Together with our partners we presented the webinar Capacity Development in data and statistics a waste of money?

Sep 11, 2018

Cepei, PARIS21 and Open Data Watch launched their first webinar to analyze the impact of capacity development related to data and statistics.

Capacity development has become a buzzword in the development sector, including in the data and statistics field. Long-term objectives will only be achieved if countries take ownership over their own development needs through dedicated capacity building programmes.

Yet, after more than a decade of efforts, one could argue that capacity development shows mixed results at best; both in general terms and in development terms, in particular for data and statistics. In fact, the capacity development indicator of the World Bank – which tracks the ability of countries to produce more and better data – shows slow improvements. Many countries do not abide by international standards and lack basic statistics on their respective populations. Additionally, the quality and timeliness of data are still major problems for both national policy making and international monitoring. Several statistical offices face challenges when it comes to funding, modernization and defining their role in the new emerging complex data ecosystem.

Key Questions

  • What has been the impact so far of capacity development, and in particular as it relates to the area of data and statistics? Have there been any tangible results? What are the lessons we can learn?
  • What improvements are needed and what new approaches are emerging? What does Capacity Development 4.0 mean and how does it address current weaknesses?
  • Are there any promising concrete projects and how could those be scaled up?

Recording

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