Programme Director
His Excellency, the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Zuma
Minister in the Presidency: Planning, Mr Manuel
The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Mkhize
President of the ISI: Professor Denise Lievesley
His Worship, the Executive Mayor of eThekwini, Councillor Mlaba
ISI executive board members
Their Excellencies, the ambassadors and high commissioners
The consuls general from the various countries
Distinguished heads of International Statistics Offices
ISI members from 135 countries
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
All protocol observed
Mr President this is a journey. Allow me therefore to take you President, distinguished delegates ladies and gentlemen through this journey. Mr President when your government decided on the journey to bid for the FIFA Soccer World Cup for 2010, I was worried that we had as yet not performed the statistical ritual and that would reduce our chances of succeeding in this journey of winning the bid.
So in 2003 when the Cabinet of South Africa asked the Statistician-General to lead the bid for the 57th session of the ISI in Germany, I knew that the first step of a successful journey of winning the FIFA bid would be performed. The statisticians before you here can confirm that the hosting of an ISI is a good predictor for getting a successful outcome in the bid for a FIFA World Cup, at least in recent times.
France hosted ISI in 1997 and hosted the FIFA world Cup in 1998, Korea hosted the ISI in 2001 and had the FIFA world cup in 2002, Germany hosted the ISI in 2003 and had the right to FIFA World Cup in 2006, so your decision to ask the Statistician General to lead the bid for the 57th session of the ISI was appropriate as it determined the right for South Africa to host the FIFA world Cup in 2010. Although ISI is a good predictor for future FIFA host country, it fares very poorly on predicting who will be the FIFA champion. So Mr President do not ask me as to who will win the 2010 FIFA world cup.
Mr President, statistics are not only about powerful predictions but they are also about political journeys. Mr President, politics have robbed us of the head of Statistics Slovakia. Mr Fisher has since April to May this year become the Prime Minister of Slovakia. There is also life beyond statistical journeys.
Mr President, the ISI is an important signpost in a long journey of statistical development on the continent. The journey starts in January 2006 to address the issue of how many people are on the African continent. Convened by Minister Manuel in January 2006 we launched the 53 year journey of Africa Symposium for Statistical Development (ASSD).
Each year for an African country, since then we have not looked back. The journey took us to the second ASSD in 2007 in Rwanda under the theme “Africa counts: towards a complete enumeration of African populations during the 2010 round of population and housing censuses”. The journey then took us to Ghana for the third ASSD at the end of 2007. The fourth ASSD held in February 2009 was in Angola under the theme “data processing and census data in the 2010 round of population and housing censuses”.
African countries and development partners will gather again in Dakar, Senegal, later this year under the theme “information and communication technology in data dissemination: bringing suppliers and users closer to the 2010 round of population and housing censuses.”
There is considerable progress being registered; 23 countries are expected to undertake censuses between 2009 and 2011, while ten are half-way towards meeting the 2014 deadline. Mr President, our journey has successfully restored statistics at the economic commission for Africa.
We are aware that disrupting this journey, are armed conflicts currently, while many more are disrupted by post-conflict consequences on the continent. Under the auspices of the African symposium for statistical development, the friends of the ECA, met in Kigali, Rwanda, in May this year to further unpack and understand an in-conflict and post-conflict state and implications for statistical development and especially for census taking. We were joined during such a meeting by colleagues from Cambodia and Afghanistan.
The challenges for official statisticians is not only censuses, therefore we continue to work closely with development partners on other areas of statistics. With the active support of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa has concluded the first round of the International Comparisons Programme (ICP-Africa). We are encouraged by the increasing use of purchasing power parity by academics, researchers, and international organisations as well as by their useful feedback on areas to improve data quality. Under the United Nations statistical commission, which South Africa chairs, we plan to hold an ICP data users’ conference in 2010 so that feedback from such a conference can be incorporated into the next global ICP of 2011.
In what we could say in Kiswahili, tumendeleya pole pole, small progress, step by step. We are well aware that what is expected from us are not small steps but giant leaps on this journey. It is for this reason that we have put in place a programme of ISIbalo Capacity Building which will be our legacy programme beyond the 57th session of the ISI. Our journey on developing young statisticians in Africa should be accomplished.
The establishment of the ISI in 1885 coincided with the Berlin conference which gave rise to colonial supremacy as colonial masters scrambled for the control of Africa. This ISI not only makes yet another mark in Africa but also serves to restore the dignity of African people on matters statistics, intellectual and academic excellence, and statistical application.
In South Africa our journey is made more difficult by our history, for, the then Minister of Native Affairs, who would later become Prime Minister of the minority government of South Africa then, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, addressing Parliament on 17 September 1953 said, “What is the use of teaching a bantu child mathematics if it cannot use it in practice?” This statement set a trail of events that we are redressing to this day and will continue to redress in an unrelenting manner.
The burden of our journey has been greatly lightened by the leadership of Minister Trevor Manuel and the chair of Council Mr Howard Gabriels. The AfDB, Department for International Development (DFID), Swiss Development Cooperation, the World Bank, InWent and PARIS21 have made it possible for African participation at the ISI.
Because ours is a journey born out of many challenges
Because ours is a journey with many moons and years ahead
Because ours is a journey of struggle, we dare not fail! ISI and the world, we shall not fail because you are here with us sharing in our journey and our burden.
Thank you
Issued by: Statistics South Africa
16 August 2009
Source: Statistics South Africa (http://www.statssa.gov.za/)
