Development and application of the african development bank statistical business register guidelines.

This paper describes the development and application of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Statistical Business Register (SBR) guidelines at Statistics Mauritius and the Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia. A novel approach was implemented to induce the adoption of the guidelines by first operationalising it in the form of a generic SBR system designed to be readily adapted to the context and needs of African National Statistics Offices (NSO). This generic system was based on an earlier SBR system developed at Statistics Mauritius which was redesigned to increase its adaptability and conform to the guidelines. This redesigned system was then adapted to the specificities of Statistics Mauritius, during which it underwent further changes and is currently being adapted to Ethiopia and Swaziland. This approach was instrumental in the swift and successful adoption of the guidelines at Statistics Mauritius and in enticing other African NSOs into adoption and conformance. Several challenges encountered during the application of the guidelines through this approach required various enhancements to be made to the generic SBR system which could eventually be of value in informing the elaboration of the next version of the AfDB guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]