South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"

By Benjamin Takpiny
South Sudanese policy makers have been urged to rely on evidence-based statistics for proper planning and decision making on government policies.
“In South Sudan, this statistics day is intended to ignite public debate that is aimed at building a culture of evidence-based policy making or decision making, especially in the area of education,” said Dr. Augustino Ting Mayai, Director General of the South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics on Friday during a press conference that marked the celebration of the African Statistics Day in Juba.
He said that occasion should evoke public debate that is aimed at building a culture of evidence-based policy making, adding that this debate would improve educational skills and learning opportunities for particularly the young generation.
“This involves utilizing technology to leverage big data and non-traditional sources, conduct digital surveys and harmonize data acquisition and storage systems, in turn enabling timely decision making for educators, policy makers and political leaders,” said Ting.
Ting noted that the modernized data ecosystem helps South Sudan to understand its performance with respect to various aspects of education, including enrollment, attendance, and completion, quality of learning, access, equity and resources required for a purposive learning.
He added that the National Bureau of Statistics is working alongside the National Ministry of General Education and Instruction to modernize the data ecosystem in order to produce and disseminate quality education statistics.
Ting said that they recognize the importance of compiling social statistics in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Agenda 2063, and Widget the Africa they Want, revised natural development strategy and sectorial plans.
“As we celebrate this year’s African Statistics Day, our national statistical system remains challenged. This is marked by limited resources, lack of statistics units across various institutions, poor record keeping, inadequate infrastructure and limited human resources capacity. To close these gaps, the bureau has partnered with various international institutions, including UNFPA, UNDP, ILO, the World Bank, FAO and of course nationally partnering with the National Ministry of Finance and Planning to promote evidence-based decision making that impacts educational reforms and fosters data-driven development planning in South Sudan,” said Ting.
He said that dream to realize all the objectives of the South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics has been hampered by various challenges such as conflict which has diverted resources away from development, adding that with the improving peace and security they are undertaking steps to realize their objectives.
Ting said that they plan to build a statistical system known as NSDS2 to aid development in the country.
“We’re working with different U.N agencies in order to provide resources for us to build a stronger repository. We now have a server which is under the Migration and Demography Department,” he said.