ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) is planning to install dashboards and information management system (IMS) at the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special initiatives (PD&SI), which would enable policy planners to have instant and updated information for decision making regarding development programmes.
This was revealed by the PBS senior officials during a briefing given to Hamed Yaqoob, secretary PD&SI. The officials informed that the PBS is working on linking geographic database with information for producing heat maps with layering of other information such as roads, railways, rivers, schools, hospitals etc for provision of updated information for proper planning.
Accordingly, using the wealth of data available with the PBS, customized dashboards namely, Census Information management system, Mouza Census Information Management System, PSLM & SDGs Information Management System, and Price Management Information System (PMIS), and decision support systems namely, Decision Support System for Inflation (DSSI) and Evidence Based Decision System for Planning Commission/Provincial P&Ds have been prepared, which are available online and also installed on Data Dissemination Kiosk for increasing statistical literacy among data users and to create awareness about importance of data for informed decision making.
The PBS is planning to install their standalone dashboards and information management system in dissemination kiosks also at the PD&SI (being the central ministry where all projects get approved).
This will enable Policy Planners to have instant and updated information on data through customized dashboards for decision regarding development programs. This is the major step towards the modernisation of PBS and data dissemination, it will work as confidence building measure between data users and producers and will result in evidence base decision making.
Further, based on the requirements and feedback provided by the users, researchers and policy makers, the dashboards and information systems can be enriched. Secretary PD&SI inaugurated the Data Dissemination KIOSK. Sarwar Gondal, PBS member (Support Services & Resource Management) briefed the secretary PD&SI that PBS being the National Statistical Organization is mandated for collection, compilation and dissemination of data on various socio-economic sectors both through primary and secondary sources for evidence-based policy making.
He added that as the world under digital transformation has become global Village, therefore, data is the new currency for development and availability of timely credible data in an interactive way is the need of the time. The PBS, keeping in view the prime minister’s vision of Digital Pakistan, has also undergone digital transformation and not only shifted from manual approach to electronic data collection but also have paradigm shift on data dissemination from one-dimensional mode of fixed formats in to interactive customized dashboards: which provides open access to data with infographics along with comparison with previous years of several indicators as per requirement of users.
The secretary PD&SI chaired the meeting regarding Results of the Mouza Census 2020. Muhammad Sarwar Gondal, Member (Support Services/Resource Management) briefly explained that the back ground and objectives Mouza Census 2020 and informed that this is census of all Mouzas of Pakistan including AJK and GB for developing Sampling Frame of Integrated Agriculture Census and provides information regarding total land, cultivated land major crops, irrigation system socioeconomic (availability of electricity/water/toilets etc) and infrastructure characteristics and can be used for informed decision making regarding development projects.
It was also informed that 9th Mouza census was due in 2013 but could not be conducted due to various reasons, however conducted successfully in 2020 with the exemplary coordination of provincial governments/board of revenues/district governments.
Revenue and local government staff used for data collection in three phases from 1st January 2020 to 31st March 2020 and the PBS completed data processing in record time of nine months, despite the spread of pandemic Covid-19. PBS director Rabia Awan presented in detail, the key Findings of Mouza Census-2020. It was informed that socioeconomic, infrastructures situation in the rural areas of the country is improving, however, there are stark differences in the provinces and rural areas of Balochistan and Sindh have least facilities as compared to Punjab & Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It was also informed that customized dash board has also been prepared for data users for provision of instant data up to Mouza level. The secretary PD&SI shown his great pleasure on completing of this huge task successfully and was of view that these data sets are of immense importance for monitoring and planning of development plans approved by government of Pakistan under PSDP and SDGs, therefore, PBS may be made part of CDWP and present the results of their different surveys & census by using data triangulation for data driven decision making and preparation of baselines for the monitoring of the projects. He acknowledged PBS work and highly appreciated the dedication and devotion of its staff for completion of this task successfully. He approved to publish the Mouza Census 2020 results along with dashboard.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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