While developing an effective data portal1, its potential users’ data needs must be the primary focus of its design. The traditional segmentation of users based on “who they are”, such as journalists, policymakers, or even portal maintainers (including those who … Continue reading
Defining the use of data in policy making is contentious, and attempts to measure it are sparse. However, enough evidence suggests that more work is required to reinforce data use in policy making. For example, a 2018 evaluation of the … Continue reading
In many national statistical offices (NSOs), there is a strong desire to improve the dissemination of indicators or aggregated data using digital systems. This aspiration marks a paradigm shift for many NSOs, for whom, until now, print publications have been … Continue reading
National statistical offices (NSOs), such as GSS in Ghana and NISR in Rwanda, are authoritative sources for countries’ socio-economic data. NSOs either produce data or coordinate their production for government planning and budgeting. In the digital age, though, many are at a crossroads in … Continue reading
Despite good intentions, there are times when data sharing appears to be an added task in many organisations. The issue gets complicated when the data in question is statistical in nature. Statistical data is inherently complex. It is highly structured … Continue reading
The Innovations Team (Lab) formally came into existence at the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) in May 2014. Since then, the following poster, enunciating the ambitious nature of the enterprise – ‘Future of statistics, Force of technology & … Continue reading
[Summary: In this blog post, I argue that the three fundamental ways to improve data dissemination using digital platforms in National Statistics Offices (NSOs) could be; instilling comprehensive data curation processes, automated data transfers from aggregated tables to the online … Continue reading
A few months back, while participating in a World Bank study of national statistics offices (NSOs) in the context of government-sponsored open data initiatives and later, on a research project to provide guidance to NSOs on data dissemination platforms in … Continue reading
Rwanda conducted it’s latest and the 4th Population and Housing Census (PHC) in August 2012. In this massive exercise, around 16,700 enumerators, each assigned to one of the Enumeration Areas (EAs), visited every household in the country. The fieldwork, consisting … Continue reading
As we deliberate post-2015 agenda chalking out global development directions after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there’s a renewed interest in the availability, quality and accessibility of data and statistics for guiding policy, monitoring progress, measuring results, and supporting analysis. … Continue reading