Dr Chris Mukiza, the executive director and chief statistician of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), has called for professional independence within the statistics fraternity.
He made this call while making his submission at the recently- concluded 56th session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council Statistical Commission in New York. He also seized the moment to address concerns surrounding support cut to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS).
Dr Mukiza urged countries not to dwell on the setback, citing Uganda’s success in conducting the seventh round of UDHS without external technical support. He called for professional independence and strengthening of statistical infrastructure by urging countries to build internal capacity for household surveys like UDHS programmes.
He encouraged partner states to benchmark as a strategy to improve technical capacity emphasizing the importance of strengthening professionalism in statistical production and dissemination of quality official statistics.
Dr Mukiza underscored the importance of the statistical development, as a key ingredient in fostering informed policy-making and resource allocation. During his remarks, he also emphasized the need for global collaboration in addressing statistical gaps that hinder national development.
“The discussion and decision at this 56th session of the UN Economic and Social Council Statistical Commission will shape a new era in understanding the statistical demands and ensuring that the we respond to such data needs in a timely manner,” he noted.
Uganda’s active participation in the 56th UN Economic and Social Council Statistical Commission presents the country’s commitment to advancing the global statistical agenda. Dr Mukiza’s presentation at the session underlined Uganda’s position in building a “World Class National Statistics Office”.
It further demonstrates Uganda’s interests in discussing statistical development not only in Africa but world over. His call for statistical independence and capacity-building within National Statistical Systems (NSS) is a reminder of the importance of investing in data infrastructure to ensure that countries can meet the demands of the 2030 Agenda.
“The issue of harmonized administrative data remains critical in nation building”, he emphasized.
This year’s session was particularly significant, as it focused on two major initiatives: the 2030 World Population and Housing Census Program and the System of National Accounts 2025. Li Junhua, the UN undersecretary general from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, noted that these programs are not only crucial for measuring the progress of the SDGs but are also instrumental in monitoring global economic trends, including the rise of the digital economy.
“The decisions made at this Session are expected to influence how countries approach data collection, analysis, and reporting in the years ahead,” he said.
Uganda’s delegation also included Ubos board member Dr Allen Kabagenyi and Dr Sam Mugume, an assistant commissioner in the Finance ministry. Others were Samuel Echoku, the Ubos head of department, Economic Statistics, Johnson Galande, a senior statistician at Ubos and Karen Akampa, an IT officer at Ubos.