Capacity Building developments and perspectives in Geostat

1. Capacity Building developments and • perspectives in Geostat • Workshop on New Approaches to Statistical Capacity Development • December 11/12, Paris • Maia Guntsadze • Deputy Executive Director • National Statistics Office of Georgia – Geostat

2. About Geostat About Geostat General Information • Legal Entity of Public Law • Coordinator of National Statistical System • Reporting to the Parliament and to the Prime Minister • Management Board - 8 Member Board (5 non public servants and 3 Government bodies), the Board is chaired by the Executive Director • Advisory Board -consist of at least 8 members (non public servants , business, academia representatives) Legal Basis • Law on Official Statistics • Annual Statistical Programme • GeostatCharter, Boards Charter Coordination of Statistical Activities • The statistical Law gives Geostat the role of coordinating and overseeing official statistics in Georgia 1

3. Institutional environment/conditions Several significant changes were made According to the AGA recommendations since 2012 • Amendments in the Low and New Definitions: • UN fundamental principles and COP , have been reflected in the law • New definitions of National Statistical System and official statistics have been defined • Who are Other Statistics Producing Bodies have been defined (National Bank, State and local self-government bodies, LEPL, other administrative bodies) • Professional Independence – new ruleof election of the Geostat board • Mandate for data collection – wasstrengthened • etc. Future plan - Full compliance with Generic Statistical Law which have been Developed to Modernize Statistics In Eastern European, Caucasus And Central Asian (EECCA) Countries

4. Commitment to qualityand confidentiality Assuranceframework Commitmentto quality - • Interagency working group (Consists of 14 Producers/Providers) • UN fundamental principles and COP translated into Georgian and disseminated • Mapping of statistical processes and risk assesment • Routine descriptions for about 80 percent of the statistical production processes • The Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS) has been translated into Georgian and will be used to produce quality reports • Metadata dissemination software (IMF/SDDS; NADA is under development); • process support system based on GSBPM is under development Future plan – GSBPM and related standards (ESMS, GAMSO) within entire statistical system, Challenge: luck of understanding, unsufficient recourses • Statisticalconfidentiality- New policy documents and guidelines have been prepared • Confidentiality policy & Public use micro-data dissemination policy • Confidentiality reminder, Guidelines on the protection of tabulated personal data, Guidelines on the protection of tabulated business data, Statistical data revision policy. Future plan/Chalenge – userswant to analyze data by themselves, so simplification of data anonymization and Public use microdata files, easier use of surveyresults, etc .

5. Innovations - new methods, standards and tools • New surveys & Methodologies (38 Surveys), new Classificators • Modern Data Collection methods – • On-line Data Collection in all business surveys (46surveys) • CATI– in business register • CAPI – in Agricultural surveys from 2018 (“survey solution” by world Bank) • New Business register online • Use of Administrative data Total number of surveys in Geostat -134 • Field works – 85 (63%) • Administrative data -49 (37%) • Customs Records , Social Security Data ,Tax Records , Crime Reports ,Permits & Sanctions Information Plan : Development of registers and municipal data Challenge : No experience of usage of Non-traditional data sources Unified standards for traditional and nontraditional data sources ( Quality, etc) 6

6. Key Partners and Needs for partnerships • Needfor dialogue withpolicymakers/government • working with policy makers to discuss new demands • Mutualunderstandingneeds to bestrengthened, including on Independence of NSO • SDGs have statistics and politics close together – Chalenge VS Oportunity • Budget and Human recourses Value of statistics is value of your evidence based decisions • Supplier/recipient partnership - • Agreements with data owners - cooperation memoranda and agreements in place with major producers of official statistics and data providers with 20 government agencies; • Relationships with citizens, representatives of key sectors of society, and other producers of data used - MOUs signed with representing the private, non-governmental sector (13 MOE) • Open innovation/ strategic partnership • Academia, researchers or the scientific community - MoUs signed with all main Universities (7 MOE), also representatives from Academia/scientific community are represented in Geostat’s Advisory Board. • Expert groups are represented in Geostat’s advisory board • Representatives of international organizations are represented in advisory board - Source of advice and Advocacy Conducted User Meetings – With Ngo’s, Business Sector, Partner organizations (producers/ providers), International Organizations (18 in 2016, 28 in 2017)

7. Co-creation partnership and Public Relations Media and others for mutually beneficial outcomes- Public relations are essential for raising public Awareness of Statistical products and processes. Geostathas active cooperation with media representatives. For example: • TV programs/Story – Geostat was mentioned 1002 times in 2016, 603 in 2017 • Number of radio programs/Story – 577 in 2016, 293 in 2017 • Number of press news's- 595 in 2016, 377 in 2017 • Number of news released/used by Internet agencies – 1471 in 2016, 1041 in 2017 Total Number of visitors of Geostat website – 478707 in 2016(12% growth) Data Dissemination and user friendly tools • web-page and calendar, Newsletter subscribe service • PC-Axis Web App, Android app for mobile devices • Social media (Facebook) • New tool Regional Statistical Portal/Map GIS Portal, etc.

8. Future plans and demands Goal is The re-engineering of statistical system to produce more statistics in a more effective way Plans: • full compliance with EU Standards- On 27 June 2014 the Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia was signed. The Association agenda envisages actions to prepare for approximation to the EU acquis in the field of statistics. • SDGs implementation plans • Full compliance with Generic Statistical Law • Ask for New AGA in the nearest future • Development of new National Statistical Strategy and Action Plan demands for the future : • Process integration and standardization • Modernization of statistical production and services: from Products towards Processes • Metadata system and other infrastructure elements • Data Disaggregation level and Increased timelines of statistical production • Qualification of personnel lagging behind; • Limited resources; Human resources: education in IT systems, permanent trainings

9. conclusions Prof. Hal Varian - “The ability to take data- to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it , to communicate it – that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades.” • Role of statisticians for Data industrial revolution is complex plan – do – cheek- problem finding- solution strategy-collecting information from all source – action • Action Areas are also Complex – • skills & human recourses • modernization • integrated statistics • Quality & trust • User engagement and investments Statistics is public good, So let’s make it more common for people together

10. Thank you for your attention! Maia Guntsadze Deputy Executive Director National Statistics Office of Georgia mguntsadze@geostat.ge