Page 405 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 6

CPS2000 Agnes M. N. Ssekiboobo
graduate diploma programmes which are run for one year include
postgraduate Diploma in Demography and postgraduate Diploma in
Statistics; the postgraduate Diploma in Population and Reproductive Health is
due to start next academic year.
The Master’s degree programmes are run for two years and include Master
of Statistics, Master of Science in Quantitative Economics, Master of Science
in Population and Reproductive Health, Master of Arts in Demography, Master
of Arts in Population and Development, and Master of Science in Population
Studies. The last three Masters programmes are going to be phased out and
replaced with the Master of Demography and Population Studies. All Ph.D.
programmes take at least three and half years and a maximum of five years.
They include Ph.D. in Population Studies and Ph.D. in Statistics.
Short courses and workshops are conducted by SSP from time to time to
meet specific skills needs of user countries. In addition to these programmes,
SSP services statistics courses in different schools and departments. In turn,
SSP is serviced by the Department of Mathematics and the School of
Economics.

3.1. The changing environment
The last two decades have been a time of unprecedented challenges
as well as opportunities for statistical development in Africa both of which
stem from the new focus on managing for results. It has also led to
unprecedented increase in demand for data (both a challenge and an
opportunity) and exposed the weaknesses of National Statistical Systems
in most African countries to meet this demand. In order to mitigate or
eliminate weaknesses in their statistical systems, countries have
undertaken statistical reforms, reengineered the statistical systems and
designed National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDSs).
All this has posed a new challenge for the SSP and other statistical training
centres to produce more relevant professionals and to reposition
themselves to play a greater role in shaping the development of statistics
in Africa (ISAE, 2007).
The evaluation of the implementation of the Addis Ababa Plan of
Action which was undertaken in 2000 also raised a number of concerns
about statistical capacity building in Africa. These included the fact that:
training especially at Universities tends to be theoretical; training is done
from the “supply side” and generally crowds out “demand issues”; and
there was insufficient collaboration between training centres and National
Statistics Offices (NSOs) (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
(UNECA), 2000).

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