WASHINGTON, July 6, 2017 — The World Bank approved today a grant in the amount of $62 million equivalent to the Republic of Mozambique’s National Statistics and Data for Development project. The project seeks to improve the production and dissemination of quality socioeconomic statistics, as well as support the use of data in evidence-based policy making.
Mozambique’s high economic growth patterns of the past decades have not been successfully translated into equally strong poverty reduction. Additionally, performance in poverty reduction has been uneven across the country’s regions. To design economic policies that adequately tackle poverty and address regional disparities, timely and reliable data is crucial.
“The use of data for development planning and decision making cannot be over emphasized,” said Mark Lundell, World Bank Country Director for Mozambique. “We want to strengthen the foundations of a virtuous cycle that ranges from producing more, better, and accessible statistics; more regular use of it in policy making; to a stronger commitment to accountability and transparency by the government.”
Currently, few national agencies produce comprehensive spatially disaggregated data. Moreover, there is little awareness about the strategic use of cross-sectoral spatial analysis for evidence-based planning and decision making. Data sets are dispersed across ministries and agencies, and there is a lack of an integrated strategic data approach across government agencies. Finally, an effective integration of all aid flows into the national planning and budgeting process is needed.
This project supports precisely the government’s capacity to produce quality, timely and reliable statistics; enabling cross-sectoral evidence-based development policy making; and fostering transparency and government accountability. The project components include strengthening of the government’s National Statistics Institute capacity building; data collection (including the upcoming 2017 Population and Housing Census and two new household surveys), analysis, and dissemination; spatial development planning; and aid data management.
“The project benefits a wide array of users of data and statistics, such as key government line ministries, researchers, academia, and the media, as well as development partners,” said Javier Baez, the Project’s Task Team Leader. “By contributing to improved transparency of data, statistics, and aid flows, this project supports greater accountability in the use of public funds and ultimately benefits the wider public.”
The project is consistent with the goals of the World Bank’s Mozambique Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for the period FY17–FY21, which seeks to fill data gaps in key areas to monitor progress in poverty reduction and shared prosperity, as well as efforts towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The CPF is aligned with the Government’s Five-Year Development Plan (Plano Quinquenal do Governo) for the period 2015-19.
To know more about World Bank activities, please visit: www.worldbank.org/en/country/Mozambique
For more on IDA, please visit: www.worldbank.org/ida
