The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is committed to supporting statistical development in Africa as a sound basis for designing and managing effective development policies for reducing poverty on the continent. Reliable and timely data is critical to setting goals and targets as well as evaluating project impact. Reliable data constitutes the single most convincing way of getting the people involved in what their leaders and institutions are doing. It also helps them to get involved in the development process, thus giving them a sense of ownership of the entire development process.

The AfDB has a large team of researchers who focus on the production of statistical data on economic and social situations. The data produced by the institution’s statistics department constitutes the background information in the Bank’s flagship development publications. Besides its own publication, the AfDB also finances studies in collaboration with its partners.

Through its statistics department the AfDB is contributing to the effective development of RMC statistical capacity and systems for the provision of timely and reliable data for policy formulation, implementation and evaluation and monitoring of progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and, Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs). It is also responsible for developing and managing databases on economic, social and development cooperation statistics in Africa in collaboration with RMCs and regional and international agencies (ECA, IMF, OECD, UN, World Bank, etc.). The Statistics Department aims to stand as the primary source of relevant, reliable and timely data on African development processes, starting with the data generated from its current management of the Africa component of the International Comparison Program (ICP-Africa). The Department discharges its responsibilities through two divisions:

• The Economic and Social Statistics Division (ESTA1)
• The Statistical Capacity Building Division (ESTA2)