Regional Workshop
Strategic Planning for
Agricultural and Rural Statistics
Bangkok 17-19 March 2015
SPARS: Launch, Assessment and Planning
Christophe DUHAMEL Global Office FAO
Carola FABI Global Office FAO
SPARS Objectives
To provide countries with a basis for
• Establishing policy strengths and priorities
• Identify data needs, gaps, deficiencies,
duplications and inconsistencies
• Define future short- and long-term statistical
programs and interventions
• Use SPARS as a building block in the NSDS
Guidelines Objectives
To support country staff
• with a coherent and logical structure to design
and implement SPARS,
• With specific guidance as they implement the
logical plans,
• With a reference document that provides
recommendations in line with NSDS guidelines
developed by Paris21
Background
• Lack of integration of agricultural and rural
statistics into NSS contributed to their decline in
quantitative and qualitative terms
• Data are produced by several line ministries and
agencies: difficulties in coordinating, lack of
standards, duplications of work
• Scarce awareness of data producers on users
needs and policy initiatives
• On their end, policy makers make little use of
available data
Rationale
SPARS guidelines were developed to address
several issues:
•Evidence that the ag sector was not sufficiently
mainstreamed into the first round of the NSDS
•They are the second pillar of the global strategy
•Agricultural and rural statistics systems are
complex and specific issues deserve specific
solutions
•Need to simplify the NSDS approach
Overview: design process
1. Launch Phase Understanding, acknowledging, committing
Preparing
Integrating the SPARS in the NSDS
How to do it in practice?
2. Assessment Phase
3. Planning Phase Vision and Mission
Strategic Goals and Outputs: building a logframe
Action Planning
How to do it in practice?
Launching
Assessment
Planning
Launching
An inception and preparatory phase, the LAUCHING phase,
is important before carrying out the assessment to :
1. Raise Understanding, Acknowledging, Committing:
Raise awareness of national authorities on the importance
of strategic planning and buy them in
2. Do Preparation work: building a constituency, creating a
design team and develop a road map
*16
Understanding and
acknowledging …
…. by national stakeholders is a pre-requisite
1. Obtain recognition that agricultural statistics are essential
for development and that the current systems not always
meet demands demonstrate the importance of
statistics to the economy of the country
2. Recognize that a strategic planning approach is
necessary to bring change collectively manage
critical weaknesses and gaps, and use effectively scarce
resources or raise statistics profile and sustainability
*16
The 10 essentials of SPARS
design
• Backed by political support, nationally led and owned;
• Designed through a sound methodological approach, including M&E
mechanisms;
• Mainstreamed into the NSDS national process (if any);
• Covering the whole agricultural and rural sector;
• Policy and results based on quality fit for purpose;
• Taking into account what is in place and international commitments;
• Drawing on international statistical standards;
• Setting out an integrated and realistic statistical capacity building
programme;
• Funded by governments for its implementation;
• Serving as a coherence framework for external assistance.
*18
High level commitment..
…. Is necessary also to increase funding, and extending use
of statistical information to policy and decision-making
• The highest level of the Ministries of Agriculture should
champion the process
• Leadership at political level should be required throughout
the process and beyond
• All major decisions should be approved at high level to
ensure real ownership
*19
How to do it in practice?
• Preliminary advocacy work , e.g. meeting organized by
the MoA with high level authorities (government) resulting
in a draft document
• Obtain PUBLIC acknowledgement e.g. during an
international or national event, or in the framework of the
implementation of the Global Strategy, or through official
correspondence with development partners
• Take immediate action after commitment is made
• Organize an inaugural workshop
*19
Preparing phase
i. Decide WHO is managing the overall process of the
SPARS;
ii. building a constituency on several levels;
iii. establishing a team responsible for the design;
iv. identifying and engaging stakeholders and champions;
v. explaining how the SPARS will be integrated in the
NSDS process;
vi. developing a roadmap as a guiding document for the
full design of the SPARS
*21
i. Managing the process
• Which agency should be in charge of the overall
management of the SPARS process: coordinate SPARS
design and integration into the NSDS?
– Inclusive process bringing together the sub-sectors, experts,
working groups and development parners
• MoA or NSO? Link to agricultural policies, vs legal
responsibility for coordinating the NSS
NB. Managing the SPARS means managing change
NB. To a large extent, processes are country-specific (is
there an NSDS or not? NSS arrangements to consider?)
*22
ii. Building the constituency
Inclusiveness is key, the process needs specific
governance structure that should be based as far as
possible on existing structures.
3 recommended levels:
• A Steering Committee on Agriculture Statistics (SCA):
relevant representatives of significant stakeholders
• A Technical Working Committee on Agriculture Statistics
(TWA) : permanent Secretariat of the SCA, SPARS
coordinator
• Sub-Sectoral Technical Working Committees (S-TWA)
*24
iii. Establishing the design
team
• The Design Team is responsible for guiding the SPARS
process
– Members should be carefully selected for their commitment and
willingness
– They should become the implementing body of the SCA
• SPARS coordinator is a high level manager who should
lead the team, be the focal point in the TWA, represent agriculture
in the NSDS interagency committee
• Sub-sector strategies may require additional agreements
*26
iv. Stakeholders and champions
Have a strategic view: identify and characterize
stakeholders
• Who they are? Their objectives? Motivations? Sphere of
influence?
• Users, producers in all sub-sectors, development
partners, researchers ..
• Sub-sectors are the key to success for NSS coordination
Identify champions
• High level champions for advocacy, policy and strategy
• (mid-)Management for internal buy-in
*27
v. Integrating the SPARS in
the NSDS
• Integration is an ongoing process during the design and
the implementation
• It entails combining approaches, statistical programmes,
tools and bringing key players together
• The approach to follow will depend on the NSDS status:
whether in place, under design or not in place ..
The integration should help:
• Developing a master sampling frame and a common data
management system
• Align calendars
*29
vi. Drafting the roadmap
• The road map outlines the organization of the work
– Activities, schedule, resources
• The quality of the road map impacts on the SPARS
overall quality
• The road map should provide practical answers to the
inherent questions (how to do, what to do, who, when)
Four principles for the road map:
• Participatory and Inclusive process
• High level endorsement of main decisions
• Tailored to country specific conditions
• Encompasses all the official statistical production
*31
How to do it in practice?
• Clarify roles or the MoA and NSO as soon as possible
• Build on existing coordination structures (National Council
for Statistics of NSDS Inter-Agency Committee)
• Put the structure in place as soon as possible, assign
Roles and Responsibilities, ToR
• Sequence: TWA nominates the SPARS coordinator and
Design Team members.
– Consider ad hoc training for Design Team members
• Use a Stakeholder mapping exercise (by TWA) to
identify stakeholders and champions
How to do it in practice?
Draft by the Design team. Step-wise process:
• Briefing with the main stakeholders at the beginning of the process;
• Meeting bilaterally with important stakeholders (producers and users)
to finalize proposals on the constituency and sectoral working
committees;
• Designing the roadmap document;
• Drafting the budget for the design and identifying potential sources of
funding for the design;
• Presenting the draft roadmap to stakeholders;
• Obtaining the final roadmap for endorsement.
Launching
Assessment
Planning
IdCA and SPARS
Assessing the agricultural statistical system is a key phase :
• It provides an input in preparing strategic objectives and
action plans
• It serves as a benchmark to measure progress
• It serves to advocate support and capacity building among
national and international partners
N.B. Countries that already made an In-Depth Country Assessment -
> light assessment only
*34
Light assessment
• Use the IdCA as an input for SPARS assessment
• Important to cover user’s satisfaction dimension which
was not part of IdCA process
• Ask for changes in responsibilities, additional surveys,
unforeseen events that may have an impact
*44
Launching
Assessment
Planning
A results-based
management approach
Results chain in 4 main levels
• Start with your vision and mission statements
• Set your strategic goals/outcomes contributing to the
vision and mission …
• … and Define the corresponding outputs
• Design an action plan describing the activities to
produce the outputs
Use the results chain as a logframe to plan, monitor
and evaluate results!
*45
Planning:
Mission-Vision
Strategic Goals / Outputs
Action Plan
Mission and Vision
Where do we want to be in 5-10 years?
What is our business?
• Build a compelling vision for your future that contains
goals, values, beliefs and expected outcomes
• The mission that creates a commonality of interest,
that describes the purpose, customers, products,
markets, philosophy.
It should be short and pragmatic
*46
Mission and Vision
How to do it in practice?
Logically, the vision comes first and strategic goals are
then methods to achieve it
• Prepare various vision and mission proposals based on the
assessment, then develop the strategic objectives
• Be pragmatic: in reality the two processes proceed in parallel and
with iterations
• Be consistent between the vision and the mission
Communicate your vision/mission to staff and users
*47
Example: Peru
• Vision: to develop, generate and disseminate
agricultural statistics of high quality in an integrated and
harmonized manner in order to satisfy users’ demand
• Mission: to become a consolidated and sustainable
system able to support the decision making process in
the agricultural sector
*47
Planning:
Mission-Vision
Strategic Goals / Outputs
Action Plan
Strategic goals and
outputs
• What are the overall accomplishments to achieve =
identification of strategic goals and related outputs
• Strategic goals are broken down in outputs and later
activities described in the action plans
• Strategic goals cover in general the whole duration of the
plan while outputs and activities may not
*48
Strategic goals and
outputs: recommendations
• Should focus on structural changes which are more
likely to direct and sustain changes
• Strategic goals are about what is absolutely important and
feasible not what is desirable. Balance ambitions/means!
• Should take care about possible cross-cuttings with
overarching NSDS
• Remember that performance will be measured against
strategic goals !
*48
Examples of Strategic
Goals
• Improving coordination, management and legal framework of statistics
• Strengthening statistical processes and operations and improving their
quality
• Meeting the national demand and matching the international
requirements
• Developing a comprehensive HR strategy
• Investing in statistical and physical infrastructure
• Establishing better partnerships
• Developing a sector-wide financing strategy.
*49
Examples of Goal and
related outputs
• Strengthening statistical processes and operations and improving their
quality
– Fostering the use of a master sampling frame and promoting an integrated survey
framework approach;
– Conducting a standardization policy in close collaboration with the overall
NSS (i.e nomenclatures, definitions, geographic codes, etc.)
– Improving data collection linked to surveys and census programme;
– …
*49
1. Elaborating strategic goals and outputs at sub-sector
level
Use participatory process with sub-sector committees involving users,
producers, resource providers
Ensure consistency across sub-sectors (through design team)
2. Reviewing the proposals from the sub-sectors and
elaborating a synthesis at sector level
Prioritize actions at this stage, rank outputs, focus on few quick wins
3. Validation by the Technical Working Committee
*51 Strategic goals/outputs
How to do it in practice?
Planning:
Mission-Vision
Strategic Goals / Outputs
Action Plan
Action plan: final stage
• Defines who does what when
• Provides a tools for internal business management;
• Serves to negotiate resources with government/donors
• Structured document including:
• Core action plan
• Overall budget
• Calendar of censuses and surveys
• Advocacy-Communication Plan
• M&E framework
• Financing Plan
*53
The Core Action Plan
Must be realistic and consider the capacity of absorption
Must take into account the ongoing statistical programme,
activities in the NSDS and the changes
Must cover in details at least the first two years, and be more
approximate in the later years
Must cover a list of activities organized by outputs
Who will do what? When? How? In which order? For what?
Dependencies in activities must be identified for a better schedule
N.B. The Action Plan is a living document!
*53
The Core Budget
The Action Plan must be underpinned by a Core Budget
• Split current costs/investment by implementing action
• Describe how resources will be used, by main expenditure
items,
• Break-down by sub-sectors and activities
• Specify the expected burden on the national budget or
external financing requirements
Costing the SPARS can be difficult
*54
Calendar of Censuses and
Surveys Example: Tanzania
Survey Name
Frequency Year
2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19
Census of Population and Dwellings 10 yearly
Agricultural Sample Census 10 yearly
Annual Agriculture Sample Survey Annual Pilot Rollout Expanded
Module
National Panel Survey – LSMS ISA 2 yearly
Household Budget Survey 5 yearly
NBS Quarterly Production
Questionnaire Quarterly or Annually
Crop Forecasting and Early Warning Bi-weekly
Price monitoring routine collections
Wholesale (3x week);
Retail –monthly;
Livestock- weekly
Trade data routine collection
Fisheries Routine Data Collection
*56
Advocacy and
Communication plan
The SPARS is an opportunity for statistical advocacy
• Particularly important in the design phase to support discussion on
ownership, users/producers dialogue, funding and governance
The plan
• must reinforce confidence from the public, raise awareness and inform
stakeholders of the challenges ahead
• must identify target audiences and adapt the messages
The communication and advocacy plan requires technical,
human and financial resources to be successfully implemented
*56
The financing strategy
• Statistical development is a political matter, decisions taken
at the highest level
• Must be envisaged at the beginning of the process and
combined with advocacy at high level
• The Action Plan can be financed from national resources, or
from national and external resources: necessary dialogue
Optimal balance to be found
*58
Monitoring and Evaluation Plan
• Well-planned and continuing monitoring is important
• Requires well specified indicators and collection of basic
information for the baseline
• Frequency and responsible officer must be clearly identified
• Monitoring and reporting must be included in the logframe
*59
• will judge the relevance, performance, and success of the SPARS
• concerns the achievement of results, the effects and impacts on the global
goal of the SPARS
• must identify which expected results have not been achieved, and the
reasons for this
• takes place at few points in time
Mid-term evaluation
Final evaluation
Peer review
Monitoring & Evaluation must result in regular reporting
*61
Monitoring and Evaluation Plan
Planning
How to do it
in practice?
11 phases proposed
Planning: phases 1-6
Bottom-up approach
1. List of costed activities at sub-sector level by outputs
2. Synthesis of costed activities at sector level
3. Preparing a draft calendar of censuses and surveys
4. Preparing the advocacy/communication plan
5. Designing the M&E framework
6. Finalizing a financing strategy
*40
Planning: phases 7=11
7. Consolidating the SPARS document
8. Validation by the Technical Working group
9. Organisation of a national workshop
10. Preparing the final SPARS document
11. Validation by National authorities
*40
www.gsars.org
Thank You