Challenges in Statistical Capacity-Building: Some First Experience in Africa

• Activity Number: 12
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 4, 2013 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: International Statistical Institute
• Author(s): Jozef Lodewijk Teugels*+
• Companies: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• Keywords: Capacity building ; Developing countries ; Partnership ; Teachers training

Abstract

There are currently efforts by international agencies, universities, consultants, and other groups to build capacity in Africa and other countries, including statistical capacity. Over the last few years, the International Statistical Institute (ISI) has identified statistical capacity building (SCB) as one of its strategic initiatives. There have been some initial plans aimed at developing and launching projects in Africa. However, to expand on this effort, the ISI has to develop international partnerships and mechanisms in a number of different dimensions. The goal of the contribution is to lay out the issues and to illustrate them by recent experience in Africa. Higher education is one of the primary areas that need attention. There is a lack of qualified lecturers in many institutions, with the result that students are not exposed to even basic statistical methods. An essential improvement would be offered by a serious upgrade of the statistical curriculum and training of the teachers. A related problem is ageing researchers who are not replaced at a suitable rate as good students get lucrative job offers or invitations from foreign institutions and are lost to academia.