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ESCAP Statistics:Implications for Agenda 2030

[a.k.a SDGs]

CCSA Twenty-sixth Session1 October 2015

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Overview of the presentation

1. Context: Diversity 2. Regional Commission: Meeting of minds to

identify and address common concerns3. Partnerships: Mechanisms for coordination

and facilitation of delivery of services4. ESCAP Statistics: Regional hub for

statistics capacity development

2

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• From 1.4 billion people in China to 11,000 in Tuvalu

• Highly developed countries, Least Developed countries, Small Island Developing States and Landlocked Developing Countries

• Statistical systems range from highly centralized to decentralized-- thousands of staff to just a handful

Diversity

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• Struggling to self-finance the HIES or DHS, and some rely on external financial support for conducting their census

• Lack experienced sampling statisticians, data analysts, economic statisticians, communications and advocacy specialists and IT-for-statistics experts

• Some countries do not and possibly will never, have the national resources to compile basic statistics, including many of the indicators required for international development reporting

Diversity: Pacific Case

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24 countries do not have a Quality Assessment Framework for economic statistics outputs

17 countries feel they have adequate HR to produce and disseminate the Core Set of Economic Statistics

24 countries carry out an economic census

21 countries produce quarterly GDP(e)

11 countries produce monthly commodity price index

17 countries produce annual productivity measures

31 countries produce annual integrated national accounts

8 countries are able to produce annual indicators related to natural resources

Diversity: Economic Statistics [51]

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Some of the most highly developed but also some of the most dysfunctional systems in the world:

• Reported birth registration rates: from 24 per cent (Nepal) to almost 100 per cent (New Zealand, Japan, Rep. of Korea, Australia)

• 2/3 of children do not possess birth certificates

• Only 9 per cent of deaths registered in Tuvalu and Nepal

• Rapid assessments scores range from 11 to 96 per cent

Diversity: CRVS

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Mongolia Global Assessment: AGA Report (2014) findings spanning legal, organizational, stakeholder relations, statistical infrastructure, data production and dissemination processes, and domain-specific issues• Coordination tool for development partners providing

support to the national statistical system• A new NSDS (2016-2020) is drafted based on the

findings of AGA• Revisions to Statistical Law to delineate more

clearly the scope of the NSS and official statistics and to ensure alignment with the FPOS and incorporate the standards for quality management for official statistics

Diversity: Mongolia

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• National Bureau of Statistics of the Maldives operates under the Ministry of Finance and Treasury in the absence of a statistics law

• 30 staff members• Mid-term review NSDS (2009-2019): Chief

Statistician requested a "forward looking assessment" with focus on SDG monitoring, employment and environment

• Based on the assessment, a revised NSDS and a programme of work in alignment with the strategy will be devised

Diversity: Maldives

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• No country has data available for all suggested indicators

• Preliminary estimates suggest huge gaps• In the Pacific, countries are still lacking the

capacity to produce some Tier 1 indicators

Country Availability

Pakistan 35 per cent of targets

China 25 per cent of indicators

Mongolia 26 per cent of indicators

Rep. Korea 50 per cent of indicators

Japan 60 per cent of indicators

Diversity: ‘Readiness’ for SDGs

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Platform for reaching consensus on issues of global relevance

• Regional initiatives directed by countries through steering groups and advisory bodies

• Links global standards and mandates to country activities

• Continuous contact between countries and ESCAP • Establishes political commitment• Align regional partners and coordinate activities• Serve as a knowledge producing and sharing hub

on specific issues such as CRVS

Role of the Commission

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Platform for reaching consensus on issues of global relevance

• Regional initiatives on– Economic Statistics– Agriculture and Rural Statistics (Global Strategy)– Gender Statistics– Population and Social Statistics– CRVS –Get Every One in the Picture

• Supporting the three pillars of sustainable development

Role of the Commission

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Normative work

Analytical work

D a t a b a s e

Capacity building

Supporting production of basic statistics

supporting member States to strengthen their institutional and technical capacity to produce basic statistics

supporting capacity development evidence-based discussions in intergovernmental platforms

supporting capacity building, analytical research, and regional policy making

• Regional Core Sets• Global Working Groups

and City Groups

• Asia-Pacific Statistical Database

• Statistical Yearbook

• Economic & Social Survey• Regional MDG Report• Stats Briefs• Working papers

4 pillars of

ESCAP Statistics

• Regional Programmes• SIAP• Training Network• GPSDD

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Dom

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-speci

fic

init

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ves

Economic

• Regional Programme on Economic Statistics

• Regional Strategy for Agricultural and Rural Statistics

Social

• Regional Strategy for Population and Social Statistics

• Regional Strategy for CRVS

Environmental

• Modular and integration-focused approach for environment statistics

• Disaster-related statistics

• Modernization of statistical production and services

• Gender statistics• Network for training

Cro

ss-

cutt

ing

init

iati

ves

• Steering Group for the Regional Programme on Economic Statistics

• Regional Steering Group for Agricultural Statistics

• Regional Steering Group for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific

• Technical Advisory Group on Population and Social Statistics

• Strategic Advisory Body for Modernization of statistical production and services in Asia and the Pacific (SAB-AP)

• Network for the Coordination of Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific

• Partners for Statistics Development in Asia and the Pacific

Govern

ance

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Data hub for the region

• The Statistical Database covers the region and contains over 600 data series on a wide range of topics on population, education, health, poverty and inequalities, gender, economy, environment and connectivity

• The Statistical database is used by ESCAP divisions for their analytical work

• The Statistical Yearbook is produced in collaboration with other divisions in ESCAP

ESCAP Statistics

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Exchanging experiences with implementing global standards

• SNA 2008• SEEA• Civil Registration and Vital Statistics• Statistical Business Registers• Big Data

ESCAP Statistics

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Mission Result: Enhanced capability of NSSs to provide timely and quality official statistics in support of evidence-based decision making for (sustainable and inclusive) development

The “WHY”

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ESCAP is placed at the center for monitoring and review of the SDGs

• Established forums: Asia-Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development (APFSD)

• Regional data user-producer forum important to raise awareness of statistical issues (e.g. in policy community) and policy priorities (among producers)

Monitoring and reviewing of the SDGs

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Committee on Statistics• Biannual meeting place for Statisticians• High level of interaction with member

countries during and between sessions• Will support integration of SDGs monitoring &

statistics/data in national development plans• Have guided regional/subregional

consultations on statistics & data in support of global & regional monitoring (IAEG & HLG)

Monitoring and reviewing of the SDGs

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Bureau of the Committee

The Committee elected the following officers:• Chair: Ms. Aishath Shahuda (Maldives)

• Vice-Chairs: Mr. Suryamin (Indonesia)Mr. Hyungsoo Park (Republic of Korea)Mr. Alexander Surinov (Russian Federation)

• Member: Mr. Simil Johnson (Vanuatu)• Rapporteur: Ms. Teresa Dickinson (New Zealand)

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Dialogue and partnerships• Partners for Statistics Development in Asia and

the Pacific • CRVS Partnership (15 partner organizations)• Regional Training Network established• Involved in global partnerships and collaboration

– SDMX– CRVS Global Group– GWG on Use of Big Data for Official Statistics– Anchor partner: Global Partnership for Sustainable

Development Data

Monitoring and reviewing of the SDGs

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• Our unique ability to contact any part of a national government gives us the ability to reach broader– CRVS Regional Steering Group and Ministerial

Conference is an example where 4 government sectors are represented

• Countries are directing our work and decides on priorities– Countries are calling for regional monitoring and

review of the SDGs

Monitoring and reviewing of the SDGs

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Onward to better preparedness• Countries take the lead

– ESCAP Statistics at the fore-front of SDG implementation: the go-to-place for countries and ensuring country ownership and leadership in SDG implementation.

• Partnerships, collaboration and coordination– On initiatives on SDG-implementation will be key to ESCAP’s

work over the coming years– On capacity building SDG related data issues

• Doing it– Inter-governmental platform : Committee on Statistics,

APFSD, Commission sessions– SIAP as capacity development hub for ESCAP Statistics– How else? [CCSA]

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THANK YOU

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