Innovations in Data Dissemination at the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia

The Central Statistical Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia is responsible for providing accurate and timely statistical information for development planning and monitoring purposes. To fulfill its responsibility CSA has been engaged in utilizing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to facilitate its data processing, archiving and dissemination system so that the required statistical information can be generated and reaches the users. CSA is considered to be one of the leading institutions in Ethiopia in utilizing ICT to accomplish its basic tasks. The CSA started its computerized statistical data production by utilizing the IBM System/3 with 12k CPU.Currently the agency is handling its statistical data archiving and dissemination through high capacity servers and a reliable network infrastructure. The paper based dissemination and restricted access to the CSA data has undergone significant improvements. The DDI application has improved the metadata documentation as the CSA metadata is now archived and disseminated to an internationally accepted standard. Utilization of GIS in providing easy access to geographic data for decision makers has shown a significant improvement as well.