De la planification physique à la mise en œuvre virtuelle au Mozambique
Date: November 2020
By Statistics Norway
During the past two years, SSB and the Mozambique National Institute of Statistics (INE) have cooperated to map and plan for a statistical component under the Oil for Development programme in Mozambique. Several missions and study visits have been conducted. Areas where SSB’s expertise can be used to establish and improve petroleum related statistics, as well as specific areas in the national accounts which are impacted by petroleum activities, have been identified. With the country-level agreement now in place, signed February 12th, 2020, the cooperation was ready to move from the planning phase and over to the 4-year implementation phase.
However, just as we were preparing to increase the work and activities the global Covid-19 pandemic hit and all plans for missions and study visits had to be put on hold. In close cooperation with INE we had to revise the activity plan and budget for 2020. Initially with the hope that we would be able to resume travels in the second half of 2020, but later under the precondition of no more travels in 2020.
Luckily, INE has a functional video room with a good internet connection. This has made it possible for us to have fairly good quality virtual meetings with INE. We managed to re-plan for the second half of 2020 from physical short-term missions and study visits, to virtual subject matter meetings and work on development of a guideline on how to include the petroleum sector in the national accounts.
During the second half of 2020 the plan is to conduct these virtual subject matter meetings every 2 week (2-3 hours). This is a platform for staff from INE to meet and discuss with experts in SSB on matters of interest. The picture below is a screen shoot from one of these meetings. Here Tor Kristian Ånestad from SSB is talking about challenges Norway has had in implementing the oil sector in the national accounts system. At the same meeting INE made a presentation on their challenges, followed by a session where SSB answered question from INE. These meetings are also linked to the work with the guideline. The meetings follow the outline of this report and INE is asked to comment on written material sent out prior to the meeting. After each of these subject matter meetings, SSB provides INE with expanded written answers on key questions that came up during or on e-mail after the meeting. In this way we hope that these meetings provide INE with tailor-made assistance on their most urgent needs in their daily work, and secures two-way communication and joint commitment and engagement even if we cannot work shoulder to shoulder.
In February, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway visited Mozambique and was in attendance for the signing of the new In-Kind Agreement for the Oil for Development programme between the governments of Mozambique and Norway on February 12th. The Agreement was signed by Dag-Inge Ulstein, the Norwegian Minister of International Development, and by Verónica Nataniel Macamo Dlhovo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Mozambique. This Agreement provides the framework for Norway to assist Mozambique in strengthening the comprehensive management of their petroleum resources.
