Since the establishment of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) in 2005 – the coordinator of National Statistical system (NSS), as stated in the statistical law Nº 45/2013 of 16/06/2013 on the organization of statistical activities in Rwanda, the NISR has been strengthening the statistical capacities of NSS members (data providers, data producers, data users, research institutions and academia, private sector, civil society, national and international NGOs, individuals, etc) to be able to produce and use statistics for evidence based policy formulation, planning and decision making processes through different capacity building frameworks mentioned above. These frameworks and strategies have to some extent responded to increasing data demand and capacity gaps existing in the NSS. However, the emerging data revolution resulting from rapid development of technologies requires extra effort and innovative capacity building approaches.
Given the importance of addressing the existing statistical capacity gaps across the NSS, and in line with the implementation of the second National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS2), NISR is in the process of constructing a large modern training centre, adjacent to the main NISR building, that will enable and facilitate capacity building programmes, not only for the wider NSS, but also to benefit from the region as far as hands-on and applied skills in the areas of official statistics are concerned. This training centre will be a major infrastructure that will facilitate NISR to achieve its goals.
The main objective of the training centre is to facilitate the implementation of capacity building programmes and initiatives and provide the required skills to the National Statistical System (NSS) and the region to produce, analyze, disseminate and use high quality and timely official statistics in policy formulation, decision making and planning processes.
The specific objectives of the centre include, but not limited to:
- Provide technical skills to the NSS members as far as data production, analysis, dissemination and use of official statistics are concerned;
- Facilitate big data and big data analytics in the country;
- Provide viable environment for research and information access;
Space capacity of NISR training centre
Once completed, the building of NISR training centre will have 9 meeting/training rooms that can accommodate separately 38 - 460 people with all required modern equipment and facilities. The building will also be able to host office rooms and a modern library and the underground parking.
