04 Jul 2023

Data is an essential component of national development planning system and is critical for performance monitoring and evaluation.

Deputy Commissioner General of National Planning Commission Ms Keganele Malikongwa said this during a data value workshop organised by Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and Statistics Botswana in Gaborone recently.

Ms Malikongwa said the use of data was universal and Statistics Botswana, as the country’s trusted data steward for coordination of national data agenda, was working closely with National Planning Commission to build an effective national monitoring and evaluation system.

“This is an exercise which covers data collection, analysis and dissemination across all sectors of the economy,” noted Ms Malikongwa further adding that the data value workshop would enhance their work in the area of data management.

She said Botswana faced challenges of unavailability of quality data including its integrity and timeliness. Ms Malikongwa therefore said the data value workshop resonated well with government’s priorities as it advocated for various stakeholders to consider the data ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Statistics General Dr Burton Mguni said timely, accurate, relevant and disaggregated data were key to effective policy formulation and decision-making.

He said data was key to reporting on national and international frameworks such as Botswana’s high income economy transformation now, prosperity tomorrow, vision 2036 and international frameworks. Botswana uses data for monitoring these development agendas from different sources, varying from census, surveys and administrative records, he said.

Dr Mguni also pointed out that Statistics Botswana produced data from the population and housing and agriculture censuses, further noting that extensive data was also produced and collected by other players such as the academia, civil society organisations and private sector.

“All this data must be harnessed in as many ways as possible to support a continual growth of a robust evidence based decision,” Dr Mguni said. Ends