28 Oct 2023

The provision of timely, accurate and disaggregated agricultural, environmental and climate change data and statistics is crucial for effective policy and decision making at all levels, says Statistician General Dr Burton Mguni.

Addressing participants at a workshop organised by Statistics Botswana recently to enhance the natural capacity for environmental, climate change and agricultural data and statistics development, Dr Mguni said the ultimate goal was to improve the country's data ecosystem.

Dr Mguni said Statistics Botswana brought together members of the national statistical system from agriculture and environment sectors to ensure the provision of timely and accurate climate change data and statistics. He noted that they were crucial for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) reporting and effective policy and decision-making at all levels.

He commended the senior Africa regional manager at the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data for co-facilitating the convening of the multi-stakeholder national group on agriculture, environment and climate change data and statistics.

He highlighted the significance of a data system for the agricultural sector, noting its vital role in supporting livelihoods and food security in the country. He added that it was also important for the diversification of the economy and the creation of employment.

Emphasising the significance of environment and climate change data, Dr Mguni said they were important and must be availed and accessible to support their work in Botswana and across the globe to protect the environment and save the planet.

He said the demand for technical capacity on the use of non-traditional data sources to fill existing data gaps and facilitate data access within the agriculture, environment and climate change area had also grown.

He said data development initiatives put in place to address limitations across the national statistical system included the development of the Botswana strategy for the development of statistics and sector statistics plans and strategies.

Dr Mguni said the agricultural and environmental sectors had developed their statistics plans and memoranda of understanding, which they were eager to finalise and sign.

Deputy statistics general of economics and social statistics, Dr Lucky Mokgatlhe said some of the key issues that came out of the workshop included technical and infrastructural capacity, poor prioritising of data and poor financing for data as well as low digitisation across most institutions.

He also said collaboration with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data would contribute to the country’s data agenda. “They will also assist us in strengthening systems to accelerate closing of data gaps, access and the sharing of data with the national statistical system while ensuring that we take ownership and lead the process as part of assuring sustainability,” he said.

He added that they would hold a series of outcome-focused engagements with management, technical managers and policy makers across the national statistical system to fine-tune priorities identified and to concretise actions required to strengthen participation and coordination of the multi-stakeholders’ group as part of their efforts in strengthening the statistical system. ENDS