Statistics to Inform Development Policy: the Role of PARIS21

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• Statistics to Inform Development Policythe Role
  of PARIS21
• Presentation by
• Antoine Simonpietri, PARIS21 Secretariat

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About PARIS21

• Partnership in Statistics for development in the
  21st Century (PARIS21)s aims
• Develop a culture of transparent, evidence-based
  policy making and implementation which serves to
  improve Government accountability, effectiveness
  and good governance
• Better statistics and statistical analysis
  available to and used by national and
  international decision-makers and civil society
• Better use of better statistics as part of the
  enabling environment for development

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What Does Evidence-Based Policy-Making Mean?

• Evidence-based policy-making means that public
  policy decisions are informed by careful and
  rigorous analysis using sound and transparent
  data.
• Evidence-based policy-making may be defined as
  the use of statistics to
• Achieve issue recognition
• Inform programme design and policy choice
• Forecast the future
• Monitor policy implementation
• Evaluate policy impact

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Why Is Evidence-Based Policy-Making Desirable?

• In a democracy, it is desirable for two reasons
• To ensure the transparency of policy-making
• To enhance the accountability of policy-makers
• ..and because it is preferable to the
  alternatives.

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What are the Alternatives to Evidence-Based
Policy-Making?

• Power and influence of sectional interests
• Corruption
• Political ideology
• Habit
• Arbitrariness
• Anecdotal evidence

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Why the urgency to improve the evidence base of
policy-making now?

• Increased emphasis on managing for development
  results tracking progress toward MDGs and
  monitoring PRSP targets.
• Rapid development of technically sophisticated
  and data-demanding methods of policy analysis.
• Advances in ICT have weakened the control
  exercised by governments over the production and
  dissemination of information.
• Costs of making faulty policy decisions in
  poorest countries have increased as a result of
  changes in the level and allocation of foreign
  aid.

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From donorship to ownership
Development Results
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How can strategic planning help?

• Addressing data limitations
• Prioritising use of resources
• Looking across whole NSS
• Integrating statistics within policy processes
• Robust framework and action plan for statistical
  capacity building
• Catalyst for change to build confidence and break
  the vicious cycle

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Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics target for
NSDSs
to prepare national strategies for the
development of statistics (NSDS) for all
low-income countries by 2006 . and to have
started to implement them by the following year
with a view to producing better statistics for
national and international use by the time of the
next Millennium review in 2010
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NSDS design and implementation
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NSDS Essentials

• High-level political support and leadership
• Well planned process (road map) to NSDS design
• Identifying user needs and data gaps and
  weaknesses
• Reviewing existing statistical production and
  analysis capacity, legal and institutional
  framework and coordination arrangements
• Agreeing on desired results, building on what
  already exists and is in progress, e.g., GDDS
  improvement programmes
• Setting priorities and strategies
• Change management processes
• Engaging and motivating staff

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Value added of NSDS approach
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NSDS as a country-levelcoherence framework
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NSDS as a country-levelcoherence framework
National Strategy for the Development of
Statistics
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Coverage

• Implementation may be incremental, but strategic
  planning (NSDS) should be as broad as possible
  for
• Better co-ordination and co-operation
• Aligning supply and demand and determine
  priorities
• Building interest in statistics and NSDS
• National Statistical System for official
  statistics
• Line ministries as well as NSO
• Users (demand side) as well as producers (supply
  side)
• National, sub-national, regional and
  international

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Making better statistics a reality

• Advocacy for
• better use of better statistics
• NSDSs
• More coherent donor support
• Technical as well as financial assistance
• Guidance, documentation
• Regional programmes

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Resources

• Resource mobilisation
• Increased levels of funding supporting and
  complementing national statistical plans
• African Development Bank and other regional and
  international partners
• World Bank Trust Fund and STATCAP
• Evidence of increased bilateral funding
• Technical as well as financial assistance
• Briefing of consultants
• Role for more developed NSSs

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NSDS Documentation
NSDS Essentials
Making the case
Guide to designing an NSDS Guide to
implementation (in preparation)
Knowledge Base www.paris21.org
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Regional Programmes

• Baseline assessments
• Regional workshops
• Advocacy at country level
• Facilitating technical and financial support
• Consolidating partner efforts
• Reporting on progress

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In conclusion

• National commitment
• Country-owned NSDS will need high-level
  government commitment to implement it
• Statistical systems dont exist in a vacuum
• Institutional and organisational development as
  well as financial realism are key to
  sustainabilty
• Dont frighten governments
• Plans need to be costed and need to be realistic
• Lesson learning
• The NSDS approach must build on what exists and
  learn from country experiences