African governments should give priority to building up statistical data about their countries in order to make their policies more effective, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said.

The Director of the ECA’s Economic and Social Policy Division, Augustin Fosu, said “the absence of reliable, up-to-date statistical information in many African countries limits the application of practical development strategies on the continent.”

To highlight the issue, the theme of the 2004 African Statistics Day was “Managing for development results: the role of statistical information.”

In Africa, statistical systems are at varying stages of development. Some countries are able to undertake exhaustive and expensive countrywide operations such as censuses, specific sample surveys and cross-checking of administrative records through databases.

Other African nations lack the capacity to generate the required information for macro-economic and social demand management. African and international partners have launched a number of initiatives to strengthen statistical capacities in Africa. (ECA)