CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COORDINATION OF A DECENTRALIZED STATISTICAL SYSTEM

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• CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COORDINATION
  OF A DECENTRALIZED STATISTICAL SYSTEM

By Romulo A. Virola Secretary General, NSCB,
Philippines Seminar on the Evolution of National
Statistical Systems Prospects and Risks in the
Future How to Manage Uncertainties? UN
Statistical Commission 23 February 2007
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Outline of Presentation

• Introduction
• Coordination Mechanisms of the Philippine
  Statistical System (PSS)
• Challenges Opportunities in Coordinating the
  PSS
• A. General Considerations
• B. Data production, dissemination and use
• C. Capacity building
• D. Financing of statistical development
• E. Building trust maintaining integrity

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I. Introduction

• National Statistical Systems (NSS) are
  centralized or decentralized
• Centralized e.g. Australia, Canada, China,
  India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka
• Decentralized e.g. France, Japan, Korea,
  Philippines, Sweden, United Kingdom, United
  States

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I. Introduction

• Centralized can be more efficient but
  decentralized can be more effective
• Blurred boundary between centralized and
  decentralized
• Culture-bound what works in some countries does
  not necessarily work in others cultural
  transformation needed

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I. Introduction

• Difficult to pinpoint any unambiguous reason why
  countries should put in place either centralized
  or decentralized statistical systems (PARIS 21)
• FPOS 8 Coordination among statistical agencies
  within countries is essential to achieve
  consistency and efficiency in the statistical
  system

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I. Introduction

• When coordination of the national statistical
  system is the responsibility of the NSO
• Core data production function of the NSO can
  suffer
• Imbalance in the statistical development of the
  national statistical system

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• A decentralized statistical system with NSCB as
  the policymaking and coordinating body
• NSCB as coordinator is not engaged in primary
  data collection

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• NSCB Executive Board - chaired by the Secretary
  of Socioeconomic Planning and composed of
  undersecretaries of different departments with
  NSCB Technical Staff as the secretariat holds
  quarterly meetings
• Regional Statistical Coordination Committee in
  all regions and Provincial Statistical
  Coordination Committee in selected provinces with
  NSCB Regional Divisions as the secretariat

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• A. Statistical planning and coordination
• Statistical policies
• Philippine Statistical Development Program
  (2005-2010)- NSDS
• System of Designated Statistics
• Statistical frameworks and indicator systems
  (SNA, STATDEV,MDG, etc.)
• Statistical standards and classification systems

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• A. Statistical planning and coordination
• Statistical budget review
• Statistical Survey Administrative Records
  Review and Clearance System
• Interagency/Technical Committees and Task Forces
• Agency statistical calendars

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• A. Statistical planning and coordination
• Bilateral meetings
• Performance Measurement Scheme for Statistical
  Agencies and Other Data Producers
• Hosting of international conferences/meetings

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• B. Statistical information dissemination
• 1. National Statistical Information Center
• Standards Policies for Statistical Information
  Dissemination GSAP/GSSID
• Press releases/articles/website

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• C. Statistical advocacy
• National Statistics Month every October which
  includes statistical oratorical contest for
  fourth year high school students
• Press conferences, producers and users fora
  collaboration among PSS agencies

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• C. Statistical advocacy
• Statistical Conferences
• 3.1. National Convention on Statistics every
  three years
• 3.2. Statistical Congress Western Visayas and
  Mindanao
• 3.3. Philippine Statistical Association,
  Inter/Intra University

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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS

• C. Statistical advocacy
• Philippine Statistics Quiz annual for first
  year college students
• Feedback/evaluation mechanisms

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• A. General Considerations
• 1. Opportunities thru the compilation of the SNA
  as a powerful tool for statistical coordination
• 2. Unhealthy attitude towards coordination
  institutional jealousies
• 3. Need of statistical units in line ministries
• 4. Low salaries of statistical personnel

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III. Challenges and Opportunities
A. General Considerations 5. Strong
partnership and collaboration with the academic
and research communities 6. Strong cooperation
and interest towards statistical development of
many sectoral ministries 7. Low budget for
statistics 0.55 of total government budget in
1992 to 0.32 in 2005
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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• B. Data production, dissemination and use
• Data production
• 1.1 Need to have widely acceptable statistical
  frameworks responding to questions on the
  integrity and objectivity of official statistics
• 1.2. Need to further enhance and strengthen the
  monitoring and coordination of the PSS,
  specifically the system of designated statistics

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 1. Data production
• 1.3 Need to strengthen compliance to statistical
  policies and standards and classifications,
  especially at the subnational level
• 1.4.Need to respond to data demands with finer
  disaggregation subprovincial, basic sectors

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 1. Data production
• 1.5 Need for methodological improvements
  especially of major surveys and compilation
  systems
• 1.6 Use of proxy indicators
• 1.7. Need to rationalize and design more
  cost-effective surveys and strengthen the use of
  the administrative-based statistics

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III. Challenges and Opportunities
1. Data production 1.8. Responding to
international data initiatives versus national
priorities amidst resource constraints 1.9.
Enhancing relevance thru involvement of
statistical offices in new frontiers like
measurement of democracy, human rights and
governance (METAGORA) 1.10 Need to be proactive
in addressing emerging concerns
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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 2. Data dissemination
• 2.1 Need to strengthen advocacy on the use of
  best practices among the agencies in the PSS,
  such as dissemination of ARC, metadata and
  revision policies and transparency of
  methodologies
• 2.2 Need to develop a culture of information
  sharing within and among the various departments

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 2. Data dissemination
• 2.3 Need for pricing policy on statistical
  products and services
• 2.4 Need to develop marketing skills of
  statistical agencies

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 3. Data use
• 3.1 Need to evaluate users demand for the
  generation of lower/specific disaggregations of
  data to consider resource requirements
  constraints
• 3.2 Need for greater advocacy for and
  documentation of actual policy uses of statistics
  (PARIS 21 initiatives)
• 3.3 Need to generate public use files

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 3. Data use
• 3.4 Need to provide commentary on the erroneous
  interpretation and misuse of statistics within
  the shortest possible time (FPOS 4)
• 3.5 Need to continue building confidence on
  statistics by maintaining the integrity and
  independence of the statistical system

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• C. Capacity building
• Need for continuous capacity building of data
  producers
• 1.1 At the national and especially at the
  subnational levels
• 1.2 The major data producers (NSO) and
  particularly the statistical units in line
  ministries
• 1.3 On data production but also on use of
  statistics

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III. Challenges and Opportunities
C. Capacity building 2. Need for capacity
building of data users including the media 2.1
How to use and interpret statistics 2.2
Appreciating the limitations of statistics
generated by the PSS 3. Need to strengthen the
capability of agencies to undertake statistical
researches
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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• C. Capacity building
• Inadequate government resources to undertake
  statistical capacity building programs
• Loss of trained statistical personnel including
  to statistical agencies of foreign countries and
  to international organizations
• Implementation of the Scientific Career System
  for Statisticians

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• D. Financing of statistical development
• Inadequate government appropriations for
  statistical activities, particularly for
  periodic activities
• Inadequate financial resources to undertake
  developmental activities or address emerging
  concerns

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• D. Financing of statistical development
• Availability of technical and financial
  assistance through foreign grants to undertake
  developmental activities but institutionalization
  of the activities could not be ensured
• Opportunities for Cost-sharing with Local
  Government Units

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• D. Financing of statistical development
• Cost-sharing with Users of statistics.
• Need for the private sector to share the cost of
  statistics
• Need to draw eminent persons as champions of
  statistics
• Need to muster political will on the part of
  government to invest in statistics

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• E. Building trust and maintaining the
  integrity of the national statistical system
• Challenges
• Natural distrust for government
• Politicians flame the fire of distrust
• Government officials intentionally/unintentionally
  contribute to the problem

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• E. Building trust and maintaining the integrity
  of the national statistical system
• Challenges
• Estimates by international organizations
  inconsistent with national estimates can damage
  the credibility of national statistical agencies
• Conflicting estimates from different
  statistical agencies

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 3.5 Building trust and maintaining integrity of
  the national statistical system
• Challenges
• Lack of appreciation by official statisticians on
  the need to build public trust in statistics
• Questions on the professional integrity of the
  Chief Statistician

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 3.5 Building trust and maintaining integrity of
  the national statistical system
• Opportunities
• Strict adherence to FPOS
• Transparency in Methodologies/Revision Policies
• Adopting Best Practices (production and
  dissemination of data)

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III. Challenges and Opportunities

• 3.5 Building trust and maintaining integrity of
  the national statistical system
• Opportunities
• Conduct of Users-Producers Fora
• Use of ICT
• Draw in partners/statistical advocates from the
  academic and research communities, the private
  sector and the media

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III. Challenges and Opportunities
THERE ARE MANY INTERESTING CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES FOR STATISTICAL AGENCIES IN THE
PHILIPPINES TO ENHANCE OUR RELEVANCE TO SOCIETY
AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT BUT THERE ARE TOO FEW
WORKERS!
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CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COORDINATION
OF A DECENTRALIZED STATISTICAL SYSTEM
Thank you
Salamat po
Visit our website at
www.nscb.gov.ph
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r.a. virola 23 february 2007