Director General of the National Planning Commission, Obeth Kandjoze has said there is a dire need for Cabinet to make decisions based on an updated central database to guarantee development.
Speaking at the launch of the updated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Indicator Framework here Wednesday, Kandjoze stressed that national issues should be debated based on readily available information on updated data drawn from a central database such as that of the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA).
Namibia’s 2021 Population and Housing Census was postponed until further notice due to a lack of funds, thus the country’s latest data is from the 2011 Census.
Kandjoze said currently, there is a challenge as Cabinet is adopting policies based on outdated data, stressing that top decision-makers are unable to reflect statistically and actively on teenage pregnancies in the country as the NSA is unable to supply the government with such information.
“It cannot be left to newspapers and news organisations to keep being ahead of the institution and government for planning,” he said.
Kandjoze indicated that the NSA should be able to give government updated information to ensure quality policies as well as better service delivery and development.
At the same occasion, NSA’s Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni said in the absence of the census, the NSA is leaning towards administration data and records collected from various institutions to supplement the currently available data the agency has.
“The administrative data cannot however replace the census. Census is the basis for all other services and a sampling frame for a country’s population can only be achieved through a census,” he noted.
Shimuafeni noted that the political will and understanding of the importance of a census is there, however, the only variable is funds, noting that the 2021 census also coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Launching the framework aimed at measuring Namibia’s developmental efforts in line with the United Nations (UN), Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the availability of timely and quality data impacts the monitoring and evaluation of a country’s development agenda.
She noted that, therefore, the government is committed to strengthening support for statistical systems in the country to maintain a comprehensive national indicator framework driven by specific and measurable national policy priorities.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
