14 Jun 2016

SADC member states have been urged to implement the revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP). 

Officiating at the SADC satistics committee meeting in Gaborone on Monday, chairperson of Statistics Botswana board of directors, Mr Letsema Motsemme said they faced an onerous task of translating the strategy into organisational action so as to achieve results.

Mr Motsemme noted that a meaningful contribution of realistic statistical interventions was necessary to accomplish objectives. 

Such interventions, he said, included reliable and up-to-date data for purposes of monitoring and evaluation of progress.

The purpose of the revised RISDP was prioritisation of strategic objectives to achieve the intended goals with the main focus area being industrial development and market integration, which should be at the centre of the development agenda for the SADC for the next five years.  

Further, Mr Motsemme said he was pleased that the SADC Council in 2013 in Maputo, Mozambique approved the Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS) and among targeted outputs for the RSDS were; harmonisation of regional statistics, development of integrated regional databases, statistical capacity development and harnessing of state of the art innovations in ICT for statistical development in the region.

He however noted that to achieve the goals of the RSDS it was essential that there was alignment of the national Statistical Systems of the Member States with the regional statistics priorities, as well as the national Strategies for Development of Statistics and strategic plans of national statistics organisations.

“In this contest, we must endeavour to foster a much closer collaboration and working relationship between the SADC Secretariat and national Statistics Systems of the respective Member States. We also have a responsibility to provide the necessary oversight and strategic policy guidance in the development of statistics in the region,” he said.

In addition, Mr Motsemme said they needed to keep abreast with the latest global developments and initiatives in statistics so that they remained relevant and embrace best practice in production and dissemination of quality official statistics.

The SADC Statistics Committee was established by the SADC Council of Ministers in 1995 in Windhoek, Namibia with the mandate to provide policy and strategic direction to the development of statistics in the SADC region. 

The Committee meets annually to continuously provide policy direction relating to development of statistics in the SADC region in line with international standards and practices.

It also provides strategic guidance towards the development of protocols or legal instruments providing for uniform approaches to the implementation of the SADC Statistics Systems. 

The Committee’s other roles include provision of relevant statistics for regional integration; statistical capacity development in SADC region; seeking to achieve comparability, standardisation and harmonisation of data processing, statistical systems and policies and consideration and recommendations to the Council on issues relating to statistics.  ENDS