Rwanda: Microdata Dissemination Policy Workshop (August 2014)

A Regional Workshop on Developing Data Dissemination Policies was held from 27 – 29 August 2014 in Kigali, Rwanda. Representatives from National Statistics Offices of eight countries attended the workshop, including: Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and South Africa. These countries are in different stages of developing their data dissemination policies. Among them Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa have full-fledged policies for disseminating microdata. Botswana, Burundi, Ghana and Malawi are countries without formal policies. Representatives from the line-ministries (Ministry of Education, Ethiopia), Civil Registration Department (Kenya),  research institutes such as the African Population Health and Research Center from Kenya and universities such as: University of Rwanda, University of Botswana and University of Cape Coast, Ghana are also participated to provide user perspectives.  

The countries with a formal data dissemination policy presented their policies in terms of  legal mandate, the need to preserve confidentiality of respondents and other related issues. On the other hand, the countries without a formal microdata dissemination policy described their current practice of data dissemination and the legal and technical challenges they face in designing their policies. The users’ presentations on various dimensions of microdata availability, use and access were helpful to producers to understand the users’. A presentation of the IHSN guidelines and a modular framework to design microdata dissemination policies was provided by ADP. The countries split into groups which gave them the opportunity to share experiences in microdata dissemination and countries without formal policies were able to define a road map for developing their policies.

At the end of the workshop four countries: Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia and Ghana prepared an early draft of the data dissemination policies. The ADP will follow-up with the countries in the coming months to provide assistance in drafting their data dissemination policies.

The workshop was jointly organized by ADP in collaboration with National Institute of Statistics Rwanda (INSR). Thanks to Mr. Yusuf Murangwa, the Director General of INSR who has welcomed to participants and reminded the importance of a formal data dissemination policy in disseminating survey and census data. The openness to data dissemination adds to the credibility of the NISR in terms of data transparency.