Sudan Data and Statistics Strengthening Project

dropped

Proposed Development Objective: to strengthen Sudan’s Central Bureau of Statistics to produce and disseminate quality data andpromote usage of statistics for evidence-based policy-making.The financing instrument is an Investment Project Financing (IPF)project in the amount of US$50 million from the International Development Association (IDA) in grant terms. The projectimplementing agency is the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which is the governmental institution entrusted with implementingofficial surveys and censuses in Sudan and to produce official poverty estimates. CBS is a semi-autonomous institution, with HQ inKhartoum and branch offices in all states of Sudan. The project will involve working with other government ministries, agencies anddepartments that produce and disseminate data (i.e. administrative data).The project is structured around four components: (1)Institutional Reform and Human Capacity Development, (2) Data Production and Dissemination, (3) Population and Housing Census, and(4) Project Management and Monitoring and Evaluation. Component 1: Institutional Reform and Human Capacity Development. Supportpreparation of a new National Statistical Development Strategy (NSDS). Discussions are ongoing for preparing a new NSDS for Sudan.The European Union has hired Expertise France to help CBS with the NSDS preparation. The NSDS 2 will be prepared according to aparticipatory and interactive approach between the CBS as the main component of statistical production and the rest of thestakeholders in the statistical system in Sudan, including ministries, government institutions, the private sector, civil society,development and research institutions, and with the participation of international organizations interested in the statisticalfield. In terms of methodology, the NSDS 2 will depend on the methodological document for preparing national strategies fordeveloping statistics prepared by Paris 21, considering the specificity of management and governance of the statistical system inSudan. The plan is to finalize the new NSDS (covering the period 2022-2026) by December 2021, drawing on lessons learned from NSDS1. Ideally, the NSDS should be developed first and used to prepare the activities proposed under this project. This project willcontribute to finalizing the NSDS. A draft NSDS will be available during project preparation and will inform design. The strategywill also allow to build a pipeline project before this project comes to an end.This component will also support strengthening ofSudan’s legal and institutional framework for statistics including: (i) updating the legal and regulatory framework governingstatistics; and (ii) reorganization of CBS structures, policies and procedures to align with corporate priorities, all through theprovision of training and technical advisory services. Statistical advocacy will be part of this component to promote the use ofdata. International experience indicates promoting data use are as important as producing data. The 2018 World Bank report on Datafor Development concludes that the World Bank has been more effective at fostering client countries’ data production capacity, andless effective in promoting data use. This activity will allow to increase the profile of statistics to improve demand for and useof statistics, inform the process of government, promoting accountability, transparency, good governance, democracy and to managefor results. It will involve media awareness campaign statistical literacy), training of journalists on dissemination ofstatistical information and statistical coordination and partnership building. Development of the Statistical literacy activitywill draw on tools and lessons from a previous World Bank project: Evidence Base Program (Sudan): Stats & Data Literacy Knowledge &Learning (P161370). This component will also involve improving ICT and statistical infrastructure. The project will fund an upgradeof the ICT infrastructure to ensure efficient workflows for data processing and analysis, data archiving, data disseminationincluding a micro-data library as well as modern GIS processing, storage and dissemination. It will ensure that CBS has afunctioning website. Finally, this component will involve strengthening human Capacity.Component 2: Data Production andDissemination. This will include supporting implementation of the 2021 Sudan Household Budget and Poverty Survey (SHBPS). Thealready existing SHBPS project is financed by two Trust Funds (Sudan Transition and Recovery Support – STARS and SudanMulti-Partner Fund - SMPF). However, only $2.2 million out of the required $3.8 million for the survey has been secured. Thefunding gap of $1.6 million will be filled by this project and will allow to collect data that can be disaggregated at the statelevel. This project will also plan to conduct a follow up SHBPS after 3-4 years to update poverty and social indicators in Sudan,where data can quickly become outdated due to the fluid context. This project will also consider establishing a light and regulardata collection system to track trends in living conditions (poverty and other key socio-economic indicators) at relatively highfrequency between SHBPS surveys. This will allow to monitor and track emerging crises in near real-time. A subsequent SHBPS willinclude modules on labor force and IDPs). This component will also improve implementation of price statistics feeding into theconsumer price index by modernization of data collection using technology (i.e. moving from paper to CAPI data collection). Thiscomponent will revise and upgrade the System of National Accounts, which form the backbone of the national statistical system.Currently, National Accounts are estimated based on incomplete data such as missing informal sector data. An informal sector surveywill be conducted under this project to understand the role of the informal economy and build evidence base for formulation offuture programs and strategies. In addition, this component will help to address administrative data gaps by integrating ministriesand agencies into the national statistical system to harness, complement and improve available data that they gather throughroutine data collection systems. It will involve assessing the quality and improving availability of administrative data forselected sectors (e.g. education and health). This will build on a recently completed World Bank-funded statistical capacitybuilding project (P167988), to strengthen administrative data in selected sectors (e.g. education, health sectors, etc.). Lessonslearned from that project will help with designing this activity. Finally, this component will also help to improve disseminationof statistics by supporting digital dissemination through websites and dashboards, inclusion of gender-, disability- and spatiallydisaggregated statistics as well as improving the timeliness of statistics by using advanced release calendars. Component 3:Population and Housing Census. The World Bank Fifth Population Census of Sudan project (P099327) supported implementation of thelast census in 2008 with funding from a Multi-Donor Trust Fund. The Sixth census was planned for 2018 based on internationalstandards. However, while the Government is interested in conducting a new census, the fiscal space has been a challenge, coupledwith recent political crisis. Sudan has now started preparations for a new census with the immediate objective to produce reliableand accurate demographic, economic and social data that can be used as benchmark for development planning. This will enable theprimary target groups- the government, the international development and humanitarian community to have accurate and reliable datato formulate and monitor their plans. The Central Bureau of Statistics has been mandated to conduct the population census. UnitedNations Population Fund (UNFPA) is providing technical support to CBS and managing the procurement aspects. The census