Pan African Statistics Programme: final training on the Snapshot tool

Snapshot, a tool to assess the quality of statistical systems

During this training, monitoring and evaluation officers from National Statistics Institutes (NSIs), who will in the future be involved in the implementation of peer reviews of national statistical systems (NSS), worked on the Snapshot tool, an assessment questionnaire on NSS maturity.

In other words, this tool assesses the strengths and weaknesses of a statistical system, with criteria such as the legal and institutional framework, the available resources (financial, human, material, etc.), the procedures established, etc.

This assessment aims to identify potential ways of upgrading the national statistical system examined, in order to produce relevant, comprehensive, reliable and objective data. Indeed, having high-quality statistical data is a major public policy issue and is one of the pillars of any democratic society.

 Training in Pretoria, South Africa (13-14 November 2017)

Commitment and good appropriation of the tool

The participants were monitoring and evaluation officers from National Statistics Institutes (NSIs) in their respective countries and will in the future be involved in peer reviews of national statistical systems (NSS). In the context of the training conducted under the Pan African Statistics Programme, they made a self-assessment of the Statistics Institute of their country.

For Gildas Nzingoula, from the African Union Commission, “These presentations gave rise to discussions and provided valuable input for the improvement of the Snapshot tool. In addition, the expert participants made a strong commitment to taking ownership of the tool and deploying it at national level.”

Participants were also able to share their experiences of the tool and exchange their points of view on the approach that needs to be adopted to assess their respective national statistical systems.

Hallgrímur Snorrason, a trainer, stressed the participants’ interest in Snapshot and the peer review process, and their strong commitment during the training. “They had a positive attitude, were willing to contribute to the discussion and willing to share their experiences. Their comments were extremely useful for the other countries, but also for the trainers and for improving the Snapshot tool”, he added.

This tool will subsequently be used in certain partner countries to make a self-assessment in the context of peer reviews conducted under the Pan African Statistics Programme. For the other countries, their familiarisation with the tool will allow a basic harmonised assessment of the NSS to be set up in Africa.

This activity is part of the Pan African Statistics Programme, launched by Eurostat and financed by the European Union, which aims to assist the African Union Commission in developing its statistical capacities and in improving Africa’s statistical system. 

Expertise France is conducting this project in partnership with GIZ, Oxford Policy Management and 4 European National Statistics Institutes – DESTATIS, INSEE, ISTAT and Statistics Netherlands.