A three-day workshop organized by the INS ended yesterday in the city of Mbalmayo to strengthen the skills of journalists in the economic press in the processing of statistical information.
Participants did not twiddle their thumbs during the capacity-building workshop for economic journalists in the city of Mbalmayo. All the priority areas covered by statistics in Cameroon were presented to them by experts in the field. Macroeconomic indicators, major surveys conducted by the NSI, statistical dissemination platforms, the statistical law and the Statistics Development Strategy are all lessons learned by representatives of the public and private media and even the international press. In the role of teachers, the INS officials took part in the exercise that the Deputy Director General of the INS personally chaired.
The idea of such a meeting is not fortuitous. In fact, the National Institute of Statistics has been working for several years to strengthen the dialogue between producers and users of statistical data in order to improve the use of these data in the public arena. This approach is based on several national and international instruments, including the National Development Strategy of Cameroon, the statistical law, the SNDS document, the National Strategy for Communication and Statistical Dissemination document, the various development agendas (2030 and 2063), but also the conjunctural constraints.
These short-term constraints are due, among other things, to ignorance of the availability of certain statistical data, misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the data. This has resulted in an erroneous dissemination and communication of the data produced by the National Statistical Information System.
Since journalists are at the heart of the massive dissemination of information, their training appears to be fundamental to guarantee the quality of the statistical information that reaches the various users.
The density of exchanges between media representatives and statistical specialists was a perfect indicator of the latter’s growing interest in statistical issues. It was also recommended that this type of initiative be replicated and that the dialogue between the media and the producers of statistical data be encouraged.
Flora BEHALAL