Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
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2 Assessing State of Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC
Region
2.1 Dimensions of Assessing Agricultural Statistics
Different indicators are developed and used by different organizations to measure the state of
development of the statistical systems or to assess the quality of statistics produced at
different levels. Table 3 presents a review of some these major indicators. The indicators
employed to quantify the dimensions summarized in Table 3are given in Annex 2.
Table 3: Different Measures Proposed for Assessment of Agricultural Statistics
Quality
Dimensions
EU
EUROSTATa
IMF
DOAFb
OECD
SDc
FAO
ICASd
ADQAFe
WB
BBSC f
COMCEC
IASDg
Organization
Integrity
Relevance
Accuracy
Timeliness
Accessibility
Comparability
Coherence
Methodology
Serviceability
Credibility
Interpretability
Cost-Efficiency
Completeness
Resources
Outputs
Data Source
Sources: a: FAO, 2006; b: IMF, 2014; c: OECD, 2014; d: FAO, 2012; e: Ouma and Mayinza, 2010;
f. World Bank, 2014a; g: Current Study.
As can be seen from the assessment dimensions summarized above, all have similar indicators
grouped in various packages under different headings. It is also important to note that the
most detailed indicators deviating somewhat from the others are those from EUROSTAT and
OECD, which are theoretical and not yet operational at full scale.
In this study, a similar set of indicators is used to assess the state of agricultural statistics in
the COMCEC Member Countries under the following 6 dimensions: