Linking statistical literacy and data stewardship in Public Universities of Niger: Lessons learned from the collaboration with the national statistics institute

Abstract

This paper aims at highlighting the lessons learned from recent initiatives between public universities of Niger and the national statistics institute. Our investigation of the existing national statistical system revealed the need to increase the number of qualified human resources with advanced skills in open data, big data, data visualisation, machine learning, mathematical modeling and data-driven innovations. Moreover, the existing statistical literacy and data crowdsourcing activities need to be validated and upscaled; and we have found a lack of experience in managing big data and in the development of mathematical methods and fast computational algorithms to analyze them. Finally, the aforementioned collaboration can be improved by working closely with private sector, civil society and the data science community to generate new approaches to emerging issues including climate change and sustainable development.