Statistical Newsletter Published: 1 October 2010

Third Quarter, 2010

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

ESCAP-led project shortlisted for 2010 UN 21 Awards for innovative and outstanding

Voice from the Region: Interview with Member of the Bureau, ESCAP Committee on Statistics: Mr Ma Jiantang, Commissioner, National Bureau of Statistics, China

Countries call for urgent action to improve civil registration and vital

Statistical capacity development

Consultative Meeting to Develop a Regional Programme on Gender Statistics in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, 22-23 September 2010Workshop on Strengthening National Capacities to Collect Violence against Women Statistics in the Asia-Pacific Region, Bangkok , 20-21 September 2010Supporting the effective use of ICT in population census operations: Needs assessment workshop, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation,

13-15 July 2010o Workshop on the Analysis of the Cognitive and Pilot Test Results o Developing Culture Statistics in the Pacific , Nadi, Fiji, 1 September 2010o Information session on communicating statistics , Suva, Fiji, 29 July 2010o Workshop on National Strategies for the Development of Statistics for the Pacific , Noumea, New

Caledonia, 8-9 July 2010 Training by the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific

o Ninth Management Seminar for the Heads of National Statistical Offices in Asia and the Pacific , Tokyo, Japan, 31 August – 2 September 2010

o First Group Training Course in Analysis, Interpretation and Use of Official Statistics (Economic Statistics), Chiba, Japan, 20 July – 17 September 2010

o Regional Course on Genderizing Population and Housing Census , Chiba, Japan, 12 – 16 July 2010o Follow-up Seminar for Ex-participants Conducted in Dushanbe, Tajikistan , 23 June 2010o First Group Training Course in Application of Information Management and related ICT for

Official Statistics, 10 May - 09 July 2010o ICT course participants went on field trip in Tokushima prefecture , 21 - 23 June 2010

ESCAP Statistics Division will celebrate World Statistics Day – 20 October 2010

New report assessing progress towards achieving the MDGs in Asia and the Pacific

Calendar of forthcoming statistical meetings in the ESCAP region

New appointments

Visitors to ESCAP Statistics Division

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

The Second session of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics will be held in Bangkok from 15 to 17 December 2010.

The deadline for submission of nomination forms is 15 October 2010.

There will be two other regional meetings just before the Committee session

Sixth session of the Governing Council of the Statistical Institute for Asia and the

Pacific (SIAP), 13-14 December 2010 First Informal Coordination Meeting of Statistics Development Partners in the

Asian and Pacific Region, 14 December 2010

 

ESCAP-led project shortlisted for 2010 UN 21 Awards for innovative and outstanding initiative

 

The project, Interregional Cooperation on the Measurement of the Informal Sector and Informal Employment, promotes evidence-based policy formulation through better measurement, cost-effective data collection, analysis and broad dissemination of results.

A statistics and knowledge sharing initiative, the project was implemented by ESCAP as the lead agency, in collaboration withEconomic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Resources of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the statistical divisions of the five Regional Commissions and the International Labour Organization (ILO) were brought together to implement the project. Advice and technical assistance were rendered to Member States at a national level in support of advocacy and the development of the most suitable statistical methodology for the field of informal employment and the informal sector. Five large-scale surveys on households and enterprises were conducted with the support of global and regional UN entities as well as non-UN statistics development partners.

The project provides a system to maximize synergies of global, regional and national initiatives to improve data collection methodologies. It takes forward the debate on the measurement of informal sector and informal employment among United Nations entities and non-UN partners. Lessons learnt from the project were shared in regional and interregional workshops. Five countries in the ECLAC, ESCWA and Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) region have expressed interest to replicate the methodology.

The 2010 UN 21 Awards showcased projects which have demonstrated innovative and outstanding initiatives.

 

Voice from the Region:

 

Interview with Member of the Bureau, ESCAP Committee on Statistics: Mr Ma Jiantang, Commissioner, National Bureau of Statistics, China

1. It has been over a year since you were elected by acclamation as a Member of the Bureau of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics, re-established after a seven-year gap. What is the single-most important result that you would like to see emerge from your tenure in the Bureau?

As a member of the first Bureau of the re-established ESCAP Committee on Statistics, the most important result I would like to see is that during my tenure, the remarkable progress on statistical standardization of countries in the Asian-Pacific region can be attained with the joint efforts of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics and its Bureau.

With the rapid development of the economic globalization process, a closer relationship among the countries in the Asian-Pacific region in terms of economy and society is increasingly developing. Sufficient statistical data and particularly the economic statistical data are becoming an important information channel for strengthening the mutual understanding among the countries in the region. We are very pleased to see that with the efforts over a year, a draft framework program on Proposed Core Set of Economic Statistics, which is applicable to the countries in the region, was worked out by the ESCAP Committee on Statistics and was sent to member countries for comments and suggestions. In the future, the ESCAP Committee on Statistics shall make continuous efforts to speed up the process of regional statistical standardization and try to play a greater role in reinforcing the regional standardization in the areas of statistical concepts, classifications and data release with international statistical norms and good practices.

2. What do you see as the top priorities for the statistical development in the Asia-Pacific region and what role do you see the Bureau play in addressing these priorities?

With regard to the statistical development in the Asian-Pacific region, I think that our first priority should be given to the statistical capacity building of the countries in the region. In particular, the developing

countries should take the statistical capacity building as their top priority in the agenda.

Secondly, we should reinforce the cooperative relationship among the different countries of the region and with other international organizations. We are witnessing a rapid development of economic globalization and closer economic and social ties among the countries of the world. The national statistical offices should be very conscientious in the performance of their duties under this new environment and with new requirements. They have to strengthen cooperation and expand exchanges in order to jointly meet the various challenges.

Thirdly, we should make better use of existing official statistics and improve the data quality. Statistical data should not only be accurate and timely, but also harmonized and efficient. This will require the national statistical offices to adopt effective measures to strengthen the exchange and cooperation with other ministries, and to have a full utilization of the available administrative data of various ministries. This will improve the harmonization and unification of statistical data while avoid duplication in data collection and reduce costs of statistical programmes.

As regards the above mentioned priorities, I think that the Bureau should play the role of an advocate and a coordinator. It should guide the Secretariat of the ESCAP, provide inputs to the secretariat’s medium- and long-term programme of work in statistics and its action plans in this regard.

3. How would you like to see the statistical community of the ESCAP region address those priorities (that you have identified in response to question 2 above)?

The above mentioned priorities are my personal views and assessments of statistical work of different countries, particularly those in the Asian-Pacific region based on the specific situations of China. Various countries might have somewhat different assessments and arrangements of their priorities. However, the general trend should be the same.

Statistical capacity building has been a long standing topic which deserves the highest priority. In response to the international financial crisis, various countries have attained deeper understanding of the statistical capacity and should attach more importance to capacity building.

It is commendable that in the past year, the ESCAP Committee on Statistics has done a lot of work for the region to improve demographic statistics, enhance the capacity to produce economic statistics, as well as coordinate statistical capacity building activities provided by international agencies in the region.

Due to different levels of development and different institutional arrangements, the emphases of statistical capacity building will certainly vary from one country to another. However, I hope that the ESCAP Committee on Statistics and other international agencies in the region continue to give priority to national statistical capacity building in their future work and promote comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of the statistical work by providing a good platform for countries to cooperate, share their experiences and lessons.

4. Turning to your own country, how do you see contributing in response to those challenges?

At present, China’s statistical reform and development programme is at a crucial stage. In response to new challenges, we have set up overall objectives of our statistical work: Further strengthening statistical capacity, improving the quality of statistical data and enhancing the credibility of statistics. All the efforts made so far are moving toward this direction.

Currently, our priority for statistical capacity building is setting up a national quality assurance framework. We are actively participating in relevant activities initiated by the UN or other international agencies.

As the largest developing country in Asia and the Pacific, China has the responsibility and obligation to contribute to overcoming the challenges in statistical development in the region The Chinese government sponsors a five-year South-South cooperation project, which is aimed at strengthening statistical capacity building in China and other developing countries in the region through training of personnel. We will set up the China International Statistical Training Center to provide statistical training programmes for developing countries of this region and other regions as well.

5. What are the major challenges and opportunities before China Statistical System?

As for challenges, I would count the sheer number of entities or individuals to collect data from, the complexity in their structures, the frequency in their changes, the ever-increasing awareness of personal privacy and commercial confidentiality, the existing huge and dramatically increasing demand for statistical information. All of these pose challenges for statistical development. Opportunities would include the great importance that the Chinese government attaches to statistical work, the greater attention that the general public pays to statistical work, the revision of Statistical Law of China in 2009, wider use of ICT in statistical work, and establishment of a statistical system which can meet the needs of the economic and social development. All these have laid a solid foundation for a further development of statistical undertakings.

6. How is Chinese Statistical System responding to the challenges and opportunities?

Firstly it is to strengthen the unified leadership of statistical work, improve statistical institutional framework and enhance the normative standards of statistical work. Secondly, it is to make the statistical surveys more scientific; set up and maintain the business register; improve statistical indicator system; enhance social statistics and statistics on science and technology, resources and environment; implement an integrated survey framework for businesses; and take an integrated urban and rural household survey programme. Thirdly, it is to undertake statistical programmes according to the law, further improve statistical legislation, enhance the publicity and education programmes of statistical law, and strengthen the public’s awareness of statistical legislation. Fourthly, it is to improve the ICT application in statistical work, implement computerization and networking of statistical work covering survey design to data collection, processing, transmission, storage and dissemination. Finally, it is to improve the transparency of statistical work, publicise statistical procedures and methodologies, strengthen the interpretation of

statistical indicators and clear up doubts about statistics.

7. In terms of statistical development, where would you like to see the Asia and the Pacific region in 10 years time?

Many countries in the Asian-Pacific region are playing important roles in international affairs. The Asian-Pacific region should study and formulate regional statistical standards to meet the requirements of future regional development, actively participate in the formulation and modification of international statistical rules and standards to reflect the statistical aspirations of the region and to promote statistical development at both regional and international levels.

In 10 years’ time, the core of the national statistical development in the Asian-Pacific region should be to enhance the national statistical capacity. China and other developing countries shall redouble our efforts to catch up with the statistically developed countries.

8. You are a very successful leader in the field of statistics. What is your advice for young statisticians on how to succeed in this field?

Young statisticians constitute the most dynamic group in the statistics workforce. Statistical work can embrace a bright future only when the talents of young statisticians are fully utilized.

To succeed in their career development, young statisticians should have a strong sense of responsibility and mission, acquire more knowledge and skills, have the drive to delve into the forefront of statistics, cultivate the consciousness of action, initiative and enthusiasm, and seek improvements in the practice of statistical work.

Young statisticians should also have a good environment for their development. The National Bureau of Statistics of China strives to create all kinds of favorable conditions for the growth and maturity of young statisticians. We have strengthened the development of statistical leaders in all subject areas; have successively established a long-term cooperative training mechanism of young staff with many universities and international organizations; and make arrangements for them to undertake duties in local statistical agencies.

Young statisticians should be good at adapting to and actively comply with the statistical environment. In today’s good statistical environment in China, there are plenty of great opportunities for young statisticians to flourish. I believe they will be successful and have a bright future.

 

Countries call for urgent action to improve civil registration and vital statistics

 

A regional gathering of experts in civil registration and vital statistics of seventeen Asia-Pacific countries was organized by ESCAP and WHO in collaboration with ADB and UNDP. The main outcome of the meeting was a strong message from countries calling for urgent action to increase coverage and completeness of registration and improve quality of data from the registration of vital events.

The regional meeting, held from 23 to 25 June 2010 at ESCAP headquarters in Bangkok, brought together, for the first time, representatives from all the three sectors involved in civil registration and vital statistics – health experts, statisticians and civil registrars. The opportunity to share experiences, explore common challenges and discuss potential solutions was welcomed by all who participated.

Experts stressed the central role of civil registration for establishing the rights and privileges of individuals and enabling the progressive realization of those rights. Civil registration and vital statistics systems provide the foundation for key population and mortality indicators, such as those on child mortality and maternal mortality. Without reliable and timely vital statistics, policy and decision-makers will not have sound information needed for development planning and monitoring of

progress towards national and internationally agreed goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Countries participating in this meeting conducted a self-assessment of their current systems with results indicating that weak institutional capacity and lack of coordination are among the main issues. Countries stressed that these are, in part, due to a lack of high-level political commitment and limited resource allocation for civil registration and vital statistics. The potential for new information and communication technologies to improve the efficiency of data collection, processing and sharing of results, has yet to be realized by many countries.

In an outcome statement adopted at the closing of the meeting (www.unescap.org/stat/meet/vs-Jun2010/outcome-statement-forum-vital-statistics.pdf), participants called upon national governments, international organizations and other development partners to increase their support to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics systems. This statement will be referred to the ESCAP Committee on Statistics at its Second Session in December 2010. ESCAP has been requested to facilitate the establishment of a regional forum aimed at providing such support through the ongoing exchange of experiences and development of strategies to address common issues.

For more information please visit our webpage or contact Andres Montes at montesa@un.org.

 

Statistical capacity development activities

 

Consultative Meeting to Develop a Regional Programme on Gender Statistics in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, 22-23 September 2010

 

Fifteen years after the Fourth World Conference on Women adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA), the demand for gender statistics continues to grow and remains unmet. In the 2009 Bangkok Declaration on Beijing +15, ESCAP member States drew specific attention to the need “to intensify support for statistical capacity-building efforts on the generation of gender statistics and to provide timely, reliable and disaggregated data by sex, ethnicity, age and location and the development of methodologies for the collection and processing of these gender statistics; and to ensure that gender statistics inform policy and programme decisions and effectively monitor and assess gender gains and gaps”. Many statistical systems in the region are still unable to provide the indicators for tracking progress in achieving gender equality, women's political and economic empowerment and eliminating violence against women.

The Consultative Meeting to Develop a Regional Programme on Gender Statistics in Asia and the Pacific was organized by the Statistics Division of ESCAP to identify priority concerns on gender statistics and contribute to the development of a region-wide capacity development programme (or regional programme) on improving the availability and use of gender statistics in support of national policy development and progress assessment, including achievements towards the Millennium Development Goals in the Asia and Pacific region.

The consultative meeting brought together representatives from national statistical offices and national women's machineries to take stock of existing gender statistics programmes and activities in countries in the region; to identify national priorities in the area of gender statistics in the context of country development plans, including substantive areas in which there exists a special lack of gender-related data at the national level, as well as in the context of needs for statistics expressed in the international mandates and development goals; to identify obstacles and barriers at the national level to implement priorities; and to seek specific solutions and recommendations to overcome these obstacles and barriers and how this would benefit from a regional programme .To facilitate this exercise, national statistical offices that participated in the consultative meeting were requested to provide information through a 2010 ESCAP Survey of National Gender Statistics Programmes and Activities in the Asia-Pacific Region.

There was consensus among countries that participated in the meeting on the need for a core gender statistics framework under the regional programme , not only addressing international commitments as a reference point, but taking into consideration national priorities. The need for new standards and methodologies in certain thematic

areas such as women in the labor force, time-use and unpaid work, violence against women, trafficking, and women and health emerged strongly, together with the need to use existing resources and to link up with on-going global initiatives.

The lack of institutional capacity of both producers and users of data to integrate the gender perspective in data collection across all thematic issues, inadequate use of available gender-related data for analysis and policy advocacy, and the lack of coordination among data producers and users were some of the main issues that came to the fore-front. Countries expressed need for guidelines and training materials that could make capacity development more sustainable. Capacity development is required not only to improve data collection, but to also improve the analytical capacity of producers and users. Strengthening coordination mechanisms among key stakeholders at the national level, as well as more South-South Cooperation in this area of work were recognized as essential.

This consultative meeting and the 2010 ESCAP Survey served as initial steps to gather inputs to inform the development of the regional programme. The work will be taken forward by ESCAP through the formation of a regional network to guide further development and implementation of the regional programme.

For more information please visit our webpage (http://www.unescap.org/stat/gender-stat/consultation2010/) or contact Ms Sharita Serrao at stat.unescap@un.org.

 

Workshop on Strengthening National Capacities to Collect Violence against Women Statistics in the Asia-Pacific Region, Bangkok , 20-21 September 2010

 

A workshop on strengthening national capacities to collect violence against women statistics in the Asia-Pacific region was co-organized by the Social Development Division and Statistics Division of ESCAP, and brought together representatives of national women's machineries, national statistics offices and civil society to strengthen the capacity of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to measure, disseminate and use statistical data and indicators of violence against women.

The workshop was organized under a project focusing on violence against women statistics that ESCAP is implementing in collaboration with all other United Nations regional commissions, the Division for the Advancement of Women and Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The project addresses the need to strengthen capacities of different stakeholders such as national statistics offices, national machineries for the advancement of women, police and judiciary to integrate the collection, analysis and use of data on violence against women in their relevant national plans and programmes. Measurement-related issues are addressed by the project by building on the recommendations of the Friends of the Chair Group, working under the guidance of the United Nations Statistical Commission, on the use of common methodologies and indicators on violence against women. The project also seeks to develop a knowledge community on violence against women at the regional and interregional levels.

Information on the national experiences of participating Asia-Pacific countries in collecting, disseminating and using data on the nature, prevalence, causes, consequences and impact of violence against women were shared at the workshop, together with an overview of United Nations initiatives on violence against women statistics and indicators, and the module developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) based on the recommended indicators by the Friends of the Chair Group, to measure violence against women as part of a national population survey or as an independent data collection exercise.

The workshop discussed issues related to definitions, under-reporting and data gaps, together with the need to prioritize the subject in national budgets. The need for national coordination in technical aspects, advocacy, and the use of data, as well as for regional and sub-regional wide cooperation in areas such as capacity development, sharing of information and good practices, including via the use of ICT, were raised. Joint strategies and collaboration were encouraged between national statistical offices and national women's machineries to strengthen the link between the production of statistics on violence against women and the use of statistics for advocacy and policy-making purposes.

For more information please visit our webpage (http://www.unescap.org/sdd/meetings/SDD_SD_10/index.asp) or contact Ms Sharita Serrao at stat.unescap@un.org.

 

Supporting the effective use of ICT in population census operations: Needs assessment workshop, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation, 13-15 July 2010

 

From 13 to 15 July 2010 a workshop was held to assess countries’ needs for assistance in the use of ICT for population census operations. The workshop was hosted by ROSSTAT in Novosibirsk, Russian Federation. The event was the first activity under a project, funded by the Russian Federation that aims to strengthen the capacities of participating countries in the use of ICT for population census, in support of increased quality and production speed of data.

29 participants from 11 countries attended the workshop, which sought to assess the particular needs of the participating countries though exchange of experiences and related challenges in applying ICT to 2010 censuses. The focus was on data capture, coding, editing and dissemination.

Workshop participants recommended that future project activities fall within the following four areas:

Documentation and exchange of good practices on automatic data coding; Design and implementation of GIS applications for data dissemination; Assistance in web development to support data collection and dissemination; Exchange of good practices and provision of expertise in secure dissemination of census micro-data.

Full information on the workshop is available at the following website:http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/Novosibirsk/

 

Workshop on the Analysis of the Cognitive and Pilot Test Results

 

The Statistics Division in collaboration with the Washington City Group on Disability Statistics (WG), organized the last workshop of the UN Development Account Project: Improvement of Disability Measurement and Statistics in support of the Biwako Millennium Framework of Action and the Regional Census Programme.

The project, which is drawing to an end, aimed to promote the improvement of disability measurement and statistics by intensifying its efforts in linking up to the ongoing global initiatives on promoting disability data collection through the upcoming censuses. It also sought to develop a standard survey-based data collection instrument.

The project has carried out a combination of activities to maximize its impact. These activities range from country pilot tests of standard question sets; in-country training workshops; targeted advisory services; the development of knowledge management tools and the establishment of a regional network of experts to facilitate country-to-country cooperation.

The first two days of the workshop focused on training country participants in cognitive survey methods and presenting the results from the disability study's pilot and cognitive tests. During the third day, country participants discussed their experience with the project as well as the future of disability measurement in the region.

During the meeting, delegates agreed that the disability project must be sustained until a final set of survey question recommendations is ready. Several participants remarked further testing of the questions was needed to ensure they will be operationally sound – especially in countries belonging to different regions.

Countries also discussed their plans regarding the future collection of disability data. In this regard, delegates noted the responsibility of separately pursuing this work within their own countries. It was stated than one key next step is for countries to include the extended set questions in national surveys – including the Demography and Health Surveys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and other health or household surveys.

ESCAP recognised the need to retain the knowledge that NSOs established in the area of disability measurement, and in particular, in cognitive testing which will undoubtedly benefit NSOs technical capacity to design any type of questionnaires. All participants expressed that further ESCAP guidance and assistance would be welcomed in this area of statistics.

During the last day of the meeting an evaluation of the project was conducted by an independent consultant. The objective of this evaluation was to address the substantive and strategic processes and the findings of the project in order to consolidate lessons learned and, to identify areas and modalities for further work in the area of disability statistics.

The main conclusions of this evaluative review were: a) that the project has gained an international reputation on its innovative approach towards the design of questions sets especially through cognitive testing, and b) that the momentum generated by the project needs to be carried forward to reach the more ambitious goal of influencing national disability policy-making throughout the region. The full evaluation of the project is available at the following website www.unescap.org/stat/disability

For more information please visit our webpage or contact Andres Montes at montesa@un.org.

 

Developing Culture Statistics in the Pacific, Nadi, Fiji, 1 September 2010

 

Jessica Gardner ran a session on culture statistics for a working group of government officials developing a cultural strategy for the Pacific region. The meeting was organized by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and The Council of Pacific Arts to finalise the regional strategy which aims to guide the formulation of national policies to protect and develop the unique cultures of the Pacific region. The session on culture statistics informed the working group of some of the issues surrounding the collection, management and use of data on cultural behaviours and practices, and the existing international standards, such as the UNESCO Framework for Culture Statistics (2009).

 

Information session on communicating statistics, Suva, Fiji, 29 July 2010

 

Jessica Gardner provided a short information session to staff of the Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics (FIBOS) on developments in communicating and presenting statistics. FIBOS, which already disseminates a wide range of statistical products, is aiming to further develop its capacity to present its statistics to a growing and diversifying audience. The session served as an introduction to a series of short courses that will be held for FIBOS staff at the ESCAP Pacific Office later this year.

 

Workshop on National Strategies for the Development of Statistics for the Pacific, Noumea, New Caledonia, 8-9 July 2010

 

This workshop, organized by PARIS21 and the SPC Statistics and Demography Programme, brought together Chief Statisticians and national planners from Pacific island countries and territories. Jessica Gardner attended on behalf of ESCAP and contributed presentations on creating a communication culture within national statistical offices and on statistical literacy. The workshop provided an opportunity to explore the challenges NSOs in the Pacific face in developing statistics and the important role that advocacy and communication can play in increasing the use of statistics in policy and decision-making.

 

Training by the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific

 

Ninth Management Seminar for the Heads of National Statistical Offices in Asia and the Pacific, Tokyo, Japan, 31 August – 2 September 2010

 

The year 2010 marks the 40th Anniversary of SIAP. The Ninth Management Seminar for the Heads of National Statistical Offices in Asia and the Pacific was organized in conjunction with the celebration of the 40th Anniversary. It was conducted by SIAP in collaboration with the Statistics Division of ESCAP, Statistics Division of United Nations, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of IMF and the Government of Japan from 31 August to 2 September 2010.

The theme of this year's seminar was “Developing Professional Capability for National Statistical Systems". Objectives of the seminar were to strengthen capability in the area of leadership and management in statistics with a view to enhancing statistical capacities in support of inclusive and sustainable development, and to provide an

opportunity to learn experiences and analyze major success and challenges in regard to developing and maintaining professional capability of staff of national statistics offices.

In total, 49 participants attended the seminar, which consisted of 40 participants including 23 heads of NSOs from 30 countries; Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China; Hong Kong, China; India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Lao PDR; Macao, China; Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Tonga and Viet Nam; and 9 participants from 7 International organizations; ADB, IMF, PARIS21, SESRIC, SPC, UNSD and ESCAP.

The seminar was held at Elizabeth Rose Hall on 5th floor of UNU Building, while the 40th Anniversary Ceremony at U Thant Hall on 3rd floor.

The seminar consisted of Opening session; “Paving New Direction in Official Statistics: The Role of Heads of NSOs”, 40th Anniversary Ceremony, Session 1: “What capability is needed by NSOs now and into the future, and how can it be achieved?”; Session 2: “Getting the right balance between internal capacity and utilizing external professional skills”; Session 3: “NSO leadership in developing statistical capability across the national statistical services”; and Session 4: “Developing a Framework for Building Statistical Capability”.

In the opening session, Ms Adelheid Burgi-Smeltz, Director, Statistics Department, IMF delivered keynote speech and reminded participants that NSO heads have four roles; Chief Statistician, Chief Exective Office, High Ranking Public Official and Contributor to the Global Statistical System. This was followed by panelists who reminded participants that underlying these roles are the responsibility of head of the NSO to ensure ongoing relevance of their National Statistical Systems and their NSO, and that ensuring relevance requires a range of skills; such as technical skills and managerial and communication skills.

The Anniversary Ceremony, which commenced with a demonstration of a video describing the future direction for SIAP, featured an Opening Statement by Director, SIAP and a number of congratulatory messages, including Mr Paul Cheung, Director, United Nations Statistics Division and Mr Kazuhiro Haraguchi, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, Government of Japan.

During Session 1 to Session 4, there were 5 key presentations by resource persons describing some kind of frameworks relating to Capacity Framework or summarizing country papers or information from International organizations, as well as 6 presentations of country cases from Australia, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, New Zealand, Philippines and Singapore.

Participants had several group work sessions and plenary discussion sessions. Participants moved into 7 small groups, and commenced discussion on the topics assigned to develop the Capability framework. At last, the small groups reported back on the elements of the framework. All groups had discussed 3 elements of the framework, and identified 2 issues and 2 actions that they considered should be undertaken to further develop this framework.

The participants' evaluation indicated that all participants found the seminar relevant to their work, and they were satisfied with seminar level and contents. Also the evaluation of participants was evidenced by the presentations of group works.

 

First Group Training Course in Analysis, Interpretation and Use of Official Statistics (Economic Statistics), Chiba, Japan, 20 July – 17 September 2010

 

The First Group Course on Analysis, Interpretation and Use of Official Statistics (Economic Statistics) was jointly conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), from 15 countries from 20 th July to 17 th September 2010. The course was designed for middle level statisticians/ government officials engaged in data collection, analysis and use of information relating to economic statistics, including MDGs.

The course was attended by twenty-three government statisticians from 15 countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Iraq, Kosovo, Lao PDR, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, and Viet Nam. The main aim of the course was to improve knowledge on the concepts, principles, and macroeconomic accounting framework of the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA) and developing skills of statistical analysis and interpretation of the participants, which would help in effective use of economic statistics, including MDGs, in each country. Besides the main modules on economic statistics and statistical data analysis, the course included modules on training and communication techniques. The participants had an opportunity to benefit from expert assistance from the Statistics Bureau of Japan, the Japanese Cabinet Office, the United Nations Statistics Division, and the Statistical Department of IMF.

One of the components of the course was project work by the individual participants. Each of them took up exploratory studies on a selected field of economic statistics of their respective countries, using the analytical skills acquired in the course. They also prepared an action plan which will be implemented upon return to their respective countries.

Several field visits to Japanese government statistical organizations, Bank of Japan and Tokyo Stock Exchange were organized for the participants to help them in forming an idea about the advanced features of statistical system of Japan.

 

Regional Course on Genderizing Population and Housing Census, Chiba, Japan, 12-16

 

The Regional Course entitled as “Genderizing Population and Housing Census” was conducted in Chiba, Japan from 12 to 16 July 2010 in collaboration with UNFPA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (APRO) under SIAP's outreach training programme. A total of 20 participants from 20 countries, namely Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kiribati, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Sri-Lanka, Thailand and Vanuatu attended the training course. The course was delivered by Ms Carmelita N. Ericta.

The course had two main objectives: (1) to provide training on how to mainstream gender perspectives into all stages of the census conduction; and (2) to provide skills in census data analysis with gender concern using real census data or subset of it. The main topics of the course were concepts and definitions of gender statistics, sources of gender statistics, how to mainstream gender perspective into all stages of the census including advocacy with high level national officials, incorporating gender focus in census communication like educating the public about some core concepts such as household headship, economic activity etc, detailed review of census

questionnaire on its gender relevance, how to maximize proportion of female enumerators and supervisors for a census giving the cultural constraints in some countries and census data analysis with gender concern (employment and economic activity, education, migration, occupation family formation) using census data.

 

Follow-up Seminar for Ex-participants Conducted in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 23 June 2010

 

SIAP, in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Statistical Agency under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, conducted the seminar on “Statistical Data Quality Improvement: Towards the coming 2010 Population Census” on 23 June 2010 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The seminar targeted ex-participants from Tajikistan and staff of Population Census Department. About 25 persons from Statistical Agency and 3 from JICA local office attended the seminar. Mr Furuta, Lecturer/Statistician of SIAP, resource person of the seminar, made presentation on statistical data quality improvements, which included (1) observations on the planning and organisation of the 2010 Population and Housing Census in Tajikistan, and (2) suggestions for the coming 2010 census in terms and the next round of census.

 

First Group Training Course in Application of Information Management and related ICT for Official Statistics, Chiba, Japan, 10 May - 09 July 2010

 

The training course was conducted on SIAP premises for 2 months from 10 May - 09 July 2010 for middle-level statisticians, a mix of Level 3 and Level 4 Statisticians as defined in the Core Skill Framework introduced by SIAP, from developing countries in the ESCAP region as well as outside region. The course was organized by SIAP jointly with JICA. The aim of the course was to improve the quality and efficiency of services delivered by government statistical offices through the use of ICT. In particular, the course aimed to equip participants with different aspects of ICT to increase productivity in all phases of the operations of their national statistical organizations. Emphasis was placed upon production, analysis and dissemination of official statistics, and to understand the possible implications upon adoption of ICT technology.

Twenty-two participants from 14 countries completed the course. Countries included were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cooks Island, Ethiopia, India, Kosovo, Rwanda, Samoa, Solomon Island, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam. Participants were those who were already familiar with the use of computers in their work for processing and management of data in their respective offices. SIAP faculty members as well as resource persons from the Japanese government conducted the training sessions. A

resource person from India was invited to deliver sessions on CSPro software applications in survey data processing.

At the closing ceremony, SIAP director and representatives of JICA and MIC delivered their warm congratulatory messages to the participants. This year's Director's Prize, given to the best performing participant, was presented to Ms Chetna Shukla from India.

 

ICT course participants went on field trip in Tokushima prefecture, 21 - 23 June 2010

 

Twenty-two members of SIAP ICT course participants visited Tokushima prefecture, a remote prefecture to the south west of Tokyo with one hour flight distance, 21 - 23 June 2010. The visit included Tokushima prefecture government, a huge supermarket where the price data collection was made regularly for the National Retail Price Survey, Medical Informatics Department of Tokushima University, and Nichia Corporation famous for light-emitting diode (LED) whose share in the world market is 30%.

At the prefecture government, briefing was made on the organization and work of statistical service in local government, work on national statistical surveys at local level, and demographic and economic feature of Tokushima prefecture. At the supermarket, participants saw how the enumerator used her personal digital assistance (PDA), a handy data transmitter, to record and report the data directly to the Statistics Bureau in Tokyo without bypassing prefecture government. This contributes timely release of CPI in Japan. At Tokushima University, e-learning system in graduate education was introduced. It helped both students and faculty to manage their work. A project on satellite use learning was also introduced whose target country was Mongolia. At Nichia Corporation, LED products such as traffic light, car light, and TV screen were introduced. Energy efficiency and savings were

emphasized.

Participants deepened their knowledge about well cooperated and coordinated Japanese statistical service and were impressed by advanced technologies which were well embodied into real life. Environmentally consciousness of Japanese company was another important finding. During their stay, participants had a chance to join and practice Awa-Odori dancing, a nationwide famous summer dancing festival which can be compared to the world famous Carnival of Rio in Brazil.

 

ESCAP Statistics Division will celebrate World Statistics Day – 20 October 2010

 

On 20 October 2010, the World will celebrate the first World Statistics Day, to raise awareness of the many achievements of official statistics premised on the core values of service, professionalism and integrity.

The ESCAP Statistics Division will take part in the Word Statistics Day celebrations under the general theme of “Celebrating the many achievements of official statistics” and the core value of service, integrity and professionalism. The celebrations at ESCAP will include exhibition of posters and other promotional materials prepared by Asia-Pacific countries

for the World Statistics Day. On this occasion the World’s Women 2010 report will also be launched.

 

New report assessing progress towards achieving the MDGs in Asia and the Pacific

 

“Paths to 2015: MDG Priorities in Asia and the Pacific” is the fifth in the series of report reports jointly published by ESCAP, ADB and UNDP. The report was a contribution to the United Nations High-level Plenary Meeting on the MDGs in September 2010 in New York to assess some of the likely outcomes on present trends, identify some of the weakest areas of performance, and identify priorities for accelerated action.

It uses the latest information from the United Nations MDG database to assess which countries and subregions are likely to miss or achieve the Goals. It attempts to encapsulate and update the discussions and recommendations of the earlier regional reports on MDGs. It looks at some of the key drivers which have propelled MDG achievement in the region, and which are likely to remain as important as before in the region's quest for reaching the Goals by 2015. It focuses specifically on three areas where increased and sustained policy attention would be required: hunger and food security; health and basic services; and basic infrastructure – areas where many of the countries in the region appear to be facing significant challenges.

The report is a resource which policy makers, development practitioners and other stakeholders should find useful in addressing the remaining challenges in achieving the MDGs.

 

Calendar of forthcoming statistical meetings in the ESCAP region

 

The calendar of all international meetings related to official statistics in Asia and the Pacific is maintained athttp://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/events_Asia_Pacific.asp

 

Date Organizer Meeting Venue

2010

4 October - 26 November

SIAPResearch-based Training Course – Phase 1 (through e-mail communication)http://www.unsiap.or.jp/

Chiba, Japan

5 October SIAPSIAP/JAXA e-learning Training on Survey Methodology for the National Statistical Office of Thailandhttp://www.unsiap.or.jp/

Chiba, Japan

5 - 8 October UNSD, ESCAP/SDUNSD/ESCAP Regional Seminar on Census Data Dissemination and Spatial Analysis

Bangkok

11 - 13 UNSD Global Forum on Gender Statistics and Inter-Agency and Manila

October Expert Group Meeting on Gender Statistics

12 - 15 October

SIAPRegional Training Course/Workshop on Pre-Census Communications and Data Dissemination Strategieshttp://www.unsiap.or.jp/

Chiba, Japan

18 - 20 October

SIAP

ESCAP Subregional Training/Workshop on Dissemination and Communication of MDG Statistics for Effective Use in Policy and Decision-makinghttp://www.unsiap.or.jp/

Daejeon, Republic of Korea

18 - 22 October

SIAPSub-regional Course on Measuring and Improving Survey Quality http://www.unsiap.or.jp/

Hong Kong, China

October EPOCNational training courses on disseminating and communicating statistics

Suva

8 - 11 November

UNSDWorkshop on MDG Monitoringhttp://unstats.un.org

Tashkent

8 - 12 November

SIAPSecond Regional Training Course/Workshop on Population Census Data Analysis Using REDATAMhttp://www.unsiap.or.jp/

Chiba, Japan

15 November - 18 March 2011

SIAP

First Group Training Course in Production and Development of Official Statistics in support for National Development including the Achievement of MDGshttp://www.unsiap.or.jp/

 

22 - 26 November

ESCAP/SD, UNWTO

UNWTO Statistics Capacity-building Programme for Asiahttp://www.unescap.org/stat/, http://www.unwto.org

Bangkok

29 November - 2 December

Commonwealth Secretariat

15th Conference of Commonwealth Statisticianhttp://www.thecommonwealth.org

Delhi

7 - 10 December

UNSD, ESCAP/SDUnited Nations Census Info Regional Workshop in the context of 2010 World Population and Housing Census Programmehttp://unstats.un.org/unsd/census2010.htm

Bangkok

13 - 14 December

ESCAP/SD, SIAPSixth session of the Governing Council of the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.unsiap.or.jp/about_siap/gc.php

Bangkok

13 - 14 December

ESCAP/SDHigh-level consultative meeting on promoting effective use of statistical data for policy analysis and advocacyhttp://www.unescap.org/stat/

Bangkok

14 December ESCAP/SDFirst Meeting of Partners for Statistics Development in Asia-Pacifichttp://www.unescap.org/stat/

Bangkok

15 - 17 December

ESCAP/SD Committee on Statistics, Second session Bangkok

20 - 24 December

SIAPResearch-based Training Course – Phase 2http://www.unsiap.or.jp/

 

27 December - 21 January 2010

SIAPResearch-based Training Course – Phase 3 (through e-mail communication)http://www.unsiap.or.jp/

Chiba, Japan

December SIAPCountry Course on Census Communicationhttp://www.unsiap.or.jp/

Chiba, Japan

 

New appoinments

 

Mr Jan Smit has been appointed as Chief, Statistical Development and Analysis Section, Statistics Division, ESCAP, effective 1 July 2010. Immediately prior to the appointment, Mr Smit was ESCAP's Regional Advisor on Statistics. Earlier in his career, Mr Smit worked on national accounts with the Pakistan Federal Bureau of Statistics and industrial statistics with the Thai Ministry of Industry. He also has been a consultant working on statistical, economic and development issues with various international, government and private sector organizations. Mr Smit, a Netherlands national, holds master degrees in economics and development economics from the University of Groningen, the

Netherlands.

In his new capacity, Mr Smit is managing the analytical work of the Statistics Division, which includes the tracking of progress towards the MDGs and other statistical issues inregional MDG reports, and the work of the division on the development and implementation of statistical standards and national statistical capacity building in the region.

 

Ms Rikke Munk Hansen joined the Statistics Division as the Chief of the Statistical Information Services Section in September 2010. Ms Hansen has worked for the United Nations for ten years in the areas of energy policy analysis and programme management. Immediately prior to the appointment, she functioned as ESCAP's Programme Evaluation Officer. Earlier in her career, Ms Hansen worked for the Danish Government, including in its statistical system producing the annual energy and emission statistics. She holds a masters degree in mathematics and computer science.

Ms Hansen has been brought to the Statistics Division to manage the further repositioning of its statistical information and analysis services to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the region in line with the priorities of member States.

 

Arman Bidarbakht Nia, a successful candidate of the National Competitive Recruitment Examination 2009, joined the Statistics Development and Analysis Section of Statistics Division as Associate Statistician on 1 August 2010.

Arman is currently a PhD candidate in economics at Tokyo International University (TIU). His research area is consumer demand analysis and welfare comparison. He worked as statistician at Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) Bureau of Sampling Designs in 2004-2008, where he was in charge of agriculture survey designs. He worked on a number of other

projects at SCI and was involved in small area estimation of labor force statistics, master sampling frame and census along with sampling. Arman has a master’s degree in economics from TIU. He also obtained MSc in Applied Statistics from Allame Tabatabaei University of Tehran in 2004.

 

Habib Khan joined the ESCAP Statistics Division in September 2010. He was a successful candidate of National Competitive Recruitment Examinations 2009.

Habib has a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in statistics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He will be working at the Statistical Analysis and Development Section.

 

Visitors to ESCAP Statistics Division

 

Ms Silvia Facchinello, Attaché (Cooperation), Programme Officer for Myanmar, European Union, Bangkok Mr Upali Wickramasinghe, Regional Adviser on Poverty Reduction and Food Security, CAPSA

Mr Muhammad Fazal Noor, Urban Specialist, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, Pakistan

 

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