During 2023, SSB hosted several high-level delegations from partner countries. We had the pleasure to welcome delegations headed by director generals from Malawi, Ethiopia and Mozambique, in addition to a large delegation from Ghana headed by the Minister for Local Government. They visited to learn about the Norwegian statistical system, to share their experiences, and discuss opportunities and challenges related to the development of statistical capacity. These top-level meetings are important to help build and maintain shared commitment for partnerships, to learn from each other, and to better understand challenges and needs.
Joint visit from Ethiopia and Malawi
In May 2023, eleven managers and coordinators from Ethiopia and Malawi visited Oslo for one week. During the visit, the Director General of the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS), Dr. Beker Shale, and the Commissioner of Statistics in the National Statistical Office in Malawi (NSO), Lizzie Chikoti, discussed and shared their experience of leading a national statistical office. By joining the two delegations, they had the possibility to share experiences and develop their regional network. They met with management and key staff in SSB and Norad. Topics for discussion included:
- How to secure and increase the funding of the national statistical system
- The role of the national statistical office in the new data ecosystem and national digitalization process
- The legal framework for official statistics
- Cooperation with administrative data owners
- How to build trust and work with users of statistics
- The importance of ICT capability for national statistical offices
The delegations had a half-day meeting with Norad, where they had the opportunity to present the cooperation projects with SSB and to learn about the Norad policies. The programme included an interesting discussion between NSO, ESS and Norad’s Director General, Bård Vegard Solhjell.
Visit from Mozambique
In August, a six-person delegation headed by the President of the National Statistical Office in Mozambique (INE), Dra. Eliza Mónica Magaua, visited Statistics Norway.
The objective of the visit was to take stock of the progress and discuss lessons learned from the ongoing cooperation with SSB, and to start mapping needs and possibilities for a new long-term cooperation between INE and SSB. These issues were discussed at meetings with SSB and NORAD, where they also learned about the Norwegian aid policy and SSB’s development cooperation.
INE expressed appreciation of the support they have received from Norway and SSB so far and emphasized that there is still a strong need for Norwegian support in the coming years.
Historically, there has been significant collaboration between Mozambique and Norway in the field of statistics. Today, SSB has two ongoing cooperations with INE ending in 2024:
Visit from Ghana
In the middle of September, Statistics Norway (SSB) received a delegation from Ghana, led by Ghana's Minister for Local Government, Mr. Osei Amoah. The delegation was particularly interested in learning about the Norwegian Population Register. The visit lasted for five days, during which the delegates learned about the Norwegian statistical system and the collaboration between SSB and owners of different administrative registers.
The delegates received an overview of the history of population registration in Norway, its significance for Norwegian society, as well as the fundamental principles of official statistics according to the United Nations. Norway also shared experiences on how the national population register functions and its impact on various areas such as healthcare, housing, and education. The visit took place at the same time as there was Local Elections in Norway and since the population register forms the basis for who is entitled to vote in Norway, a special session was dedicated to this topic.
Furthermore, the delegates were introduced to the Police Immigration Service and the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), including their mandates, legislation, organization of registration procedures, and connection to the population register. The delegates also gained insights into the use of geospatial data/GIS at SSB.
The Ghanaian delegates shared their experiences with the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system. Ghana is currently working on improving the links between the birth and death registry and the National Identification Authority which is responsible for issuing ID cards to all adult Ghanaians.
