Multiple Indicator Survey 7: NBS, UNICEF Empowers Partners For Inclusive, Accurate Data Collection
To ensure inclusive and accurate data collection for the seventh round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS7), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has organised a workshop for partners.
Given this, a national steering group and a technical committee comprised of professionals from the government, UNICEF, and academia have gathered in the workshop to brainstorm on the most innovative ways of collecting data and estimations. The goal is to ensure inclusiveness in the data to be collected for the MICS7 which will be inaugurated in 2026.
This was disclosed by Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, Statistician General of the Federation/ Chief Executive Officer (NBS) while declaring open the workshop for the seventh round of MICS and National Immunisation Coverage Survey (NICS), on Tuesday, in Lagos.
According to Adeniran, MICS/NICS is one of the surveys that organisations, governments, and policymakers use to decide how to formulate programmes, projects, and policies as well as monitor those projects even as he announced that Nigerian MICS has always been the best, not just in Africa but also worldwide, because it is the largest and of the highest quality.
Participants in the workshop include academicians, statistician Generals of all the states of the Federation, Federal and State Bureau of Statistics officers, stakeholders, and Civil Society Organisations
Adeniran reminded the participants that MICS collects vital data on 130+ indicators for children’s and women’s well-being and that MICS7 dictators enhance data quality and availability in Nigeria.
This he said will ensure that high-quality, timely, disaggregated data on children are readily available for government planning, policies, and program implementation.
According to him, these indicators help assess the well-being of children, women, and men in areas such as health, education, immunisation, and child protection, among others as well as ensure that high-quality, timely, disaggregated data on children are readily available for government planning, policies, and program implementation.
Prince Adeniran while explaining that the MICS 6 exercise was carried out in the mid-1990s noted that the workshop is one of the series of workshops to be held before enumerators are sent to different areas for data collection and analysis.
“This workshop is one of the series of workshops we are going to organise with UNICEF before the commencement of enumeration and at the end of the day, we will design questionnaires to be given out to respondents across various cities and villages in the country for their response.
“It is also a workshop where we are going to determine the number of households and enumeration areas we are going to visit such that we will be able to cover all the nooks and crannies of the country.
“Whatever we do must be designed in such a way that it meets government expectation so that they can use the result of the survey to measure the performance and progress made in it is areas of priority as well as moving forward.
“As you are aware, this is one of the surveys that is used by government, policymakers, and other Institutions to measure their progress and chart a new course of moving forward, and as such, I urge participants to come out with useful ideas and feedback on how best the survey can be carried out,” he stressed
The Statistician-General also noted that at the end of the survey that will be implemented from 2024-2026, they will have enough samples that will represent a true reflection of what is on the ground.
He stated that they decided to involve academicians for the first time in data collection and analysis to make them contribute their ideas on how to organise a generally accepted data survey as well as equip them with enough information on their research teachings to their students.
The Statistician General further stated that Nigeria has always been the best and largest data collection country both in Africa and globally not only in size but quality of analysis as well as the most cited and used by researchers.
Speaking at the workshop, UNICEF Chief Planning and Monitoring Officer in Nigeria, Wayne Amago Bacale, and Monitoring Specialist UNICEF West and Central Africa, Stephanie Kauv explained that the benefits of the workshop are enormous. It will enable participants to measure the progress recorded since the last one was carried out.
They stated that there are 23 indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that they are tracking and this is the seventh in the series and that the analysis obtained at the end of the exercise will guide the government in policy implementation
The UNICEF representatives further explained that many stakeholders and academicians were involved in the workshop to share ideas on the methodology of the multiple indicator survey and get feedback and suggestions from them to make sure that the methodology is acceptable taking into account the context in Nigeria.
The workshop will be rounded up on Friday, July 26, 2024.
