IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dia/wpaper/dt201720.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Counting What Counts: Africa’s Seminal Effort to Produce Harmonized Official Statistics on Governance, Peace and Security

Author

Listed:
  • Marie Laberge

    (Independent Expert, Associate Researcher, Montreal, Quebec)

  • Yeo Dossina

    (African Union Commission (AUC), Statistics Division, Addis Ababa)

  • François Roubaud

    (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine)

Abstract

(english) The paper documents the practical experience of eleven African national statistical offices that tested and eventually institutionalized a methodology for producing official harmonized statistics in the area of governance, peace and security statistics between 2012 and 2017. This took place whilst the rest of the world was still debating the rationale for including this new domain in the next global development agenda. It situates Africa’s successful GPS-SHaSA experiment in the context of the continent’s long-standing commitment to “achieve political sovereignty through data autonomy”. The paper also presents some strategic advantages of the GPS-SHaSA methodology, provides illustrations using selected targets of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 on how the four types of data generated by the methodology can inform policymaking. It finally concludes by identifying a number of methodological, institutional, financial and communicational investments necessary for GPS statistical production by NSOs to be sustainable, in Africa and beyond. _________________________________ (français) Cet article présente l’expérience concrète des instituts nationaux de la statistique (INS) de onze pays africains qui ont testé en pratique et institutionnalisé une méthodologie harmonisée pour produire des statistiques officielles dans le champ de la gouvernance, la paix et la sécurité (GPS) entre 2012 et 2017. Cette expérience s’est déroulée alors que le reste du monde était encore en train de débattre de la pertinence d’inclure ce nouveau champ thématique comme une composante à part entière de l’agenda global du développement post 2015. Le papier montre comment le succès de l’expérience GPS-SHaSA s’inscrit dans un engagement de longue date de l’Afrique pour « atteindre sa souveraineté politique à travers l’autonomie des données ». Il décrit également les avantages stratégiques de la méthodologie GPS-SHaSA, et offre quelques illustrations tirées de cibles particulières de l’Agenda 2063 de l’Afrique et de l’Objectif du Développement Durable (ODD) 16 pour montrer comment les quatre types de données produites par le projet peuvent informer les politiques publiques et le processus de décision. Il conclut en identifiant un certain nombre de défis méthodologiques, institutionnels, financiers et en termes de communication à relever pour que la production de données GPS par les INS puisse être durable, en Afrique et au-delà.

Suggested Citation

  • Marie Laberge & Yeo Dossina & François Roubaud, 2017. "Counting What Counts: Africa’s Seminal Effort to Produce Harmonized Official Statistics on Governance, Peace and Security," Working Papers DT/2017/20, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    • Handle: RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201720
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dial.ird.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2017-20-Counting-What-Counts-Africas-Seminal-Effort-to-Produce-Harmonized-Official-Statistics-on-Governance-Peace-and-Security.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2017
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. -, 2014. "A World that Counts: Mobilising the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 40319 edited by United Nations, July.
    2. repec:ecr:col090:24290 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4352 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Razafindrakoto, Mireille & Roubaud, François, 2010. "Are International Databases on Corruption Reliable? A Comparison of Expert Opinion Surveys and Household Surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1057-1069, August.
    5. Javier Herrera & Mireille Razafindrakoto & François Roubaud, 2007. "Governance, Democracy and Poverty Reduction: Lessons Drawn from Household Surveys in Sub‐Saharan Africa and Latin America," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 75(1), pages 70-95, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mireille Razafindrakoto & François Roubaud, 2018. "Responding to the SDG16 Measurement Challenge: The Governance, Peace and Security Survey Modules in Africa," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 9(3), pages 336-351, September.
    2. Mireille Razafindrakoto & François Roubaud, 2015. "The Governance, Peace and Security modules of the Strategy for the Harmonisation of Statistics in Africa (GPS-SHaSA): development of an innovative statistical survey methodology," Working Papers DT/2015/20, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    3. Razafindrakoto, Mireille & Roubaud, François, 2010. "Are International Databases on Corruption Reliable? A Comparison of Expert Opinion Surveys and Household Surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1057-1069, August.
    4. Jean-Pierre Cling & Mireille Razafindrakoto & François Roubaud, 2018. "SDG 16 on Governance and its measurement: Africa in the Lead," Working Papers DT/2018/02, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    5. Calvo, Thomas & Razafindrakoto, Mireille & Roubaud, François, 2019. "Fear of the state in governance surveys? Empirical evidence from African countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2007. "The worldwide governance indicators project : answering the critics," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4149, The World Bank.
    7. Pulkit Sharma & Achut Manandhar & Patrick Thomson & Jacob Katuva & Robert Hope & David A. Clifton, 2019. "Combining Multi-Modal Statistics for Welfare Prediction Using Deep Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-15, November.
    8. Emmanuelle Lavallée & François Roubaud, 2019. "Corruption in the Informal Sector: Evidence from West Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 1067-1080, June.
    9. Ana Andries & Stephen Morse & Richard J. Murphy & Jim Lynch & Emma R. Woolliams, 2019. "Seeing Sustainability from Space: Using Earth Observation Data to Populate the UN Sustainable Development Goal Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-20, September.
    10. de Pedraza, Pablo & Vollbracht, Ian, 2020. "The Semicircular Flow of the Data Economy and the Data Sharing Laffer curve," GLO Discussion Paper Series 515, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Javier Herrera & Mireille Razafindrakoto & François Roubaud, 2013. "Les sciences sociales au service du débat démocratique au Sud:enjeux, supports, retombées. Résultats d'expériences dans le champ de l'économie et de la statistique," Working Papers DT/2013/02, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    12. Morgan, Mary S. & Bach, Maria, 2018. "Measuring development - from the UN’s perspective," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90557, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Laura Recuero Virto, 2017. "A preliminary assessment of indicators for SDG 14 on " Oceans "," Post-Print hal-01639008, HAL.
    14. Michael Breen & Robert Gillanders, 2012. "Corruption, institutions and regulation," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 263-285, September.
    15. Mare Sarr & Timothy Swanson, 2012. "Corruption and the Curse: The Dictator's choice," CIES Research Paper series 17-2012, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    16. -, 2016. "Horizons 2030: Equality at the centre of sustainable development," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 40160 edited by Eclac.
    17. Lorenza Campagnolo & Carlo Carraro & Fabio Eboli & Luca Farnia, 2015. "Assessing SDGs: A New Methodology to Measure Sustainability," Working Papers 2015.89, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    18. Dreher, Axel & Kotsogiannis, Christos & McCorriston, Steve, 2007. "Corruption around the world: Evidence from a structural model," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 443-466, September.
    19. Daniel Kaufmann & Aart Kraay, 2008. "Governance Indicators: Where Are We, Where Should We Be Going?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 23(1), pages 1-30, January.
    20. Michael Breen & Robert Gillanders & Gemma Mcnulty & Akisato Suzuki, 2017. "Gender and Corruption in Business," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(9), pages 1486-1501, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Measurement; Indicators; Governance; Peace; Security; Sustainable Development Goals; Agenda 2063; Household Surveys;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General
    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201720. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Loic Le Pezennec (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diallfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.