Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL) with support from World Bank has started a 3-week training for 100 enumerators, supervisors and data entry clerks for the 2018 Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey (SLHIS), at the Civil Service Training Center, yesterday 27 November 2017. At the end of the training 60 participants will be selected to visit 684 clusters and 10 households will be selected in each cluster.
World Bank, Country Manager Parminder Brar, said that the survey will help in measuring the incidence of rural and urban poverty. “What you did in 2003 and 2011 really helped government in its formulation of its policy,” he said.
He went on to say that the 2011 survey revealed that poverty did come down from around 65-70% to an average of 50%. “A lot of people are waiting to see what is the current status, as we have not had it for the last seven years,” said Brar.
The report will help the next government on the status of the Agenda of Prosperity, which ends in June 2018 and also inform development partners on where to focus their interventions.
“Agriculture is the key to get people out of poverty. The survey findings will influence the World Bank as to what exact funding we should provide in the agricultural sector and funding will partly be determined by the findings of your survey.”
Representative from the Statistics Council, Morlai Bangura, stated, “Policy must be evidence-based and it is proper that whatever policy a government wants to roll out should be informed by adequate statistics, as that will help inform on the type of interventions necessary to bring maximum impact.
“We have to make growth more inclusive; it is not just about growing, Sierra Leone has been growing but did that growth translate into poverty reduction within our economy?” he asked.
He went on to say that there has been minimal evidence to suggest that the growth has been non-inclusive. “Nowadays, there is growing concern of the possible effect of technical progress and globalisation on inequality. As economies grow we are seeing higher inequality in society because of technological progress.”
The acting Statistician General, Abu Bakarr Turay, disclosed that the survey will last for twelve months starting January 2018 and the training will help trainees to go through the instruments, manuals, questionnaire and additional information required before going to the field.
Turay said that this survey will take a unique format with collection and entry going on simultaneously in the field. The teams will have data entry clerks, as any error spotted during the entry process will be corrected in the field.
“We will be collaborating with a very significant social survey which is the Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). We will have a very big data set that will inform government and development partners on issues relating to the economics, demography and social aspect.”
He added that the MICS is concentrated on social indicators especially on health, education and other things that relate to children, nursing mothers and women generally.
“As the development agenda of government ends next year, this data set will help evaluate the progress and assess where we are taking-off from regarding the SDGs. No significant effort has been made in laying down a baseline to rolling out these indicators,” he said.
The keynote and official opening was done by the deputy development Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Moire Momoh.
ZJ/27/11/17
By Zainab Joaque
Tuesday November 28, 2017.
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