BUILDING STATISTICAL CAPACITY TO MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETIES

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OECDS 2ND WORLD FORUM ON STATISTICS, KNOWLEDGE
AND POLICY
BUILDING STATISTICAL CAPACITY TO MONITOR THE
PROGRESS OF SOCIETIES DISCUSSION By Romulo A.
Virola Secretary General National Statistical
Coordination Board PHILIPPINES Istanbul,
Turkey 27-30 June 2007
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OUTLINE OF DISCUSSION

• Some Comments and Questions on the Forum, Topic
  and Presentations
• II. Developing Country/Philippine Perspectives
  on Monitoring Progress and Statistical Capacity
  Building

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• ABOUT THE FORUM
• Forum is relevant and responsive to the need for
  National Statistical Systems (NSS) to be
  recognized and to be proactively involved in
  monitoring progress of societies
• Forum is an excellent venue for interaction
  between official statisticians and policy makers
  they need each other
• Need for more fora, such as the World Forum on
  Statistics, Knowledge and Policy where
  statisticians and users of statistics meet and
  hear each others needs

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• ON MONITORING PROGRESS OF SOCIETIES
• Many indicator sets to monitor progress are
  generated outside of the National Statistical
  Systems (NSS), are disconnected/ad hoc and may
  not be sustainable
• Lower levels of data disaggregation ( sectoral,
  geographical) are becoming more imperative in
  development planning at subnational level (L. da
  Silva)

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• ON MONITORING PROGRESS OF SOCIETIES
• National Statistical Systems (NSS) should play a
  big and proactive role in monitoring the progress
  of societies
• Monitoring progress should be mainstreamed in the
  NSS
• Mandate of NSS should expand beyond traditional
  functions ( to include measuring democracy, human
  rights and governance as advocated by METAGORA)
• Official statisticians should not be afraid to
  produce indicators on possibly controversial
  issues

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• ON MONITORING PROGRESS OF SOCIETIES
• Countries, both developed and developing, should
  formulate an NSDS (National Strategies for the
  Development of Statistics) as advocated under
  PARIS21, that highlights the strategic role of
  statistics in development planning and
  rationalizes statistical development efforts,
  including SCB at the country level(Stansfield)
• The private sector must also help in funding the
  efforts of the national statistical system to
  monitor progress of societies

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• ON STATISTICAL CAPACITY BUILDING(SCB)
• Efficient coordination of national statistical
  systems is needed to optimize use of limited
  resources, particularly on SCB
• Serious attention must be given to implementation
  of SCB initiatives to ensure that target
  beneficiaries actually benefit from the
  initiatives

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• ABOUT THE PRESENTATIONS
• I agree with messages of the presentation (L.
  da Silva)
• Presentations highlight the importance of
  statistics but not of the national statistical
  systems and their needs (budget)
• Presentations demonstrate (L. da Silva) the use
  of statistics but no mention of role of National
  Statistical Systems (NSS) in monitoring progress
  of societies no mention of the requirements and
  expectations of policy makers from NSS

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• ABOUT THE PRESENTATIONS
• No mention of actual policy uses of official
  statistics official statisticians appreciate
  examples of how official statistics have been
  converted into knowledge and policies in the
  five areas cited in background paper of Mr.
  Simonpietri but could be an indication of the
  gap between official statistics and policies that
  certainly need to be addressed

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• SOME QUESTIONS
• Are official statistics appreciated and used at
  the country level
• In practice or
• Only in rhetorics?
• Amidst resource constraints, especially in
  developing countries do users of statistics want
• more and disaggregated data on various concerns
  but which possibly are less accurate or
• more accurate data but possibly addressing fewer
  concerns?

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• SOME QUESTIONS
• Do users of statistics help in advocating for
  greater budgetary priority to statistics? Or do
  they only know how to ask for statistics they
  need?(HMN, Stansfield)
• On the other hand, do official statisticians
  actively reach out to policy makers and other
  users of statistics? Or do official statisticians
  continue to sit in ivory towers?
• Do governments respect and appreciate the
  independence of the Chief Statisticians?

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• What role does the private sector have to play in
  monitoring progress of societies? Does it
  cooperate with national statistical agencies in
  the provision of data?
• Does the international community seriously and
  genuinely take into consideration national
  constraints, concerns and priorities in
  transacting business with national statistical
  systems?

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I. Some Comments and Questions on
Forum/Topic/Presentations

• Who should be the target of statistical capacity
  building?
• Producers of statistics (official statisticians
  of the entire national statistical system, not
  just of the national statistics office) not
  only on statistics but also on concepts of
  various areas of concern of society
• Users of statistics ( policy-makers, politicians,
  media, etc.) many are statistically-illiterate
• Producers and users not only at the national
  level but more importantly those at the
  subnational levels

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II. DEVELOPING COUNTRY/PHILIPPINE PERSPECTIVES ON
MONITORING PROGRESS STATISTICAL CAPACITY
BUILDING (SCB)

• National statistical systems generally lack
  capacity to provide meaningful data support to
  monitor progress of societies and therefore SCB
  is a must!
• Assistance from the international community on
  statistical capacity building should be
• Well-coordinated (L. da Silva)
• Be consistent with and cognizant of national
  priorities and absorptive capacities
• Include capacity building on ICT

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II. DEVELOPING COUNTRY/PHILIPPINE PERSPECTIVES ON
MONITORING PROGRESS STATISTICAL CAPACITY
BUILDING(SCB)

• Statistical capacity building should be strategic
  may need to deal with entire educational system
  to enhance appreciation for statistics by the
  public in general
• Donor community should recognize need of
  countries for statistical development assistance
  that goes directly to statistical offices instead
  of requiring that they be piggy-backed on some
  socio-economic development programs

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II. DEVELOPING COUNTRY/PHILIPPINE PERSPECTIVES ON
MONITORING PROGRESS STATISTICAL CAPACITY
BUILDING(SCB)

• There is need for bilateral technical
  assistance from developed countries with
  developed statistical systems towards a
  functioning and useful global statistical system
• Donor fatigue setting in and funds are drying up

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II. DEVELOPING COUNTRY/PHILIPPINE PERSPECTIVES ON
MONITORING PROGRESS STATISTICAL CAPACITY
BUILDING(SCB)

• Governments should have the political will to
  invest in statistics statistical capacity
  building should be mainly the responsibility of
  governments
• International communitys assistance might go a
  longer way if, instead of going into funding of
  specific statistical activities (e.g. conduct of
  surveys and ad hoc compilation of internationally
  comparable statistics), they went into greater
  advocacy for governments to allocate greater
  budgetary priorities to statistics for
  governments to recognize that statistics is part
  of the infrastructure necessary for development!

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OECDs 2ND WORLD FORUM ON STATISTICS, KNOWLEDGE
AND POLICY BUILDING STATISTICAL CAPACITY TO
MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETIES
Thank you
Salamat po
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