Latest News
DataFirst supports Neighbouring Statistics Office
On contract to the World Bank’s Development Data Group, DataFirst provided support to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) for the launch of their new Labour Force Survey (LFS).
Lynn Woolfrey, DataFirst’s Manager, travelled to Windhoek to work with NSA staff to prepare and document the data for release.
The survey, conducted in 2012, provides recent data on the Namibian labour market, for input to policymaking in the country. Of special interest is the timely data it provides on the informal sector and subsistence farming in Namibia’s 13 regions.
The NSA was established in 2012 and aims to produce quality national data products. Their work with the World Bank and DataFirst has resulted in the ground-breaking release of the entire dataset to the public shortly after survey completion, and bodes well for official data production in the country.
NSA releases 2012 Labour Force Survey Results
Photo: Ms Woolfrey with NSA staff Sapalov Quita and NLFS Manager, Daniel Oherein
DataFirst presention
DataFirst staff will introduce the research support tools available particularly to the Humanities. The presentation will focus on some of the datasets available on the DataFirst portal and the training and support programmes of DataFirst – including a rotating “hot seat” on upper campus. We will meet on 11 April between 1 and 2pm in the CSSR Boardroom, 4.89, 4th floor, Leslie Social Science Building.
Available Courses in June 2013
Analysis of Complex Sample Surveys using Stata, 10 to 14 June 2013.
This course is aimed at postgraduate students (Masters and Ph.D.), researchers, and officials in state agencies wanting to analyse social surveys using Stata. The course is aimed at both outlining the theory of weighting, clustering and stratification; we discuss how social surveys are practically implemented in South Africa; as well as introducing the survey analysis tools available in Stata. More information.
Social Welfare Measurement, 18 - 21 June 2013 and 24 - 27 June 2013.
This is an 8 day course. The purpose of this short course is to introduce students, researchers, and officials in state agencies to the key concepts in measuring income, expenditure, poverty and inequality. There will also be a strong practical component where participants will use survey data to undertake welfare measurement and analysis. More information.
PALMS Relaunch - this has been cancelled.
The Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series is a compilation of labour market data from Statistics South Africa's October Household Surveys and Labour Force Surveys. The data has been compiled by DataFirst, UCT, with assistance from David Lam at the University of Michigan.
PALMS was launched officially in early 2012, including data from 1994-2007. We have now included data from the QLFS up until Quarter 1 2012, as well as constructed income data variables that are more user friendly and comparable over time. The data has been made as comparable as possible over time and provides a useful source of data for anyone looking at labour market trends in the post-Apartheid period.
We will relaunch this new data set on:
Date: Wednesday 27 March 2013
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Venue: Classroom 1C on the first floor of the New Economics Building on Middle Campus.
All are welcome to attend, especially students and staff researching the South African Labour Market.
Please RSVP by Tuesday 26 March to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Census 2011 Community Profiles Database now available from DataFirst
The South African Population Census 2011 Community Profiles Database is now available for use in DataFirst’s Research Data Centre. The database allows cross-tabulation of selected data from the census, at ward level.We are still awaiting the release by Statistics South Africa of the 10% sample of unit record data, which we will make available online.
Overview of DataFirst
Prof Martin Wittenberg will be presenting an overview of DataFirst and what it can offer to students doing applied research. It should be of interest to Honours, Masters and Ph.D. students. The presentation is tomorrow (20 March) from 11.00am to 12.00pm in the Economics Board Room.
Census 2011
Reports from the Census 2011 have been released. The microdata will be available in March 2013.
Data Analysis Clinic
There will be no data clinic for the rest of the year.
Data Analysis Clinic
Our weekly Data Analysis Clinic starts 13 September 2012. More information.
Carnegie 2 papers available.
In collaboration with UCT Libraries and in time for Carnegie3, papers from Carnegie 2 are available for download.
Data Dialogues Session at the Carnegie 3 Conference
DataFirst will be hosting the Data Dialogues session on Friday 7 September at the Carnegie 3 conference. View the programme.
Expert Group Meeting on data flows in African National Statistical Systems (NSS)
In June 2012 DataFirst’s Lynn Woolfrey was invited by the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s (UNECA) African Centre for Statistics (ACS) to participate in an Expert Group Meeting on data flows in African National Statistical Systems (NSS). The meeting was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the goal of drawing up recommendations for improvements in data flow architectures for government data producers in African countries.
Meeting delegates included Dr Vincent Akiniyosoe, former Statistician General of the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, who stressed that government statistics agencies had be become efficient “data markets” in which data users get appropriate data expeditiously.
The meeting provided an opportunity for delegates from Statistics Offices in Ethiopia, Gambia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal to share experiences around the frailties within their data flow systems and debate improvements. Ms Woolfrey shared advice from her training and data curation work in South Africa and other African countries. Data experts from the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also provided input to the discussion. NSS from Gabon, Ghana and Liberia were also represented.
The recommendations of the meeting will be presented to African regional organisations for advocacy to African governments and assistance with their implementation. The findings will also form content for a handbook on African data curation being drawn up by the African Centre for Statistics.
