News and Events

A consultation meeting on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) was conducted by the Somali National Bureau of Statistics (SNBS) where participants were drawn from across various government institutions. The objective of the workshop was to assess and learn about Somali SDG performance as the country plans to present its first ever National Voluntary Review (VNR) to the United Nations.

The two-days event was also an opportunity to share ideas, thoughts, insights, experiences on fast-tracking Somalia’s attainment towards the global goals, hence help the SNBS and other domestic stakeholders in the compilation of the Voluntary National Report which will be a historic milestone for Somalia.   

The workshop was opened by the Deputy Director General, Abdirahman Dahir, whose remarks revolved around the accessibility and availability of data in Somalia and the attendant challenges. He emphasized on the commitment of the SNBS to play its role in ensuring the Government attains its commitments to implement the 2030 SDG Agenda. “SNBS will continue to work with all stakeholders to produce official statistics which are critical for measuring the realization of the global goals both at the national and regional levels.

The workshop also discussed about the progress being made by Somalia towards achieving the SDGs as well as ways to atone for the existing data gaps, including the need to establish intra-governmental  synergy that is key to implementing and pushing through the accomplishment of the 2030 global agenda. 

Central Bank of Somalia recently visited the Secretariat to learn more about the COMESA Statistics Strategy and give an update on the Somalia Statistical System. The engagement of these key stakeholders of the Somalia statistical system by COMESA Secretariat is an important component of the process of Somalia’s integration into the COMESA community.

The team had an opportunity to meet the COMESA Secretary General, Ms.Chileshe Kapwepwe, who reiterated COMESA’s commitment to developing statistics that are essential to monitoring the COMESA market. Besides the consultations with the COMESA Statistics Department, the team were also briefed on COMESA programs by the Divisions of Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs, Legal and Institutional Affairs.

COMESA Secretariat will assist Somalia build its national capacity to respond to regional statistical demands. As a new Member state, the COMESA Treaty provisions expect Somalia to cooperate in the provision of statistics that are aggregated to provide a comprehensive regional picture

On 2-4th July 2019, a coordination workshop was held at Hayat hotel in Mogadishu for federal line ministries to coordinate and strengthen the statistical capacity in the country with the purpose of facilitating decision makers’ awareness, understanding and trust in statistical data and to provide importance in improving administrative data systems, as possible source of official statistics. During the workshops the DNS technical team conveyed to the participants through significant presentations. The main objective of the training workshop was to:

Sharing knowledge and layout the role of each line ministries to the production of accurate and reliable data; identifying opportunities and addressing current challenges facing the SDGs in Somalia.

Enhance the collaboration between government institutions and the Directorate of National Statistics in order to produce official administrative statistics data.

Discuss the establishment of Statistical technical committee to strength the collaboration among the ministries with the Directorate of National Statistics.

The participants were also giving practical work on analysis for excel. They were able to do the practical work on the second day of the training and the trainers were able to help out for better grasp of the work.

Outcome of the Workshop

The workshop had expected results such as:

·       The importance of administrative data having being learnt

·       Strong coordination between line ministries and Directorate of National Statistics is achieved

Existing gaps and challenges from both line ministries and DNS is discussed and way forward is provided

A Study Tour of Quality Management in Statistics was held at Koch – in Johannesburg, South Africa from June 25^th -27^th, 2019 which was hosted by Statistics South Africa with the support of Statistics Sweden.

The main purpose of the study visit was to learn, exchange experience on process management; especially in planning and monitoring of work, organization of National Statistics System, National Account, Price Statistics, Communication and Quality assurance.

The leadership of the directorate of National Statistics were shown how Survey and sampling design issues are organized in Statistics South Africa. The Study tour was a success and the participants expressed general satisfaction with the arrangements as the visit provided a chance to see how statistics South Africa works and their professional way on statistical management system.

The Directorate of National Statistics (DNS) of the Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development is leading two weeks training on the development of National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS). In this training, number of sectors such as Health, Education and Agriculture as well as Ministries of Planning of the Federal Member States are represented.

The training workshop is sponsored by the World Bank as part of its support to the Federal Government. In this training, participants are expected to learn the concept, process and approach for NSDS and its importance to the wider Somali statistical system. This is on-job training and participants are expected to develop a draft of Sector Statistics Plan for improving the state of statistics in their sector at the end of the two weeks.

Front left: Abdullahi Dahir, Hussein Elmi (DNS) Deputy Director General, Prof. Ben Kiregyera (Consultant), Ahmed Elmi Muhumad (Consultant), Naima Hussein (NSDS Coordinator), Mary Stella Wanjiru Kimani (World Bank), Ibrahim Nur.           Back Left: Hassan Ali, Abdullahi Hassan, Osman Jama, Salah Abdi, Abdalla Omar Ahmed Elmi Muhumad, NSDS Consultant, stated in his opening remark the importance of NSDS for the National Statistical System not only at the federal level but also for the member states and other relevant stakeholders. Professor Ben Kiregyera, World Bank Consultant and co-author of the NSDS Guidelines, said that this workshop would give participants an opportunity to not only understand why countries need NSDS and how to design and implement it properly, but also appreciate current global trends and initiatives in statistical development.

Based on the outcome of this training and the draft Sectoral Statistical Plans, a National Strategy for the Development of Statistics will be drafted. The NSDS will address challenges in Somali Statistical System and meeting data needs for national development processes (e.g. National Development Plan, Sector Statistics Plans, State Development Plans, etc.) as well as global agendas such as Sustainable Development Goals.

The Directorate of National Statistics of MoPIED with support of UNFPA organized 14 days training workshop for MMR data Collectors in Bay and Lower Juba regions. The training was attended by 25 participants from 29 Participants from the district council and government ministries and the civil society in addition to the director of Statistics for South West State and two persons from Directorate of National Statistics.

The main objective of the training was to introduce the MMR data collectors on the CSPRO CAPI MMR/Listing data collection application. In addition to that the fieldwork for household listing and MMR data collection in Bay and Lower Juba regions has started on 15- 08, 2018 were the General Director of DNS pay a visit the field to oversee the fieldwork and met the teams while they were conducting the interviews in Baidoa town.

The Directorate of National Statistics with support of Statistics Sweden held a workshop in Nairobi for finalizing the booklet on Somali Men and Women. The outcome of this mission is to assist Somali gender working groups on analyzing and presenting gender statistic.

The purpose of this meeting was to increase the production of gender statistics and to raise the awareness on gender issues in the society, the elaboration of the booklet “Somali Women and Men” for broad and easy use is planned in the project. This gender statistics book will be released this year

The Directorate of National Statistics (DNS) of the Federal Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development and Benadir Regional Administration (BRA) with the support of UNFPA Somalia held a two-day training workshop in Mogadishu on 13th March 2018 to 14th March, 2018.

The participants received training on a field verification of enumeration Areas (structured presentation sessions, practical, mock interviews, plenary and group discussions used to achieve the desired objectives). The main objective of the Workshop was to train the staff on SHDS data collection survey, introduce them on the use of paper to verify the households /Listing data collection as well as pretest the application to assess its efficacy as well as the field verification of enumeration areas.

Somali government needs accurate and reliable data for use in development of policy and planning that promote its ability and capacity to deliver universal access to health, education and other essential services.  The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) renamed Somali Health and Demographic Survey (SHDS) for the Somali context will collect vast amount of data broadly covering demographic characteristics, fertility, health issues (maternal and child health; sexual and reproductive health and rights including family planning; and gender issues), and relevant socio-economic variables. This survey will assist the government to monitor indicators in the National Development Plan (2017-2019) especially quality basic education, health, water and sanitation services; improved health outcomes, reduced maternal and child mortality, reduction in malnutrition rates as well as prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

The survey will also promote the capacity building of the staff of government ministries of planning and health in the country, especially the staff of emerging Federal Member States and intends to fully utilize the personnel involved in PESS and further build their capacities in generating reliable statistics for Somalia. The successful implementation of the SHDS will largely depend on the establishment of close collaborative working partnerships between officials of ministries of Planning and Health from FGS and Federal Member States as well as other respective actors within the implementation structure.