assets/documents/p194tvudpp19jg6l513u714r7ktb1.pdf · National Accounts: During this period NSA produced and disseminated the fourth quarter

FOURTH QUARTER PROGRESS REPORT - 1 JANUARY 2013 TO 31 MAR 2013 1

QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORTFOURTH QUARTER (2012/13)

FOURTH QUARTER PROGRESS REPORT - 1 JANUARY 2013 TO 31 MAR 20132

MISSION STATEMENT

“In a coordinated manner, we 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


1 INTRODUCTION 5

2 THE STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVES 5

3 PROGRESS VERSUS STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVES 6

3.1 SUSTAINABLE CAPACITY BUILDING 6

3.1.1 Recruitment 6

3.1.2 Workshops and Training attended 6

3.2 PRODUCING RELEVANT, QUALITY AND TIMELY STATISTICS

NEEDED FOR EVIDENCE BASED POLICY MAKING 6

3.3 EFFICIENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 7

3.4 USE OF STATISTICS AND VALUE CREATION TO ENSURE

MAXIMUM IMPACT OF STATISTICAL DELIVERY 7

4 THE NSA RISKS AND CONSTRAINTS 8

5 CONCLUSION 9

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 NSA 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 con-nection, one important activity is to present quarterly internal and external progress reports. This is the fourth quar-terly progress report of the NSA and covers the period 31 December 2012 to 31 March 2013. It is the intention of the NSA 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.

2 TheStrategicPrioritiesAndObjectivesThe NSA has adopted four strategic priorities and 15 accompanying objectives in its business plan covering the period 2012/13 to 2016/17. These are outlined below:

•BuildingsustainableinstitutionalcapacityintheNSAandtheNationalStatisticsSystem(NSS)

• To have sufficient, competent and motivated staff within a supporting structure, with a culture of high perfor-mance characterised by good internal communication, interpersonal relations, teamwork, openness and knowl-edge sharing;

• To exhibit good corporate governance, characterised by developed and implemented policies, processes and sys-tems, including performance management, project management and risk management systems;

• 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;

• To have a coordinated NSS with harmonized standards and processes;• To improve the NSS human resources capacity; and• To ensure a high degree of public awareness of the NSA’s role in the value of statistics.

• Producingrelevant,qualityandtimelystatisticsneededforevidencebasedpolicymaking

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

• Efficientresourcemanagement

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

• Useofstatisticsandvaluecreationtoensuremaximumimpactofstatisticaldelivery

• To enable statistics to be marketed and disseminated to all users;• To have more frequent and better use of statistics through improved user-friendly access to statistics and user

training;• To add value to statistics through analysis, research and development; and• 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 ac-

tions that must be carried out at agreed intervals. The next section outlines progress towards attainment of these objectives made by departments for the period under review.

Introduction


3ProgressversusStrategicPrioritiesandObjectivesOverall, the Business Plan was cascaded from departmental to divisional levels. Departmental targets were set and also cascaded to divisional levels. These will form part of the performance agreements to be developed and signed for each staff in the department.

3.1 SUSTAINABLECAPACITYBUILDING

3.1.1 RecruitmentDuring the period under review, the NSA successfully concluded the internal recruitment process. In addition, the fol-lowing external appointments were finalised and successful candidates assumed duty:

• Deputy-Director: Finance & Administration;• Deputy Director: Human Resources; and• Company Secretary/Legal Advisor

Interviews for the Deputy Director: Strategic Communications and Deputy Director: Internal Audit will be done in the first quarter of 2013/2014 financial year after these were identified as critical positions.The Agency had to scale down from the initial provision of 102 to 90 positions, of which 85 were filled. The filling of the remaining five positions is prioritised for the 1st Quarter of the next financial year. The rest will remain frozen subject to availability of the budget.

3.1.2 WorkshopsandTrainingattended

A number of NSA staff members travelled during this quarter to attend workshops.

Ms Hilda Ampweya; Trade Statistician participated in a SACU Workshop on Trade in Services Data from 29 January to 01 February 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa.

Mr. Henok Immanuel attended a two day workshop on Data Collection in Ivory Coast from 4 – 5 March 2013. The trip was fully funded by the African Development Bank and was aimed at enhancing and sharing knowledge regarding data collection methods.

Mr. Joseph Sagarias travelled to Swakopmund on a three-day Mid-Term Review Workshop on Regional Capacity Build-ing Project for Sustainable National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Management Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa from 13 – 15 March 2013. The former Central Bureau of Statistics and more recently NSA’s GIS department have con-tributed a lot of data towards this project and the UN through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change funded the workshop.

Mr Erich Khunuchab; Price Statistician participated in the CPI validation workshop which took place in Ivory Coast dur-ing March 2013.

Mr Ngaingonekue Uamburu, Deputy Director: Economic Statistics participated in the AfDB workshop on National Ac-counts which took place in Lusaka in March 2013.

3.2 Producingrelevant,qualityandtimelystatisticsneededforevidencebasedpolicymaking

Census 2011 Report: The main report for the 2011 Population and Housing Census was completed on time and launched by His Excellency, the President on 27 March 2013. About two hundred people including cabinet ministers, members of parliament, regional governors, heads of State-owned- Enterprises (SoE) and other government agencies, international organizations, research/academic institutions and ambassadors attended the launch.

Labour Force Survey 2012: The data processing and cleaning for the 2012 Labour Force Survey was completed in March 2013 and a first draft report of the analysis was prepared. The launch of the report is scheduled for the middle of April 2013. Demographic and Health Survey 2013: The NSA provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Social Service in the areas of sample design, training and implementation of a pilot survey and the listings of households for the Health and Demographic Survey. The main fieldwork will commence during the first quarter of the next financial year.


Agricultural Census: The NSA plans to undertake the census of agriculture 2013/14 and has established an activity plan towards executing the census. The steering committee and methodological group has been established. The draft questionnaire has been completed and is waiting for inputs of wider stakeholders. Stakeholders are expected to give inputs by June 2013. A pilot survey was conducted in five regions (Caprivi, Kavango, Omaheke, Omusati and Oshana) in order to test the census instruments. The pilot survey found that the use of GPS and CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) is much faster and more efficient as the traditional paper based method. The use of CAPI and GPS will therefore be adopted for the census. Information meetings with main Stakeholders in the Sector, e.g. Namibia Agri-cultural Union (NAU) were held. The NAU management has offered their full support to the process of conducting the Agricultural Census as the exercise is long overdue.

National Accounts: During this period NSA produced and disseminated the fourth quarter GDP 2012 (13 March 2013) and the Preliminary National Accounts 2012 (20 March 2013). These reports were published on time as per General Data Dissemination Standards (GDDS) requirement to which Namibia prescribes i.e. for quarterly GDP, 90 days after the reference period and annual within one year. Price Statistics: During the reporting period the NCPI rebasing exercise commenced. Three CPI Bulletins for the months of December 2012, January 2013 and February 2013 were released and disseminated to the users. The HCPIs for the corresponding months were also produced and forwarded to SADC for publication. The revalidation of CPI data for 2011 and first four months of 2012 was successfully completed and forwarded to AfDB. The quarterly verification and cross checking of the NCPI data in the regions were carried out.

Trade Statistics: The reporting period witnessed the production of the 2012 fourth quarter trade bulletin in March 2013. Moreover, the 2012 Annual Trade Statistics Bulletin was produced and disseminated to the users on 13 March 2013. The data base upgrade was successfully carried out to ensure that all codes in the system are correct. The month-ly flow of trade data from Customs and Exercise to NSA continues to be smooth. National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI): A Draft policy for National Spatial Data Infrastructure that will set standards and guidelines for collection, man-agement, sharing and management of spatial data was developed with technical assistance from the World Bank. The policy will be cleared by the NSDI Committee and then be approved by the Director-General and the Minister of Lands and Resettlement during the next financial year.

Statistics Policy: The drafting of the Statistics Policy was completed in February. The Policy applies to and addresses the main concerns of all the components of the NSS specified in the Statistics Act (Section 3); they are statistics pro-ducers, respondents, users of statistics, research institutions, and training institutions. Important roles are also played by private survey institutes, international organizations as providers of funds and technical support for statistics, and statistical offices of other countries; hence their reflection in the Policy. The Policy relates to demographic, economic, financial, environment, social and similar statistics at national, regional and local levels. The Policy aims at ensuring that statistics are representative of the country at large, mirroring concerns and conditions of all regions, sectors and population groups.

3.3 EfficientResourceManagement

With regard to efficient resource management the following highlights were achieved during the quarter under review.For effective and efficient use of available resources, the NSA implemented a Fleet Management System procured from Omalaeti Technologies and subsequently registered all NSA vehicles on the system. Tracking devices were installed on 50 vehicles during the fourth quarter.

The NSA successfully completed its asset register whereby all its assets are now fully labelled and recorded on the Pastel Fixed Assets Module to automate the management of fixed assets. The NSA embarked on and completed the installations of a Surveillance System for its Head Office and Data Processing Centre.

The following financial policies were approved by NSA’s Board of Directors:• General Ledger and Journal Policy;• Fixed Assets Policy & Procedures; and• Management Information Policy

3.4 Useofstatisticsandvaluecreationtoensuremaximumimpactofstatisticaldelivery

The statistics are extensively used and valued by the users. This is evident from the attendance of stakeholders in Press Conferences and by the number of visits to the NSA web site as well as the number of downloads.


4 TheNSARisksandConstraintsThe top areas of risks and constraints the NSA faces are summarized below with indication on their severity and the constraints they pose to proper functioning of the NSA.

Scarcity of skills & staff retention: The Agency experiences a lack of adequately skilled manpower to carry out special-ized assignments.

A Staff Development Plan is one of the main targets for the 2013/14 financial year as part of the revised Business Plan. This plan involves a concerted effort by the Agency to attract, train and retain skilled staff.

Lack of technical skills: There are lack of skills in areas data processing, analysis, and sampling were experienced where-by the agency had to source on external technical experts to assist with processing of data of the 2011 census and the 2012 labour force survey. Similarly, external experts were sourced to assist in designing the sample for the Demo-graphic Health Survey of 2013 and the analysis of the 2013 labour force survey.

Limited capacity in project management: There is lack of capacity in the management, planning and implementation of survey and census.

Legislative risk: There is a risk of failing to fully implement the Statistics Act in relation to leading and coordinating the National Statistics System.

The Agency has appointed the Company Secretary to oversee the compliance function. The function will carry out regular compliance reviews and recommend/implement corrective action. The Agency will continue to reach out to the SOEGC for guidance and partnership to remain compliant.

Reputational risk: As a new agency, the NSA has to build trust and credibility through its delivery of relevant, quality and timely statistics.

The NSA has published a variety of reports during the quarter under review in line with the events calendar. Sticking to the release calendar has increased the trust of the media and the NSA’s ability to deliver promised outputs. Further-more, the quality of reports has improved in part due to external assistance. However, the credibility risk will always remain and requires constant attention through openness, transparency and a good relationship with policy makers, the media and the public at large.

Shortage of funding: The Namibian Government, the sole shareholder in the Agency, may not have sufficient funds to support the NSA.

This remains a serious risk in particular since the Government has allocated substantially lower funds for the new fi-nancial year, starting 1 April 2013, than applied for. This puts some of the planned activities for the next financial year at risk.

Lack of IT Policies & IT Security: This risk is due to the absence of a number of policies e.g. IT Policy, IT Disaster Recovery Policy & Plan, IT Acceptable Usage Policy and IT Security Management Policy.

The crafting of IT policies has commenced and a draft IT Policy is ready for submission to Management for inputs. The others will follow shortly.


5 ConclusionDuring the final quarter of the 2012/13 business year the NSA made good progress towards the objective of becoming fully operational by March 2013 in the context of continued data production.

With respect to the delivery of relevant, quality and timely statistics, the NSA successfully delivered on all its quarterly targets. In this connection, the NSA is now up-to-date with the release of quarterly GDP and Trade statistics. The NSA also released the 2012 Preliminary Annual National Accounts and Annual Trade statistics. Concerning social and de-mographic statistics a major achievement has been the release of the 2011 Population and Housing Census, and the finalization of data processing activities of the 2012 Labour Force Survey.

Progress with respect towards operationalising the NSA has also been satisfactory. The internal recruitment process was finalised and a number of critical financial policies such as asset management policy and accounting policies to further promote good governance have been drafted.

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


NOTES


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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

Documents

QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT - Mycms.my.na/assets/documents/p194tvudpp19jg6l513u714r7ktb1.pdf · National Accounts: During this period NSA produced and disseminated the fourth quarter