Abstract

In the aftermath of independence in Africa, statistical systems were still embryonic in many African states. They faced many challenges, including quality national human resources, insufficient funding for minimal statistical production, low political interest in statistics, and low statistical literacy. The first conference of African statisticians in 1959 looked at these challenges and proposed avenues for reflection and action to face these challenges. Over the years, actors in African statistical systems and their partners have developed many frameworks and strategies to develop African statistical systems. This includes the Joint Conference of Planners, Statisticians, and Demographers at the institutional level, which succeeded the Conference of Statisticians in 1980 and became the Joint Conference of Planners, Statisticians, Population and Information Specialists in 1994. This Joint Conference became the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa) in 2005. Besides, in 2006, the African Union (AU) Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance (CAMEF) established the Committee of Directors-General of African National Statistical Offices (CoDG) with the mandate to discuss statistical development issues in Africa.
At the operational level, the Addis Ababa Plan of Action for Statistical Development in Africa was initiated in the 1990s to drive statistical development in the continent. The strategy for its implementation was elaborated in 1993. In 2006, the Reference Regional Strategic Framework for Statistical Capacity Building in Africa (RRSF) was designed to improve development outcomes and governance by strengthening national statistical systems in Africa. The framework's goal was to raise societal awareness of the role of statistical information, increase user satisfaction by enhancing the quality and usability of statistical information, promote greater use of statistical information and achieve synergy, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability in statistical information systems. The African Charter on Statistics was adopted in 2009 as a code of conduct and practice for African statisticians and the policy framework for African statistics development. The first and second strategy for the harmonization of statistics in Africa were adopted, respectively, in 2010 and 2018.
All these operational frameworks and the discussions during the meetings at the institutional level show that the African statistical system still faces several challenges already identified since the aftermath of independence. One can question the effectiveness of the institutional and operational frameworks implemented since the 1960s. Were they adapted to African realities? Have they been implemented correctly? Were the proposed solutions realistic? What didn't work?...
The objective of this paper is to analyze and criticize the options for the development of statistical systems in Africa since independence to propose prospects for modernizing them and sustainably rebuilding them so that they can be agile and resilient to meet the needs of the moment and adapt to future changes.