Statistics and its role in socio – economic developments

Abstract

“An essential component of any development planning is data.Without data, a country’s efforts to plan for future 
growth and welfare of its people cannot be grounded in reality and therefore may be severaly flawed”. 
Hon. Prof. Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, Minister for Planning and National Development, Kenya 
This paper is about the important role that statistics plays in poverty reduction that is a great social problem and 
economic development.The role and the power of statistics is recognized in the design and implementation 
stages of country policy frameworks, such as Poverty Reduction Strategies.The role of statistics consists also in 
monitoring progress towards the internationally agreed Millenium Developmet Goals (MDG).What are the MDG 
targets? 
To reduce the number of underweight children, and the percentage of children who do not go to school 
To halve the proportion of people living in poverty and suffering from hunger 
To push back child and maternal mortality etc. 
The role of statistics consists in the improving of transparency and accountability of policy making, and it’s 
important to say that good statistics are essential to manage the effective delivery of basic services. Good 
statistics help donors by informing aid allocation decisions and by monitoring the use of aid and development 
outcomes. So, statistics are important to development progress, not just to monitor progress but to help drive the 
outcomes that the statistics are measuring.But recognising the critical role of statistics is one thing:doing 
something about it is another.Much more remains to be done to ensure the better use of better statistics as part 
of the enabling environment for development.In order to develop stastics most effectively and efficiently are 
necessary financial resources, but in most developing countries these resources are limited. This objective 
should be achieved by implementing strategic statistical plans, National Strategies for the Development of 
Statistics.New instruments have also been created to increase financingfor countries to improve their statistical 
capacity such as the World Bank’s Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building.