The 55th conference of the International Statistics Institute (ISI), which has just ended in Sydney, Australia, coincided with the centenary celebration of statistical practice in that country.
This was just one moment of historical significance in proceedings dominated by a range of "firsts".
Professor Ben Kiregyera, chair of the board of directors of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, who recently assisted Statistics SA to develop a strategic plan, was the first African to be awarded the prestigious Mahalanobis prize.
Mahalanobis created the India Institute of Statistics, renowned for training statisticians such as Kiregyera himself and the renowned Indian statistician CR Rao.
The 84-year-old Rao was recently in South Africa, where he was honoured by the University of Pretoria for his lifetime contribution to the field of statistics.
The award was instituted by the government of India to acknowledge Mahalanobis' lifetime contribution to statistics.
More history was made at this ISI conference when Denise Lievesley, director of Unesco, became the first woman to be elected president of the institute in its 120-year history.
South Africa became the first African country to be elected to host an ISI conference in 2009, providing the impetus for much-needed statistical training. Inviting the ISI's 2 000-strong general assembly to South Africa, Anthony Mongalo, the high commissioner to Australia, acknowledged that "hosting the 57th session of the ISI in 2009 will be a milestone for South Africa in its second decade of democracy".
Mongalo placed this milestone in its historical context: In 2004 at the jubilee of the South African Statistical Association, the minister for finance, Trevor Manuel, aptly captured the elevating role of statistics for our new democracy Minister Manuel correctly drew attention to a number of challenges that South Africa faces in its statistical development.
A first challenge for South Africa is to raise an awareness for a more healthy regard for official statistics and to restore trust in official statistics. Without the vital element of trust, no official statistics will be reliable.
A second challenge we face is to build capacity in statistics. Too few South Africans have the necessary statistical skill our country needs.
This is a lingering result of the apartheid era Bantu education was introduced in 1954, consciously de-emphasising the teaching of mathematics and science. This destroyed a generation of scientists, mathematicians and statisticians in South Africa.
A third challenge is to try and pace ourselves relative to our capacity. As some of the discussion in this 55th session of the ISI alludes to, compliance with the requirements of the International Monetary Fund's special data dissemination standard is onerous, and we lack sufficient [statistical] skills to immediately meet all of the requirements.
The fourth challenge minister Manuel draws attention to is what gets measured And who determines that?
These questions remain pertinent for South Africa as statistics becomes an ever-more vital part of growing our democracy, and the need for timely and accurate statistics for evidence-based decision-making becomes more pressing, Mongalo said.
The development of local statistical capacity is vital if the challenges identified by Manuel are to be met.
However, this does not occur overnight and, in the interim, Stats SA urgently requires enhanced skill and capacity in official statistics.
We are negotiating agreements with several countries, including Australia and Germany, to improve the teaching of mathematical sciences.
The hosting of the ISI's 2009 conference in Durban will provide an important opportunity to consolidate development and training of young statisticians well versed in official statistics.