Coordination mechanismsin the area of

statistics

Henri LaurencinUNCTAD, co-chairman of the Committee for Coordination of Statistical Activities

World Statistics Day, Geneva, 20 October 2010

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Areas for international coordination in statistics

Standards and methods• Classifications– Product, activity, occupation, education, etc.

• Methodology– Consumer price indices, unemployment measure,

surveys, census, quality, etc.• Statistical frameworks– National accounts, balance of payments, etc.

• Data exchange– Norms for data and metadata

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Areas for international coordination in statisticsCapacity building activities

• National legal framework for statistics• National Strategies for the Development of

Statistics (NSDS)• Data collection, processing and dissemination– Household and business surveys– Population censuses– Business registers– Administrative sources, etc

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Benefits from international coordination in statistics

• More reliable statistics available for evidence based policy-making

• Quality of statistics: comparability, transparency etc

• Resources sharing• Data exchange & reduced burden on the

statistical producers• Efficient use of resources

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Coordination mechanism in statistics

City groups Inter-secretariatworking groups

NationalStatistical

Offices

Regional &International

Organizationss

Governingbodies

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Governing bodies

- World wide• United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC)

- Regional• Conference of European Statisticians (UNECE)• …

- Specialized agencies• International Conference of Labour Statisticians

(ILO)• …

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• Highest decision making body for international statistical activities

• Attended by the Chief Statisticians from the member states

• Development of concepts and methods and setting of statistical standards

• Implementation at the national and

international levels

United NationsStatistical Commission

First meeting of the Statistical Commission- 1947 -

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Adopted by the UN Statistical Commission(special session April 1994)

1. Professional standards and ethics2. Accountability and transparency3. Prevention of misuse4. Sources of official statistics5. Confidentiality6. Legislation7. National coordination8. Use of international standards9. International cooperation

Fundamental Principles of Official statistics

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Expert groups

City groups• Groups of experts primarily from national

statistical system and form international organizations

• Since 1997, UNSC meets regularly to discuss the work of the city groups

• To the large extent, work of these groups results in proposed and implemented international standards

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City groups

- Delhi Group on Informal Sector Statistics • Participation of ILO• Eleventh Meeting Geneva 27-29 January, 2010– Manual on Surveys of Informal Employment and

Informal Sector

- Ottawa Group on Price Indexes• Participation of ILO and UNECE• Topics:– Weighting: quality , frequency of updating, reference

period, and price-updating– New developments in calculation methods– Core inflation: from calculation to interpretation– Globalization and specialization

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Expert groups

Inter-secretariat working groups

Groups of experts from international organizations and eventually from national statistical system

Inter-agency Task Force on International Merchandise Trade Statistics – To improve data quality, timeliness, coverage and

consistency amongst various international data providers (WTO, UNCTAD…)

– Common Data Set

Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development– To improve the availability and quality of ICT data

and indicators (ITU, UNCTAD…)

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Statistical data and metadata exchange

International

Organization

International

organization

National Statistical Office

National Statistical Office

Data reporting

Data reporting

Data reporting

Datashare

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Data exchange

International organizations define standards and guidelines in the SDMX project for the efficient sharing of statistical data and metadata.

Current SDMX developments:

o Labor Statistics

o Health Statistics

o External Debt Statistics

o Commodity Trade Statistics

o National Accounts

o Millennium Development Goals indicators

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PARIS21

Partnership in Statistics for Development

in the 21st Century

• Assist low-income countries to design, implement, and monitor National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS)

• Build capacity within National Statistical Systems in developing countries

• Global partnership of national, regional and international statisticians, analysts, policy-makers, and users of statistics

• Forum and network to promote statistical capacity development and the better use of statistics

Reinforcement of statistical capacities

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Partner Report on Support to Statistics

(PRESS)

A snapshot of ongoing statistical support in the developing world:• Who• What• Where• How much

A valuable tool to limit overlaps

Reinforcement of statistical capacities

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Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA)

Coordination of statistical activities of international and supranational organizations

Representation at the level of a Director of the statistical service

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Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities

Fosters good practices in accordance with the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities:

• Efficient functioning of the statistical system

• Common standards and platforms

• Development of methodologies

• Inter-institutional support

• Outreach

• Advocacy for statistics

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Thank you for attention