Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
29
Similarly, the Regional Office of the Global Strategy for Asia and the Pacific initiated efforts in
late 2011 to evaluate the capacity of countries in the region.18
The Standard Capacity Assessment Questionnaire (CAQ) sets out to assess the quality of
agricultural and rural statistics in four key dimensions comprising of: institutional
infrastructure, resources, statistical methods, and statistical information and availability. The
indicators used for each of these dimensions are presented in Table 15.19
Table 15: Composite Indicators of the Agricultural Data Quality Framework
Capacity Indicator I
(Prerequisites:
institutional
infrastructure)
Capacity Indicator II
(Input: resources)
Capacity Indicator III
(Throughput: methods
and practices)
Capacity Indicator IV
(Output: availability
of statistical
information)
 Legal framework
 Coordination in
statistical system
 Strategic vision and
planning
 Integration of
agriculture in the
national statistical
system
 Relevance (user
interface)
 Financial
 Human resources
 Statistical software
capability
 Data capture
technology
 IT infrastructure
 International
classifications
 General statistical
activities
 Agricultural market
and price
information
 Agricultural surveys
 Analysis and use of
data
 Core data
availability
 Timeliness
 Quality, reliability
and consistency of
data
 Data accessibility
 Quality
consciousness
Source: Castano et.al, 2013.
Recently, the Regional Office for Near East (RNE) of FAO conducted a CA survey in the Middle
Eastern countries. In addition, FAO’s biennial country assessments in Africa were carried out
within the framework of the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS), looking at
the current state of agricultural statistical systems in member countries. The most
comprehensive CA was undertaken in 2007 and 2009, covering 49 countries.
The preliminary results of these initiatives are summarized in Table 16. The first five columns
present the preliminary results of the Agricultural Statistics Capacity Indicators (ASCI)
calculated by AfDB and FAO for Africa, Asia and Middle East. The sixth column is slightly older
but presents a comprehensive composite Agricultural Statistics Development Index (ASDI).
The seventh column repeats the World Bank’s overall SCI presented previously in Table 14.
18 Chinganya et.al. 2013.
19 Ibid