Thematic study: International support to statistical capacity building Preface The Paris Declaration of 2005 represents the culmination of recent reflection and rethinking by the international donor community and development partners on the effectiveness of development aid. It expresses broad agreement on the key improvements that should be sought, commitments as to how they should be fostered by governments and aid agencies and contains specific targets to be met by 2010. The essence of the

more »

... is Declaration lies in the five key principles agreed (ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability), from which most of the more detailed commitments are derived. Although 'mutual accountability' and 'managing for results' are two cornerstones of the Paris Declaration, participating country teams at the Marrakech and Hanoi International Round Tables on Managing for Development results identified inadequate investment in statistics as a key constraint to managing for better results. Strong support to the Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics (MAPS) was echoed at a follow up meeting in Washington in April 1997 and it was agreed that reliable and timely statistics are both essential for improving aid effectiveness and development results. Reliable statistics are a key requirement to develop effective policy, measure progress and report on development results at the international, national and local levels. The issues of weak statistical capacity and the impact it has on development processes and aid effectiveness is well documented. A wide range of structures are used for national statistical systems, with variable roles and responsibilities for their coordination, production and use. Evidence on the effectiveness of support to statistical capacity building is sparse and there is considerable variety in the range of support provided by different donors in different country contexts. As a result of the increasing emphasis amongst many donors and recipient countries on the importance and role of reliable statistics, the resources devoted to the production of statistics in developing countries have increased substantially. As Official Development Assistance is scaled up, both the demand for reliable statistics and the resources allocated to statistics are likely to increase further. Progress in improving aid effectiveness will be discussed at the Third DAC High Level Forum in Accra in September 2008. Given the emphasis placed on managing for results and statistics, this thematic study on support to statistical capacity building provides an opportunity for a wide range of countries to consider whether the Paris Declaration principles have improved support to statistical capacity building and what implications the changing approaches to aid delivery have for statistics. This thematic study includes a synthesis of existing literature and evidence, and an analysis of the challenges to statistical capacity building, including evidence of the types of support that appear to be more effective and sustainable when applied in different contexts. As part of the review of evidence, three recipient country case studies covering Cambodia, Niger and Zambia were carried out. Two donor organization case studies, involving visits, interviews and reviews of project documentation with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) were also reviewed. Finally, five limited study countries (Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Rwanda and i Thematic study: International support to statistical capacity building Tanzania) were reviewed, with information obtained through PARIS 21 1 , literature reviews and desk-based interviews. The evaluation was commissioned by the steering committee for the DAC evaluation of the Paris Declaration, and managed on their behalf by the Evaluation Department of DFID, with additional financial and technical support from SIDA .