Dr Viliami Konifelenisi Fifita has been appointed as the new Government Statistician for the Bureau of Statistics.
Fifita has been appointed effective as from 19 August, 2016 for a term of two (2) years.
Fifita is currently completing his Doctoral thesis on Poverty Analysis at Bristol University in England since October 2011. He holds a Master of Applied Statistics (2008) from the
Fifita is currently completing his Doctoral thesis on Poverty Analysis at Bristol University in England since October 2011. He holds a Master of Applied Statistics (2008) from the Australian National University, Australia and has also attained a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Pure Mathematics (2003) from Waikato University, New Zealand and a Bachelor of Science from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji (1995).
Fifita’s career in the public service began in 1996 when he was appointed as an Assistant Teacher in the then Ministry of Education.Since then, he has taken over senior positions in the Ministry including Senior Lecturer prior to his transfer and promotion to the position of Assistant Government Statistician at the then Statistics Department
in 2004. Fifita was also a part time lecturer at the University of the South Pacific from 1997 to 2006 and also at the Tonga Institute for Higher Education for the Diploma in Information System and Diploma in Computer Science from1999 to 2007.
During Mr. Fifita’s tenure as Assistant Government Statistician at the Statistics Department he assisted the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and some Pacific Islands in designing poverty modules, manuals, discussion papers on advantages of Consensual Approach (CA) to poverty measurement and provide training for their various surveys which included Tonga Demographic Health Survey (DHS) 2012, Tonga Household Income Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2012, Solomon Islands DHS 2015, Tuvalu HIES 2015 and Fiji Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2015.
Fifita has sat on various professional committees namely the TVET programs under the then Ministry of Training, Employment, Youth and Sports as a short term Technical Advisor in 2011. He was also a Consultant for UNICEF (Impact of the Global economic crises to women and children in Tonga 3rd round) in the same year. Mr. Fifita was also a moderator and chief marker for the South Pacific Form 7 Certificates in Mathematics with Statistics.
The Public Service Commission welcomes Mr. Viliami Konifelenisi Fifita appointment as the new Government Statistician for the Bureau of Statistics and wishes him success in his term in Office.
