Of course stochastic programming is an aspect of statistics, but let us attempt to examine the influence of statistics on measuring Democracy, Governance and Human Rights from a participant’s perspective.

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 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 Social Statistics was an eye opener of how wide and broad statistics can be. The theme was “On Measuring Democracy, Governance and Human Rights” and managed by Dr. Uwe Singer. At first, I wanted to turn down the offer to attend reasoning that I have nothing to do with political issues since at no time have I ever dreamt of even being an LC I Chairman and worse still, although it is my right, I have never voted! Agnes, Abraham and I thought we were going to learn more about Democracy, Governance and Human rights aspects, but instead went through the application of statistics.

It was not long after introductions that Dr Ken Mease of the University of Florida and University of the West Indies, Trinidad introduced the Statistics Camp and this took the lion’s share of the time as he lead us through surveys, data quality and measurements. Some of the survey types he introduced that of course seemed unique from what you learn from the sampling class include:

• Country reports
• Cross-comparative surveys
• Expert assessments
• Expert panel
• Household survey
• Mass opinion survey
• Media Indicators
• Business surveys

I guess you may be wondering the theoretical linkage of this kind of survey type classification, but the truth is that these types are generated from the practice of statistics. It does not matter whether it is you, the Statistician or otherwise practicing it, but comes as a result of the need to see statistics at work.

The workshop advanced and stochastically need arose of practicing what we had learned. As participants put it, “talking statistics is one thing, practicing it and bringing it to live, is another – at times quite exhausting, but equally exciting issue.”. After ten days of theoretical and practical work, the trainees were asked to split up into groups, put on their walking shoes and do a comparative household survey in three different parts of the Namibian Capital, Windhoek: Klein Windhoek, a residential area; Windhoek West, with a lot of middle-class citizens and Katutura, an area consisting of poorer neighborhoods. ”Are you happy with the delivery of public services like water, sanitation, electricity and garbage collection?” was the overall question to ask the citizens of the different parts of the city. “How do you consider the performance, fairness, responsiveness, participation and accountability in the provision of these services?”

What seemed to be an easy task at first glance, turned out to be challenging – for various and sometimes unforeseen reasons. For example, I was in the group that walked out to Windhoek West. We were very early and we were confronted with a late waking up in that area. We had to deal with vicious barking dogs of all shapes and sizes. We spent most of the first hour ringing in vain several gate bells and hoping that the fences were strong enough to restrain the barking dogs. Some of the residents, mainly of European descent, did not even realize that this was a household survey, they thought, Africans knocking on doors during a weekend are simply seeking for servants jobs whereas others were reluctant to answer the questions.

We learnt that every household survey should be announced and advocated properly in advance, in order to be most successful and effective. Despite these difficulties, the comparative data collection exercise was an enriching experience, according to the participants. They also appreciated that they were greatly involved in the data entry, analysis and interpretation. Donald, a lawyer and one of the Ugandan participants put it as “This was truly Statistics in Motion!” The interesting part however, was that Wesonga; the Ugandan participant took over as a facilitator towards the end of the workshop as he handled the nasty parts of data management and analysis of the aspects of Measuring Democracy, Governance and Human Rights.

Watch this space because more interesting aspects are yet to come from the Beijing Conference!