BANGUI, March 31, 2017 – Today, the World Bank Group approved a $10 million grant to the Government of the Central African Republic to support the modernization and professionalization of statistics production in the country.
The conflict has affected the statistical system in CAR badly. This project helps rebuild the statistical system by rehabilitating building, recovering documents and data, and making these available to the public. The project supports the production of new data that is needed to inform policy making and to monitor the recovery and peace building process. The project supports autonomy for the Institut Centrafricain des Statistiques, des Etudes Economiques et Sociales (ICASEES) and introduces modern management including performance based approaches.
“This grant is critical for ICASEES and will allow the institute to once again play a central role in the production of statistics in the country,” said Roy Katayama, World Bank Task Team Leader of the project.
This grant is part of the Turn Around Facility, a $ 250 million dollar package committed by the World Bank following the successful donor roundtable in Brussels in November 2016. The aim is to enable ICASEES to modernize statistics production, to professionalize management and to fill important data gaps. All data produced will be shared publicly to inform decision makers, private sector operators, researchers and citizens. Improving the country’s official statistics was identified as a national policy objective in the National Recovery and Peacebuilding Plan (RCPCA).
“This grant will help policy makers greatly,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, Country Manager for the World Bank in Bangui. “Some of the early results of this project, the Enquête Nationale sur les Monographies Communales (ENMC) have already proved to be very useful to design new projects by the World Bank. Our expectations are very high and we look forward to the implementation of this project and to seeing more results.”
The project supports the preparation of the new household census, finances a living condition survey (used to measure poverty) and additional rounds of the ENMC-survey. The project invests in the creation of a website and web archive and aims to improve the production of data on agriculture and private enterprises. The project also supports revisions of the Consumer Price Index and the National Accounts. Implementing these activities will substantially expand the evidence base available for enacting economic and social policies critical to economic recovery and informing investments decisions in the social sectors across the territory.
The statistical operation is directly aligned with the objectives of the Country Engagement Note for the Central African Republic and the Turn Around Facility. The World Bank Group’s support to the Central African Republic focuses on stabilization to break the cycle of violence and support to recovery and economic and social development.
