New platforms strengthen statisticians’’ capacity for tracking SDGs progress in Nigeria
Abuja - Nearly 200 statisticians and data managers in Nigeria have been empowered with new tools and skills to generate, process, analyze and disseminate accurate information relevant for policy planning and tracking progress of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The training aligns with the Lagos State “overarching development agenda of enhancing technology through a planned food security system”, when accomplished would translate to strategic and technical value addition which results in key outcomes to end poverty in all its forms, end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture; Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, among others. The Permanent Secretary Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture Hakeem Adeniji declared at the opening of the 5-day step-down training in Ikeja.
Strategic planning requires accurate and timely data, “our recent efforts at formulating our Lagos state Food and Agriculture Systems Roadmap was hinged on the bedrock of statistical data”, Adeniji who was represented by the Director of Fisheries, Mrs. Olatokunbo Emokpae said.
The food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized the step-down training in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS) for participants drawn from Federal and State Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the three priority states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This training is funded within the framework of the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme, ‘Strengthening Institutional Capacity for improved Data and Information Systems for Policy Planning and Tracking the SDGs in Nigeria’.
The FAO Representative in Nigeria and to ECOWAS Fred Kafeero said it is part of FAO’s mandate to support the Member States to strengthen their agricultural and food security data and statistical systems, thus the training is to ensure that the Federal level counterpart MDAs and those of the participating States i.e. Cross River, Lagos and Kano as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) acquire relevant competencies for the consistent and systematic generation and analysis of data and information for policy planning and tracking progress on the implementation of the SDGs and Malabo Protocol commitments.
“This training focused on practical learning with the available cost-free software for data analysis and it deepened the knowledge and skills of the trainees on the use of those tools in data analysis and the making of inference on statistics,” Mr. Kafeero pointed out.
Earlier in February, there was a Training of Trainers FAO conducted in Abuja, where about 40 beneficiaries were drawn from the participating states were given the necessary capacities. They have now stepped down the training in their respective states, starting with the FCT in the first week of June, Kano in the second week, Lagos in the third week, and Cross River in the last week of June into July.
In the step-down trainings, more than 150 (including 44 females) data managers and statisticians (minimum of 30 from each pf the states and the FCT) were exposed to the use of Open Data Sources Kit (ODK) Technology as well as Cost-free R- package and python software for data generation and analysis.
To ensure operative consolidation of the knowledge gained and accentuate data analysis skills in data management, the trainees were further exposed to hands-on data generation processes - survey management, farmer profiling, data entry, manual editing, handling of questionnaires, report writing, statistical analysis, modeling and descriptive statistics among others
Contacts
Emmanuel Kihaule David Tsokar Opeyemi Olagunju
Communications Specialist Communications Specialist Communications/Reporting Officer
FAO Nigeria FAO Nigeria FAO Nigeria – North East Sub Office