Editor's Notes
| Date | 01 October 1968 |
| Published date | 01 October 1968 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1968.tb00345.x |
Editor's Notes
THE
Administrator has tended to agree with Havelock Ellis that
"the
methods of statistics are so variable and uncertain, so apt to be influenced
by circumstance, that it is never possibleto be sure that one is operating with
figures
of
equal weight". 1Administrators have often found statistics hard to
digest and to evaluate and in consequence have fought shy of them, some-
what frightened off by what has proved
if
not incomprehensible certainly
complex and even mysterious.
"An
uncomfortable subject" in the words of
Dr. Roberts, yet current statistics properly and clearly and accurately
presented are the vital planning tools without which intelligent development
administration can but be feeling its way in the dark. Time again one reads
of the frustration
of
planners working in the less developed countries who
find themselves inhibited by lack
of
available up to date statistics from doing
their job properly, guessing instead of estimating from the facts that only
statistics can provide.
Weare
therefore very glad to publish in this Number
Dr. Roberts' article on "Statistics and the Administrator" which we
confidently believe will bring considerable enlightenment to many
administrators and help considerably to make the subject less "uncomfort-
able".
If
the administrator is to make proper use
of
statistics he must have them
passed to him in such a manner as not to be misleading, e.g, the F.A.O.
Trade Year Book for
1966
gives
1965
total world export of sugar as
1011.1
thousand metric tons without mention of any standard deviation or
range.
The
unsophisticated reader would believe that F.A.O. could estimate
world sugar exports to the nearest
100
metric tons. Yet Cuba for instance
is left out of the total and this is nowhere mentioned. Whereas in U.N.
Bulletin of Statistics, per capita income is quoted country by country, such
figures by themselves without other essential data would be a strange means
of deciding future aid requirements-administrators need an indication as
to the reliability of statistics set before them - not merely a statistical datum.
Teamwork is needed;
if
the statistician knows the problem the adminis-
trator has to solve he can the better provide the particular statistics required
and omit that which is unnecessary. Teamwork is needed to decide upon
the utility of statistics for particular purposes, for here statistical rather than
administrative experience is required and in the modern world
of
specializa-
tion, with statistics as with all aspects of planning, compartment-mindedness
must give place to co-ordinated interdisciplinary co-operation. Very
relevant to Dr. Roberts' theme is the article on Zambian manpower planning
by Colin Greenfield that
follows
- planning which was clearly handicapped
by the paucity of available statistics.
Too little is generally known of the major role
of
the European Develop-
ment Fund as a donor to Africa (though its assistance is not limited to the
one continent) and we welcomethe opportunity to publish Dr. Soper's study
of the Fund which is operated by the six member countries of the European
1The Dance
of
Life by Havelock Ellis,
Chapter
VI.
B
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