Enhancing National Statistical Capacities through Global Assessments

1. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division Global AssessmentsA tool in building an integrated system of economic statistics Developing a Programme for the Implementation of the 2008 SNA and Supporting Statistics in the ECO member countries 10-13 September 2013, Ankara, Turkey

2. “Raison d’être” of Global Assessments Provide a clear picture of the state of development of official statistics in a country Set objectives for the development of official statistics according to international standards, including the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics Monitor the progress of countries in the development of their national statistical capacities • The “raison d’être” of a Global Assessment (GA) of a NSS is to: GAs should cover the entire (global) NSS and not only the activities of the NSO

3. Coverage of Global Assessments Legal and institutional aspects of the NSS: Fundamental principles of Official Statistics, Statistical Law, Coordination of the NSS … Technical and organizational capacity to produce and disseminate official statistics: Structure and functioning of the NSO and other producers of official statistics, data collection – statistical registers –data processing – dissemination … Compliance of statistical output with international standards, norms and recommendations

4. Expected Outcome of GAs Unique opportunity to get a comprehensive picture of the overall state of development of NSSs Deliver recommendations for the development of NSSs that should be incorporated into capacity building programmes and strategies Guide international and bilateral partners in designing, implementing and coordinating their contributions to the development of national statistical capacities Ideal tool for advocacy and fund raising Provide to all (NSO, national authorities, international and bilateral partners and other stakeholders) an objective evaluation of the achievements of capacity building programmes and activities

5. Challenges for NSSs Increasing demand for internationally comparable, coherent and timely statistics to monitor economic, social and environmental policies (sustainable development) Swift development of information and communication technologies Economic and financial crises with additional budget constraints for national administrations and official statistics Pressure to further reduce response burden Streamlining statistical production processes 5

6. What Does Streamlining Mean? Effective: Adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result: an effective decision Efficient: Performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and resources (human and financial) • Streamlining can be defined as adapting the business and technology infrastructure in order to deliver statistical information that meets user’s requirements in a more effective and efficient way.

7. From the Stovepipe Model … Excessive burden on respondent: each statistical product relies on its own data sources Inefficient: this model does not allow to standardize statistical production and to deploy common IT platform and tools Inconsistent: statistical information from different sources are not systematically reconciled and might diverge; One-dimensional: the model is not well adapted to the primary data collection on statistical domains that cover multiple dimensions, such as national accounts, globalization or environment. • The stovepipe model is an organisation of the production where each substantive department has exclusive ownership over the production process of one or more specific statistical products

8. … to the Integrated Model Vertical integration (simplification of the production chain): Reducing the unnecessary layers and tasks between the data collection and the dissemination Horizontal integration (economy of scale): Increasing the operational coordination of the National Statistical System by organizing jointly the collection of primary statistical data and avoiding duplication of tasks • The integrated model is based on common and standardised processes, transforming a combination of primary data into statistical products

9. Integrated Economic Statistics:from Products towards Processes Integrated economic statistics approach does not focus only on products or services but also on the means to achieve them Effective design and improvement of processes that ensure that products and services are fit for their purpose and meet their specification (Quality management) More ex-ante quality assurance built into the production process rather than a ex-post quality control on products

10. International standards / nomenclatures / guidelines Coherent SNA BoP Sectoral statistics STS – SBS – CPI – ETS – GFS … Business processes Statistical registers Data warehouse Editing and processing (quality control) Data collection Administrative data – Surveys – Censuses Integrated Effective Legal / institutional / organizational framework

11. Processes are embedded in products

12. 2009 EECCA Seminar in Yalta GA shall be initiated in a country only in response to a formal request from national statistical authorities GAs shall cover the quality dimension of the final output in a user oriented perspective GAs shall also cover the organisational and technical capacity of NSSs to produce and disseminate official statistics • Management Seminar on Global Assessments for EECCA countries organized by EFTA-Eurostat-UNECE, hosted by SSSU, September 2009 in Yalta, Ukraine: • With the exception of 2 countries, Global Assessments were requested by and conducted in all EECCA countries

13. “Adapted” Global Assessments Focuses not only on statistical products and services but also on the means to achieve them (resource allocation and management) Evaluates to what extent processes ensure that products and services are fit for their purpose (effectiveness) Assesses the coordination of the NSS and the organization of the production process from data collection to dissemination (efficiency) • After Yalta, all Global Assessments were adapted in order to focus more on production processes that meet users’ requirements in an effective and efficient way.

14. Conclusions GAs address all elements of quality, coherence and efficiency of statistical systems and contribute to an integrated approach of the statistical production The consistency and exhaustiveness of national accounts data can substantially benefit from a more integrated production of economic statistics In return, the national accounts, as the overarching framework for economic statistics, is an essential tool for improving the coherence of major sectoral statistics Streamlining statistical production is an ongoing task since economic statistics must constantly adapt to the evolving environment (e.g.: globalization)

15. UNECE project proposal /1 To support countries to formulate, prioritize and eventually incorporate recommendations into multi-year (strategic) and annual (operational) statistical programmes To mobilise financial and technical resources from multilateral and bilateral donors To coordinate and provide technical assistance and advisory services If requested, to conduct new GAs (every 5-7 years) in full coordination with the partner organisations (Master plan and NSDS) • UNECE to launch a UN Development Account (UNDA) project: Strengthening National Statistical Capacity

16. UNECE project proposal /2 GA (year 0) Fund raising / Technical cooperation Master Plan – NSDS (year 1) Feedback Work programme (annual) Self-assessment surveys (annual) Donor questionnaire (annual) GA (if requested, year 5) Master Plan – NSDS (year 6)