Progress report strengthening the national statistical system of the islamic republic of afghanistan

Strengthening the National

Statistical System of the Islamic

Republic of Afghanistan

PROGRESS REPORT

STRENGTHENING THE NATIONAL

STATISTICAL SYSTEM OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN


Prepared by: PICT


October 2011

Table of contents

ABBRIVIATIONS 3

1. iNTRODUCTION 5
2. IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES 6

2.1. Financial issues 6

2.1.1. Conducting an Interim Un-audit financial report 7

2.1.2. Project replenishment of designated account 8

2.1.3. Project refunding of initial advance budget to the MoF 8

2.1.4. Disbursement of funds 8

2.1.5. WB financial management and disbursement capacity building workshop 10

2.1.6. Financial officer's information on training's facilitation 11

2.2. Procurement issues 12

2.2.1. Submission of RFP and further action on twinning arrangement 13

2.2.2. ICB for the IT equipment and its results 14

2.2.3. Local training courses arrangements 15

2.2.4. Procurement plan revision in regard to IT issues 16

2.2.5. State of play of Web Development of CSO’s website and its maintenance 17

2.2.6. Announcement of new positions for PICT 18

2.2.7. Procurement of anti-viruses for CSO personnel 18
3. SRF PROJECT RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER ONGOING PROJECTS 18

3.1. ADB activities at CSO 19

3.2. MICS, NRVA and other CSO field operations‘ activities 20

3.2.1. Multiple Indecators Claster Survey 20

3.2.2. National Risk and Valneability Assesment 20

3.2.3. Social-Demorpaghic and Economical Survey 21

3.2.4. The household listing and preparing skerch map for Bamyan 21

3.3. UNDP/NIBP Capacity Development Advisor activities 22
4. CONSULTING ACTIVITIES 23

4.1. First MCMC meeting 24

4.2. Meetings with TICA 24

4.3. Meeitngs with the Kabul University 25

4.4. Training course for financial staff of CSO and MoF 26

4.5. PICT activities‘ report at the SRF meeting 27

4.6. User satisfaction survery 28
5. Problems and challenges of the PROJECT 29
6. ANNEXES 32

Abbreviations:

ACBAR Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief

ADB Asian Development Bank

AFGHANSTAT The same as SRF or SNSS

ANDS Afghanistan National Development Strategy

ANSP Afghanistan National Statistic Plan

ARDS Afghanistan Reconstruction Development Strategy

CDA Capacity Development Advisor

CSO Central Statistics Organization

DAB Da Afghanistan Bank

DFID Department for International Development (UK)

FM Financial Management

FY Fiscal Year

GIRA Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

ICB International Competitive Bidding

ICON ICON Institute (Germany)

IT Information Technology

IUFR Interim Un-audit Financial Report

JICA Japan International Cooperation Association

KOICA Korea International Cooperation Agency

KU Kabul University

MCMC Monitoring and Change Management Committee

MDG Millennium Development Goals

MHE Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan

MICS Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey

MIS Management Information System

MoF Ministry of Finance of Afghanistan

MoLSA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs

MoSPI Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of India

MoU Memorandum of Understanding

MoWA Ministry of Women Affairs of Afghanistan

NIBP National Institution Building Project

NOL No-objection letter

NRVA National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment

PAD Project Appraisal Document

PICT Project Implementation and Coordination Team

POM Project Operational Manual

PP Procurement Plan

QBS Quality Based Selection

QFR Quarterly Financial Report

REOI Request for Expressions of Interest

RFP Request for Proposal

SA Statistical Agency (the same as TAJSTAT)

SBD Special Bid Documents

SDU Special Disbursement Unit

SNSS Strengthening the National Statistic System project

SRF Statistics for Results Facility

SSS Single source selection

STC Statistical Training Centre

STF Statistical Task Force

TAC Technical Advisory Committee

TAF The Asia Foundation

TAJSTAT Tajikistan Statistical Agency

TICA Turkish International Cooperation Administration

TNA Technical Needs Analysis

TOR Terms of Reference

TTL Task Team Leader of the project

TTT Training and Technology Transfer

TUIK Turkish Institute of Statistics

UNDP United Nation Development Program

UNFPA United Nation Population Fund

USS User Satisfaction Survey

WB World Bank

1. Introduction

Statistical Capacity Building, on its own, is an integral part of the rehabilitation and reconstruction process of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan that is providing reliable statistical data on most of activities implemented in the country. The importance of statistical organizations’ activity has been explicitly reflected in the Statistical Law 2006 where was mentioned the crucial role of this organization in the monitoring and evaluation of ANDS and MDG.

The short experience of the SRF/PICT with the CSO unambiguously indicates that the importance of statistics and in time data providing is still not fully understood by most of the Government institutions that are involved in data collection, producing the statistical information and presenting it to the public. Statistics still remains an activity that can be easily developed by most of the institutions without detail checking and analysing of the obtained data which causes producing of a wide range of statistical information by different agencies on the same activity. This, by itself, clearly shows the lack of understanding the importance of statistics in the rehabilitation, reconstruction, planning and developmental actions as for the entire country as well as on the regional level. It is obvious that CSO, with the given capacity, is not able to provide all the statistical information according to the modern standards, but it needs to emphasised explicitly that this organization has been applying all its efforts, especially for the last three years, to produce available statistical information and present them to all the users within the country and outside. During that time CSO website was developed and reflects most of the required information that can be easily obtained at any time.

Based on the latest development CSO had shown real commitment towards the development and standardization of statistical data during the last three years and with the help and support of international organization had developed ANSP that contains the essential requirements for its further improvement during the next five years. ANSP is a well designed document that contains the entire statistical activities and was summarized in the SRF project the actual implementation of which has been started from the beginning of 2011 (last quarter of 1390).

Presented progress report reflects all the activities have been implemented by the project during the second quarter of afghan calendar year of 1390 or third quarter of 2011, while it has not been entered its main activities with the twinning partnership, that it does hope to arrange in the last quarter of 2011 and prepare the project for its full operation from the beginning of the next year.