Eca Delivered a Training for Trainers on the “Effective Use of Administrative Data in Agricultural Statistics” in Lusaka, Zambia from 19-23 June 2017.

The training was organized in partnership with the National Statistical Office of Zambia. The training of trainers was developed for the first time based on the guidelines of the Global Office-Research Component. The training brought together participants mostly from universities and statistical training centers from the following countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, Namibia, The Gambia, Sudan, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Libya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Zambia. For country perspectives, Mr. Itani Magwaba of Statistics South Africa and Mr. Dingiswayo Banda, Chief Economist in the Ministry of Agriculture (Planning Division), Zambia have presented their respective country experiences.
The training covered specific topics such as the importance of administrative data for agricultural & rural statistics, potential sources of administrative data, examples of administrative sources (participating countries experiences, challenges and limitations of administrative data, roles of administrative data in sampling and estimation, quality of ad and the way forward, scientific approaches for adjusting or improving ad before use, methodology for obtaining the data, decentralization and levels of information management calculations, efficient use of ad, survey design and model — assisted weighting methods, combining multiple data sources, analysis and inference with multiple data sources, as well as methodological and technical tools for data integration. The training also benefited from a filed visit to Zambia’s CSO to gain from the practical experiences of Zambia. The event was officially opened by the remarks of Mr. John Kalumbi, Director General of Central Statistical Office of Zambia and introductory remarks by Mr. Said Adejumobi – Director ECA-Sub-Regional Office of South Africa. The trainings benefited from detailed country experiences on the effective use of administrative data in agricultural statistics.