Strive to use latest statistics, says official

HUYE- The Head of Development Cooperation at the Netherlands Embassy in Rwanda, Jolke Oppewal, Wednesday urged the government to strive to incorporate new and up-to-date statistics within its activities. Opening a three-day international seminar on Statistical Education and Development in Rwanda, Oppewal noted that most surveys in the country date back to 2005. The seminar was organised by the Department of Applied Statistics (DAS), Faculty of Economics and Management, National University of Rwanda (NUR) in collaboration with the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). “I hope that the DAS and the NISR will be the torch bearers in order to achieve the country’s goals set in the Vision 2020,” said Oppewal. He commended the country’s desire for evidence based policy making and promised his government’s support to building statistical capacity in Rwanda. Oppewal revealed that Rwanda is among five countries that qualified for support under the statistics for development facility, a project aimed at supporting statistical capacity within selected countries. The US5-7million dollar facility is supported by the Netherlands and the UK governments. The seminar drew various experts in applied statistics, demography and policy analysis from within Africa and Europe. During the three day seminar participants will assess statistical education and capacity building in Rwanda. They will also develop and revise curricula for Applied Statistics at the NUR. Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, the NUR Rector noted that evidence based policy-making is crucial in the development of any economy. He observed that in the current era of globalisation, there is need to develop statistical systems that should be to match the global statistical standards. The Department of Applied Statistics at NUR was started in 2005 with support from the consortium of the Development Research Institute at Tilburg University and the department of Human Geography and planning of the Faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht. Since its inception in 2005, the DAS has graduated 36 students and currently has a total of 299 students. Ends