The Director of Statistics Mr. 'Mile Mokhahlane has explained that the Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ) survey is the latest in the series of survey instruments that have been developed by the World Bank to help provide policy makers with household level information for policy formulation and evaluation. 

Officially opening a one- day User/Producer dissemination workshop on CWIQ held at Maseru Sun on Thursday 31 October,2002 Mr. Mokhahlane indicated that the results of the survey will assist in making useful impact assessments in the country,
adding that researchers and policy makers will have appropriate indicators of welfare status on different population subgroups. He mentioned that in Lesotho, there is very little understanding of the impact of statistics usage for development, saying that dissemination of information on surveys like CWIQ are aimed at enhancing understanding of the statistics among professionals.

At the occasion, the BOS Statistician Mrs. Matsotang Tsietsi mentioned that the results of the survey show a simple indicator of who is and who is not benefiting from the various actions designed to improve the socio- economic status of the poor. She pointed out that the survey was conducted on areas that cover, among others, household amenities with focus on access to water and sanitation, education, employment and household information on effects of HIV/AIDS.

Mrs. Tsietsi said the figures found during the survey will further assist to monitor poverty and the effects of development projects on living standards of the country.
She concluded by expressing hope that the data collected for the survey will be beneficial for stakeholders in their various workplaces. Meanwhile, the CWIQ pilot survey was conducted in February this year in the two districts of Maseru and Mafeteng, covering the urban and rural areas of the districts.  The main survey was conducted countrywide around May this year.

Participants at the workshop were statistics stakeholders drawn from among others government ministries of development planning, health planning, energy, local government, prisons and Lesotho Fund for Community Development.

31 October.2002