Delving into this area is often a nightmare because little has been done even by the national statistical offices in Africa. It is a bear truth that national statistical offices have the duty of collecting and safeguarding all the data in a given country, but even a simple survey shows that none of them currently [...]

The just concluded international conference on climate governance in Berlin, Germany, held on the 15th June, 2010, organized by Inwent and Transparent International attempted to discuss the key issues of knowledge & information access, equity and the economy in addressing climate change. However, the common denominator seemingly emerged as failure to define equity! Does equity [...]

It seems straightforward, but a second-long pause reveals serious hitches especially when you intend to carry out this measurement in a developing country. Inwent (read as Invent), a Germany based, non-profit organisation with a major focus on Capacity Building with worldwide operations dedicated to human resource development, advanced training and dialogue delved into this important, [...]

Data discrepancy is a situation whereby different data collection methods about the same indicator for the same period of time produce statistically different data points. By statistically different, it is meant that although the sampling errors are indicated for the different data points, the data still remains different. It worth noting that differences in the [...]

A Model is a representation of the actual observable phenomenon. In the absence of an observable phenomenon, a framework is developed to represent it in order to proceed with the desirable inferences. In aeronautics, for example, costs are substantially reduced when one uses a model to design and test an aircraft or its spare parts before the [...]

In the previous posting, we made an attempt to understand what statistics is all about. Thanks for the compliments from all readers especially about the article ‘statistics aren’t just figures’, may God bless you to read even more! Let’s make an attempt to define statistics without reservations. Statistics is all encompassing and therefore, it would [...]

The magnitude of statistics should not be limited by only what is taught in class, rather there is a great need to attempt looking outside the statistical black box. Participating in the workshop at Windhoek, Namibia from 3rd – 16th October 2007 that was organized and funded by the Inwent Centre for Economic, Environmental and [...]

Defining statistics these days has become a statistic itself. The institute of statistics and applied economics, ISAE, the only and only recognized statistical training institute for the Anglophone speaking countries in the region and Africa as a whole is associated with the saying ‘using figures to make informed decisions’. So would you like to believe [...]

Many changes we deserve are happening in the world, not by mistake but by the efforts of our predecessors, both living and resting. In the year 2007, the first ever international young statisticians conference took place in  Pretoria, the capital city of the Republic of South Africa (ref. to my earlier article). At the conference, [...]

It is incredible, but true at 0.01 level of significance. I was invited to present a paper at an International conference in Yokohama, Japan between the 5th to 8th December, 2008. Click to visit the conference website. The workshop was organized by the International Association of Statistical Computing, IASC, an association to which I belong. [...]