Modernizing Ethiopia’s Statistical System

pipeline

The Ethiopia Statistics Project – Modernizing Ethiopia’s Statistical System (MESS) - aims to strengthen Ethiopia’s National Statistical System (NSS) by modernizing institutions, methods, and infrastructure to produce timely, high-quality, accessible, and policy-relevant data in support of the country’s economic reform agenda and long-term development goals. Building on past investments and aligned with the Ethiopia Statistical Development Plan (ESDP) and broader macroeconomic reforms under the Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda, the project aims to address data gaps, fragmented systems, limited interoperability, and weak adoption of new technologies that have constrained evidence-based policymaking, especially amid recent economic shocks and conflict. Through four integrated components, the project will (i) expand and modernize core data sources by financing priority household, demographic, and economic surveys, strengthening administrative data systems, and piloting new data sources such as satellite imagery and big data; (ii) improve data quality, standards, dissemination, and use by upgrading national accounts and CPI, expanding regional statistics, and establishing microdata access and modern dissemination platforms; (iii) build human, IT, and institutional capacity to support a transition toward an integrated national data system; and (iv) ensure effective project management and coordination.