There is a serious need to shorten time lags between the years of producing data.

This was highlighted in the second series of mortality and causes of death reports launched by the Namibia Statistics Agency today.

A lack of data is said to fuel policy blindness and affect national programmes.

Deputy Statistician-General at the Namibia Statistics Agency, Ottilie Mwazi, pointed out challenges of delay encountered during the production of the mortality and causes of death reports.

The recent report only captured data from 2018–2021.

To obtain timely and quality data, Mwazi highlighted, it requires teamwork and the application of modern technologies such as data exchange.

"We also have huge gaps in the administrative data that take a significant amount of time to clean up and prepare for analysis. I therefore call on improved data collection and data sharing mechanisms among the national statistical system to improve the timely provision of data to enhance development, planning, and also to ensure data delivery decision-making at all levels."

NSA's Statistician-General, Alex Shimuafeni, too, highlighted key areas that need improvement.

He cited the 49 percent of deaths recorded in 2021, which were classified as ill-defined causes of death, as incorrect.

Shimuafeni attributed the error to manual recordings of data.

"The misclassification is not correct and accurate as per the 11th International Classification of Diseases. This is a major concern in an era where we are supposed to use an e-death notification system that could improve the quality of this data. I would therefore want to challenge my counterpart at the Ministry of Health and Social Services to ensure that this aspect is highly taken up with the doctors. On the other hand, I would want to plead with the Office of the Prime Minister, the system developer, to investigate ways on how best we can improve the system for some of the human typing errors."