Introduction

1. THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY (EAC)STATISTICAL CAPACITY BUILDING TOWARDS HARMONISED AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS IN THE EAC PARTNER STATES28 – 31 October, 2009Accra, Ghana

2. Introduction • The EAC is a Regional Economic Bloc composed of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. • The mandate of the EAC emanates from the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC), Article 5(2) • Currently, the community has achieved a customs union and just finalized negotiations of Common Market protocol that will be signed next month by the summit of the EAC heads of state. Preparations for the monetary union are in the initial stages.

3. Statistics programs • The EAC statistical program aims at provision of reliable, timely and comparable statistics to the policy making organs of the community to facilitate decision making and effective service delivery in the community. • EAC applies the principle of subsidiarity and therefore the development regional statistics is anchored on the national statistical systems of the EAC partner States

4. The statistics programs are focused at • Maintenance of an updated statistics database covering all the socio-economic areas of the region’s economies including agricultural statistics indicators • Ensuring availability of regionally comparable data through a program of harmonization of statistics of the different subject areas including agricultural statistics with focus on capacity building programs of the major compilers.

5. Agricultural statistics harmonization Development of statistics in the EAC is a priority due to: • the EAC Partner States are predominantly agricultural based both as major economic activity and employer. • last extraordinary summit of the heads of states in 2008 in Kigali noted the raising food prices in the region and directed the secretariat to create a mechanism to handle food security

6. The program aims at: • helping EAC Partner States harmonize and adopt international standards, codes and best practices in the production and dissemination of regionally comparable agricultural statistics. • Harmonisation is to be done through building capacity at a national level in compilation of comparable and reliable agricultural statistics • Capacity built will lead to production of robust regionally and internationally comparable agricultural statistics that will contribute to the development of sound regional policies and approaches to agricultural sector development.

7. Areas of focus for capacity building • Towards adoption of common concepts/definitions, procedures and methodologies for compilation of agricultural statistics in line with the international best practices. • Identification of strategies for enhancing dissemination and utilization of agricultural data • Building skills in advocacy and resource mobilization for agricultural statistics programs

8. Development of a comprehensive data base with capabilities for easy storage and retrieval to facilitate information exchange and dissemination with a view of running a program on regionstat • Providing clear linkages of agricultural data and development frameworks such as MDG, PRS, NEPAD, • Providing platform for comprehensive exchange of experiences among EAC Partner States and encouraging south-south cooperation • Young professionals development program

9. Outcome • Strengthen technical capacities of national statistical institutions, Ministries responsible for agriculture and other relevant agencies in compilation of agricultural statistics. • Reduced costs through sharing procedures and training programmes • Enhanced data comparisons among EAC Partner States by adopting common approaches to compilation • Support the sharing of tools and equipment where practical

10. Prepare common strategies for use in advocacy and resource mobilization. • Prepare the young professionals for continuity of application of best practices in agric stat compilation. THANK YOU/ AHSANTE SANA