National policymakers and the international development community have become increasingly aware of the need to strengthen statistical capacity to support the design, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of national development plans, including Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) and sector strategies, and the global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Second International Roundtable on Managing for Development Results in February 2004 and the resulting Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics (MAPS) emphasised the need for National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDSs) to improve the evidence base to “manage for results” by providing a strategic framework for developing relevant poverty-focused statistics. Statistics are a key part of countries’ monitoring and evaluation systems. An NSDS is expected to provide a country with a strategy for strengthening statistical capacity across the entire national statistical system (NSS).
The NSDS will provide a vision for where the NSS should be in five to ten years and will set milestones for getting there. It will present a comprehensive and unified framework for continual assessment of evolving user needs and priorities for statistics and for building the capacity needed to meet these priorities in a more coordinated, synergistic and efficient manner. It will also provide a framework for mobilising, harnessing and leveraging resources (both national and international) and a basis for effective and results-oriented strategic management of the NSS.
You can download the report from here: http://paris21.aotmphost.net/sites/default/files/1401_0.pdf
