Assessment of the Accelerated Data Program

Introduction

The Accelerated Data Program (ADP) supports developing countries in producing

statistical data. It provides technical support to National Statistical Systems and helps
strategize data collection activities. It assists in building capacity for micro-data
preservation, analysis, anonymization, and dissemination and provides assistance in
further exploiting existing datasets.

With these objectives, ADP and OpenMicroData (OMD) share the common objective of
enhancing micro-data access.

OpenMicroData supports ADP and by providing independent assessments of the

degree to which ADP is able to enhance micro-data access it expects to contribute to
strengthening the program.

Approach to ADP assessment

To assess the effectiveness of ADP, OMD will carry out six-monthly spot checks of data
made available under the ADP program. These spot checks are carried out over a
limited period of time (typically 1-day) and consist of four elements:

a check on the accessibility of the national websites and their data catalogues
an evaluation of the number of data sets available in the data catalogues
an evaluation of the ease with which data can be accessed from the catalogue
a ‘mystery shopper’ attempt to access a randomly selected data set from each
data catalogue.

To access a data set, the following approach is used. Where a website allows
downloading data following simple registration, this approach is followed. If this is not
possible and data are accessible upon request by email, this approach is followed. If the
only approach available is by filling in a formal request, this is done. In each instance,
one data set is randomly selected for access from the national data catalogue.
First ADP Assessment: July 2010

The first ADP assessment focuses on ADP’s activities in Africa. In Africa, ADP is active
in 27 countries of which 14 countries have made data accessible through their website.

African countries participating in ADP

With data accessible No data accessible

Cameroon Congo, DR
Cote d'Ivoire Tunisia
Ethiopia Egypt
The Gambia Guinea
Ghana Burkina Faso
Lesotho Sierra Leone
Liberia Equatorial Guinea
Mali Rwanda
Mozambique Kenya
Niger Swaziland
Nigeria Tanzania
Senegal Zanzibar
Uganda Malawi
Zambia

Of these fourteen countries, one had a website that could not be accessed on the date
of the test (June 29 2010). Two days later it could be accessed, but then the data
catalogue was malfunctioning. Consequently this country was dropped from the
remainder of the assessment.

Data sets available through ADP in Africa

Data can be downloaded immediately 0

Access requires simple registration 33

Access requires an email 78

Access requires full proposal 119

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Amongst the countries that make data accessible and whose data catalogues could be
accessed, a total of 230 data sets were posted. To obtain any of these data, 119
instances required a proposal to be reviewed before access could be granted. 78
required an email with a request for the data and 33 required filling a simple registration
form. In not one instance could data simply be downloaded (as is the case on the
OpenMicroData site)

From the 13 accessible data catalogues, OMD tried to obtain a dataset using the
‘mystery shopper’ approach. In eight cases the data download failed, because of
software glitches (a confirmation email was not received; the data did not exist on the
server), because no email address or a wrong email address was provided (in cases
where an email request was needed), or because it turned out that the NSO did not
have the data and the request had to be addressed to someone else whose email
address was not provided. Out of a total of 13 attempts to obtain data, four were
successful and 1 was undecided 48 hours after submitting the request.

Summary Indicators for African ADP Data Access

ADP countries in Africa 27

ADP countries making data accessible on website 14

ADP countries whose website could be accessed 13

Websites from which data download failed 8

Websites from which data data download was
4
succesful
Websites with data accesses still in process after 48
1
hours

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Conclusion

ADP provides a great opportunity to make micro data accessible to a broad audience.
With 27 countries signed up to ADP in Africa, the program has already been quite
successful. Yet upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that only half of these countries
allow data to be accessed through their website. Some of the countries that do not
make data available (such as DR Congo) may never have intended to do so as their
participation in ADP was limited to receiving technical advice for surveys. In other
instances such as Burkina Faso, Tanzania or Zanzibar the intention is to make data
available, but almost two years after signing up to ADP, this has not materialized yet.

Amongst the countries that do make data available, data access remains limited in that
full proposals or email requests are required before a decision is made on access. In
other words, for 86% of the data sets on offer, access is not granted automatically nor
anonymously. Automatic access after registration was only offered for 14% of the data
sets, while automatic and anonymous access of the type provided by OpenMicroData
was never granted.

Web-technology proved to be imperfect as well. One website could not be accessed,

and of the 13 attempts to obtain a data set, only 4 (31%) were successful. Data sets
were only obtained when data on offer required registration, but even this process had
glitches. In 3 of the 7 attempts the registration process failed. Data could not be
obtained in the 6 instances where email access or a full proposal were required (one
proposal is still pending).

The overall conclusion is that ADP in Africa has much potential which is not being
realized. To enhance data access systems need to become more reliable and the
accuracy of the information on websites needs to be improved. The most important step
to enhance access would be to avoid processes requiring human verification by
adopting automated download processes (with or without registration).