GOVERNANCE, PEACE, AND SECURITY IN THE STRATEGY FOR THE HARMONIZATION OF STATISTICS IN AFRICA (GPS-SHASA)

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GOVERNANCE, PEACE, AND SECURITY IN THE STRATEGY FOR THE HARMONIZATION OF STATISTICS IN AFRICA (GPS-SHASA)

July 6, 2017

The African Union recognized that the use of harmonized and reliable statistics in all fields of political, social, economic, and cultural activity is critical. To this effect, the AU adopted the African Charter on Statistics at the 12th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 04 February 2009.2 To empower the Charter later in 2009, the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government assigned its secretariat, the African Union Commission (AUC), to develop the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA) in collaboration with development partners. The main purpose of the SHaSA programme is to enable the African Statistical System (ASS) – and African Union member states – to generate timely, reliable, and harmonized statistical information that covers all aspects of political, economic, social, and cultural integration for Africa.

Since 2012, The GPS-SHaSA has been active with the support of UNDP. The Committee of Director Generals (CoDG) of National Statistics Offices approved a work plan to pilot the GPS aspects of the SHaSA, funded by UNDP, in five countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Malawi, Kenya, and Cape Verde. Due to the high demand and interest in the initiative, four self-starting countries – Mali, Burundi, Uganda, and Tunisia – also piloted the GPS-SHaSA initiative, using their own resources.

In 2015, UNDP initiated a study to take stock of progress made by the pilot countries and produced recommendations to improve effectiveness and utility of the data collection components. The purpose of this policy brief is to share lessons rendered from that study of progress in the nine pilot countries.