20 October 2020 — As the small Pacific Island nation celebrated World Statistics Day, the Government of Tonga released results of the Tonga Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019, the country’s first-ever MICS.
Led by the Tonga Statistics Department, the survey has collected data on health, nutrition, child protection, education, water, sanitation and hygiene as well as domestic violence amongst other topics. The survey also collected data on many other indicators including drinking water quality, learning skills of children and child functioning, at the population level.
“I believe that World Statistics Day has the greatest opportunity to mark the valuable contribution of statistics towards development in Tonga. The fact that MICS contains high quality and reliable statistics that are essential for measuring progress in reaching development goals as well as provide essential information on the effectiveness of policies and programmes, its official launching on the Statistics Day marks its significant contribution to the Kingdom of Tonga,” said Tonga Government Statistician, Dr. Viliami Konifelenisi Fifita.
“We are proud to be supporting the Government of Tonga, along with our partners, in taking a step forward to ensure that we all have the required information and data to steer our work going forward for the overall achievement of national development plans and global Sustainable Development Goals,” said UNICEF Pacific Representative, Sheldon Yett.
The survey results are launched at an opportune time as the global COVID-19 pandemic has affected some Pacific Island countries. The newer data will support the government in its preparedness and response activities to support the country during this global crisis.
Technical support for Tonga MICS 2019 was provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Pacific Community (SPC), with government funding and financial support from UNICEF and UNFPA.
Datasets, survey findings and statistical snapshots can be found here.