Timor-Leste Statistical Capability and Capacity Development

1. Timor-LesteStatistical Capability and Capacity Development Economic Development Plan Country experiences GDS-ABS Technical Cooperation Fifth Project Support Meeting Bangkok, Thailand | 9 May 2018

2. Outline • Background • Partnership Vision • Program Design • Partnership Principles • Key Achievements • Challenges • Future Plans

3. Background • GDS-Legal frame work and Mandate The Legal Framework : • Degree-Law no. 17/2003 , Give mandate to National Directorate of Statistics for collection of data and Census 2004; • The Degree-Law No :44/2012 The Organic Statute of the General Directorate of Statistics under Ministry of Finance (MOF), The Statistical Work Program (SWP). The SWP established three broad goals for national statistics in Timor-Leste: • To put a framework in place to ensure coverage of Timor-Leste official statistics; • To develop the infrastructure for delivering the information gathered through the statistical framework; and • To set the priorities for the development of new statistical series and indicators; and develop competencies in data analysis

4. Cont…. 2. The Government Strategic Development Plan (SDP) • The SDP 2011 – 2030 articulates an approach to reduce poverty and foster economic growth involving the use of public expenditure to “build a foundation for social and economic development” (GoTL, 2011, pg. 204). • A key feature of the SDP is that it contains plans to improve central government agency systems and build “a professional, capable and responsive public sector” (GoTL, 2011, pg. 183). 3. Internationally recognition Busan Action Plan for Statistics, 2011, pg.4). Without good statistics, governments cannot efficiently manage, monitor or plan for social, economic or environmental aspects of development. Statistics also provide the means for the public to monitor the activities of government and make decisions about their own lives.

5. Cont… 4. GDS-ABS Legal frame work Memorandum of Understanding The partnership between ABS and DGE was formalized in November, 2010 through the signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the Australian Statistician, MrBrian Pink and the Director General of the General Directorate of Statistics Timor-Leste, Mr Antonio Freitas. The MoU articulated seven article of agreements, three out of it emphasized: The ABS-GDS, reached an understanding to cooperate in the area of statistical capability development and both countries recognise to sound statistics as a cornerstone of a stable democracy. ABS agreed to provide GDS-TL with greater skills and methods by which GDS can regularly release trusted statistics for better policy making. Active pursuit of improving capability development in the area of strengthening institutional capacity and technical support.

6. Cont… The Signing of Memorandum of Understanding Canberra, November 2010 Mr. Brian Pink, Australian Senior Statistician and Mr. Antonio Freitas, Director General of GDS

7. Partnership Vision • ABS and GDS agree to working together on program Statistical Capability and Capacity Development Program with objective to support GDS over the next ten years to become a self-sufficient and sustainable; • Short-to medium term the emphasis of the partnership will be on building the core statistical skills, knowledge and expertise required for GDS to work effectively • Long-term – the partnership will support GDS’s institutional arrangements and capability building processes, to deliver a statistical program relevant to the local context • On-going focus-the partnership will be on building the core statistical skills, knowledge and expertise required for outcomes that build trust and credibility at a country level.

8. Program Design • Prior to 2014, the ABS and GDS relationship was built through an Memorandum of Understanding in 2010. • Formalising a working relationship and agreed cooperation in statistical capacity development program in 2013 which set the stage for the program that developed in 2014. • In 2014, following an in-country designing a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) process, and as the result is GDS SCCD 2014-2017 program was developed • The program matched and align with DFAT’s GfD Program by supporting strategies to improve the performance of Timor-Leste’s public service and aligns with GDS’ own development priorities.

9. Cont…. • The program design drew on the ABS statistical capability framework which identifies three dimensions that support statistical capability: ABS Statistical Capability Framework • Statistical leadership • Statistical production • Statistical use

10. Cont… SCCD Program Design

11. Cont… ABS-GDS Senior Management Team on Program Design Workshop, Dili, April 2017 Mr. Brian Pink Official visit to Timor Leste Dili, 2013

12. Partnership Principles ABS-GDS Agreed the following principles: • Commitment to a shared vision – establishment of shared goals and management processes, which enable tracking of progress towards these shared goals • Honesty and transparency– monitoring overall resource flows and sharing of information on challenges and results • Clear and agreed priorities– engagement of all relevant stakeholders to improve the timeliness, sequencing and implementation of prioritised activities • Mutual accountability– management of the relationships with and between DGE and ABS towards the achievement of development results • Use and strengthen country systems– expanded use of country systems and responsiveness to maintain or upgrade these systems to reflect changing demands • Active collaboration – working together to identify and address issues, challenges, risks and opportunities

13. Key Statistical Achievements • Within CPI and BAS, significant improvements have been made in quality and timeliness of releases. • The ABS, along with users of GDS data, has indicated that CPI for Dili is now considered to be of good statistical quality, and that substantial improvement has occurred since the program began. • Consolidation of the new Series 2 CPI which was introduced in 2013 and included several methodological and conceptual changes required specific training and development of GDS staff and the team responded well to producing the monthly CPI using the new methodology.

14. Cont • The introduction of Series 2 generated significant discussion from MoF advisors as one of the key source data used was the 2011 Household Income and expenditure Survey (HIES), • The ABS provided an additional assessment of the use of the HIES data and a report and presentation was delivered to GDS by senior ABS Statistician in 2014. • The GDS CPI and BAS Staff have begun delivering their own internal training to supplement ABS expert visits, and are building their capability to monitor risk and quality themselves.

15. Cont….. • The ABS has provided “train-the-trainer” coaching to a number of key CPI staff, who are currently delivering basic training to GDS staff with lower capability. • National Accounts has been led by an International advisor for a number of years. In the past three years, the ABS identified low comprehension of economic concepts within GDS. The ABS responded by coordinating with GDS to deliver cross-section economic concepts training, for which most staff showed great improvement. • The capability development has provided significant support to the National Accounts international advisor, and has helped to improve the quality of National Accounts.

16. Keys Challenges GDS Internal Issues • Recognising minim of appropriate human resources and limited staff • The recruitments process of new staff is freezing since back 10 years and • The process of recruitment is centralized ABS-GDS Partnership challenges to achieving the goalsare: • Managing a growing work program with limited staff • Tailoring support in recognition of the challenges faced by a developing NSO. • Ensuring retention and continuity of training and technical assistance activities. • Preparations for GDS to achieve independence in their statistical production. • Ensuring effective coordination and communication between ABS, GDS and other technical partners.

17. GDS Future Plan2018-2021 Are these partnership principles still relevant ? (ABS-GDS evaluation, Nov) • Do they still meet the needs of the program? • Has the relationship between the ABS and GDS progressed past the scope of the initial principles? • Suggestions to update the principles of our partnership?

18. Cont… Program Design Framework

19. History of Project with Development Partners

20. Q&A