DUSAHNBE, June 20, Asia-Plus -- On Monday June 19, the Government of Tajikistan and the World Bank signed in Dushanbe two agreements on providing funds for a project aimed at modernization and strengthening of potentials of the national statistical system in the country - the IDA- Financing Agreement and SIDA and DFID Grant Agreement.  

According to information from the WB Dushanbe Office, the estimated total cost of the project is around US$ 5.07 million.  The Government of Tajikistan’s contribution is around US$ 872,000, and pledges from other donors, including DFID and SIDA, to date amount to US$ 3.2 million. Both donors agreed on putting their contributions into a Bank managed trust fund for the implementation of the project, which is now established and operational.  

“The most important aspect of the project is that it is comprehensive and helps improving the capacity of not only the State Committee for Statistics but the whole statistical system of Tajikistan including many line ministries,” said Mustafa Dinc, the head of World Bank team designing the project, adding that “by the end of this project Tajikistan will have a well functioning statistical system that will provide timely, reliable and good quality statistics for public and private decision making process about investments, economic development and poverty reduction efforts.”

The overall goal of the project is to modernize the national statistical system and improve its efficiency and effectiveness to ensure the provision of relevant, timely and reliable data for evidence-based policy making in support of government’s poverty reduction strategy and the process of economic development.

 The major components of the project include: 1) Organizational Development through improving policy, regulatory and institutional framework and organizational structure of the national statistical system; 2) Human Resource Development through human resource management framework, training of statistical data producers to improve their technical skills including introduction of new standards, methodologies and managerial skills; 3) Development of Statistical Infrastructure  which includes improving sample frames, establishment and improvement of registers for enterprises and individual entrepreneurs, and developing a unified classification system; 4) Data Development  through upgrading data collection mechanisms -household surveys and censuses, sectoral statistics, including National Accounts, price statistics, and socio-demographic statistics; 5) Physical Infrastructure and Equipment including improvement of IT structure, transportation and other equipment; and 6) Project Management.