The conference was organised to celebrate and raise public awareness on the importance and impact of statistics on the socio-economic planning, and measuring towards evidence-based decision making.
For this year’s theme “Supporting education by modernizing the production of fit-for-purpose statistics,” which aligned with the African Union theme for 2024 “Educate and Skill Africa for the 21st Century,” emphasises inclusive modernisation of data ecosystem across the continent.
In line with this year’s theme, GBoS since January 2024, has improved its Bureau’s ICT infrastructure and digital technologies through the World Bank HISWACA grant. This facilitation has enhanced the easy access to data collection and timely data dissemination to the general public, which published quality data of The Gambia’s statistical products.
Deputy Statistician General Alieu Saho in his opening remarks highlighted the importance of fostering collaboration between data producers and users. “The forum ensures that the producers of data not only receive feedback on statistics produced, but also enhances effective communication and coordination of statistical work within government departments as well as with other important stakeholders such as development partners, the private sector and other researchers.
“This year, the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) has made several achievements, including the conduct of the 2024 population and housing census, launched the new national strategy for the development of statistics (NSDS Ill, 2028-2024) which is in alignment with the government's development plan (RF-NDP, 2023-2027), the AU Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the conduct of the Gambia Social Registry Phase 4 data collection (in progress) and production of the 2023 statistical year-book . The Bureau is also in the process of launching the 2024 Economic Census which provides information on all business entities; i.e both profit and nonprofit making, engaged in the production of goods and services within The Gambia,” he said.
Chairman of the National Statistician Council, Mr. Sering Falu Njie, highlighted the importance of ASD as it is a day of reckoning and reflection, fostering encouraging dialogue. He noted that the event fosters discussion between policymakers and other development partners to ensure best use of data, promote transparency, and facilitate communication.
Mr. Njie reiterated that ASD aimed to ensure civil society, academia, private sector and other stakeholders have the complementary and supplementary roles to play as significant contributors to the traditional data users.
