Iwan A. Sno - Director General Bureau of Statistics-Suriname

1. ST/RWP/AG/2008/2/3 IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMMON REGIONAL STATISTICAL WORK PROGRAMME (RSWP) OF MINIMUM ACTIVITIES TO BE IMPLEMENTED BY COUNTRIES:A contribution of Suriname Iwan A. Sno - Director General Bureau of Statistics-Suriname 2nd Meeting of the CARICOM Advisory Group on Statistics, Belize - June 2008

2. OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION • Introduction • Preliminaries of implementation • Minimum requirements for a Statistical Work Programme • Proposal for Minimum activities of a programme • Implementation Strategy • Closing Remarks

3. 1- INTRODUCTION (1) COMPONENTS OF EXISTING RSWP: • Economy, Finance and Investments (twelve-12 topics or programme areas) • Population, Demographics, Social and Living conditions (8 topics) • The environment (1 topic) • Information and Communication Technology (1 topic) • Public Relations and Data Dissemination (3 topics)

4. 1- INTRODUCTION (2) In 2005, an advisory group (AG-RSWP) was proposed and it was actually set up in 2006 to coordinate the implementation at the regional level. In 2007 the Advisory Groups for Social, Gender and Environment Statistics and for the Regional Statistical Work Programme were merged into the CARICOM Advisory Group on Statistics.

5. 2- PRELIMINARIES OF IMPLEMENTATION (1) • Why do we need to produce Official Statistics? • Who has to pay for them? • Who benefits from them? • What are good Quality official statistics? (The last question will be answered in section 5 – Implementation Strategy)

6. Why do we need to produce Official Statistics? (1) • All official statistics are produced (or at least said to be) for the benefit of society. We all know that we need to produce good quality statistics for informed decision-making. For simplicity we take the example of Suriname’s GBS. • The purpose of the GBS is to provide high quality statistics to the national and international communities, which give an insight into the situation and development of the Republic of Suriname as regards Demographic, Economic and Social conditions

7. Who benefits from Official Statistics? (2) • The Why, part in principle also answers, “Who benefits”, but please note that this is not always perceived in that manner by stakeholders. We are sure that all of us can provide millions of examples of people requesting information and if it is not available they just think that the NSO is useless and a waste of taxpayers’ money. Regrettably One unhappy customer often sounds louder than ten happy information seekers.

8. Who has to pay for Official Statistics? • Official Statistics, like the maintenance of law and order, are “public goods”, which means that they have to be funded mainly by taxpayers” (underscore added). • We like to note however that there seems to be a trend of Statistical Offices having to generate additional funds to be able to operate properly and even have to compete with other institutions for development aid.

9. 3- MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR A STATISTICAL WORK PROGRAMME (1) RECKON WITH: • National requirements for good quality statistics necessary for Policy making, Planning and Monitoring purposes, as well as for Research • International (including regional) requirements and obligations • Globalization, which more or less dictates cooperation • Adherence to or compliance with international standards, principles and recommendations and guidelines

10. 3- MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR A STATISTICAL WORK PROGRAMME (2) • Alignment with the moving multiyear programme of work for the UN Statistical Commission. • Having (or getting in place in time), the necessary: work force, hardware and software, legal provisions and rapport and solidarity between all stakeholders • Ownership of the programme • An active Research Programme (etc.)

11. 4- PROPOSAL FOR MINIMUM ACTIVITIES OF A PROGRAMME (Considerations) • Adopting the RSW-programme and incorporating it in the regular work programme is a very important part of overall implementation (the RSWP is very ambitious so execution is not easy- priority setting) • Do we want to concentrate on activities within the mandate of the NSO or do we want to look beyond. • Whether activities conducive to the CSME should get a high rank on the list of priorities or not.

12. 4- PROPOSAL FOR MINIMUM ACTIVITIES OF A PROGRAMME (Basics) • We propose to use the amended GDDS data categories / core indicators as a vehicle towards implementing the RSWP. Most, if not all CARICOM (associate) members subscribe to the GDDS, so also in that respect, we speak a common language. We like to use the amended Guide to the GDDS as Population plays a less prominent role in the “old’ GDDS, but Population is of importance to every facet of development. Furthermore, amendments should take the move towards the CSME into consideration.

13. 4- PROPOSAL FOR MINIMUM ACTIVITIES OF A PROGRAMME (Table)

14. 4- PROPOSAL FOR MINIMUM ACTIVITIES OF A PROGRAMME (Table, continued)

15. 4- PROPOSAL FOR MINIMUM ACTIVITIES OF A PROGRAMME (Table, continued)

16. 4- PROPOSAL FOR MINIMUM ACTIVITIES OF A PROGRAMME (Table, concluded)

17. 5 - IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY (1, walking on two legs) • For implementing a minimum RSWP, we propose walking on two legs. One leg is the Regional inputs and coordination and the other leg is the national efforts to implement the RSWP. Clearly coordination of movements of the two legs will definitely mean that progress can be made relatively fast. • For the regional leg, we have to ensure that we strengthen the Coordinator of the Coordinating activities (Statistics Programme of CARICOM and we have to ensure that no member lags too far behind in any area. The national leg is nothing more or less than what we have termed last year the ten commandments of Statistical System Survival.

18. 5 - IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY (2, ten commandments part 1) • Forge and/or foster strategic ties with national and international partners • Participate (faith)fully in the CARICOM RSWP • Continuous institutional strengthening and investment in human capital • Strengthening the legal framework that underpins and supports the statistical system, particularly as it relates to “incentives”, fines and summary judgments, but also regarding unrestricted access to information from all official (public, semi-public, etc.) units and regarding the Supremacy of the Statistics Act • Aggressively promote sound use of statistics for informed policy making

19. 5 - IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY (2, ten commandments part 2) • Keep staff morale high and minimize staff turnover • Strike a proper balance between demand and supply of statistics • Make publications user friendly and give popular but technically correct accounts of various statistical issues within its domain of competence • Strict adherence to the so-called RATACCC (Relevance, Accuracy, Timeliness, Accessibility, Comparability, Coherence, Comprehensiveness) quality attributes in all work – So these make good quality official statistics! • Promote healthy competitions between statistical units, both nationally and internationally. (Issue of ranking)

20. CLOSING REMARKS • Technical Cooperation within and between countries may well be the key to success for National Statistical Systems • It is imperative that “small” countries get their fair share of attention, both at international fora and in international publications. • If we abide by the above-mentioned Ten Commandments, our chances of obtaining a sound, sustainable and well-performing Statistical System must be very high. This will be beneficial for governments and people, nationally, regionally and internationally.

21. THANK YOU • EASY QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED RIGHT AWAY AND DIFFICULT QUESTIONS WILL BE TAKEN HOME (IF YOU ARE LUCKY YOU’LL GET AN ANSWER!) • I.A.S. - SURINAME