Capacity Building: Achievements and Issues

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Capacity Building Achievements and Issues of
National Statistical System of Sri Lanka D. B. P.
Suranjana Vidyaratne, Director General, Dept. of
Census and Statistics Sri Lanka Steering
Committee Meeting of UNSD and Leaders of National
Statistical Offices of SAARC Countries - 21st
July 2008 Colombo
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National Statistical System of Sri Lanka

1. The statistical system in Sri Lanka is a mixed
   system but more closer to a centralized system.
2. Sri Lankas National Statistical Agency is the
   Department of Census and Statistics (DCS)
3. DCS plays co-ordinatory and technical supervisory
   role over the statistical branch offices in
   Ministries, Departments and Provincial, District
   and Divisional administration
4. DCS provides trained statistical cadres required
   by the branch offices and provincial / district
   offices etc.
5. The legal authority vested in the DCS under the
   Census and Statistics Ordinances has enabled the
   DCS to successfully undertake most of the
   statistical operations in a coordinated manner.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building

1. Provide opportunities for staff to further their
   studies
2. Increase participation of officers in
   international training, seminars and workshops
3. Participate in international activities
4. Provide statistical advisory services
5. Use computer assisted technology for survey
   interviews and coding
6. Set up databases
7. Hold forums to publicize the findings
8. Increase personnel skill training programme
9. Document all job processes for future reference
10. Improve sampling techniques
11. Strengthen Special Studies and Research
12. Set up a statistical training institute
13. Publish statistical journal for articles based on
    research findings
14. Implement job rotation
15. Provide incentives for personnel who create
    innovative products and services
16. Form think-tank groups to produce innovative
    statistical products

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Provide opportunities for staff to further their
studies

• The staff of the Department is encouraged to
  further their studies
• For selected courses the Department fully funds
  the course fee and for other courses, partly
• Duty leave is also granted for studies
• Department fully utilizes the scholarships
  received from various organizations including the
  United Nations agencies to train its staff
• DCS recently compiled a resource directory of
  training institutes
• In this directory particulars such as names of
  the international agencies providing training,
  their contact details, course fees etc are
  included
• It is now very convenient to find a place for
  training whenever we need to train our staff on
  specific areas and necessary funds are available
• We need to explore the possibility of sharing
  expertise of our countries in the region by means
  of training, exchange programmes etc

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Increase participation of officers in
international training, seminars and workshops

• DCS is trying its best to get opportunities from
  donors to send its officers for international
  seminars and workshops.
• Attempts are also made to increase participation
  of officers by finding assistances from donors. A
  few examples for this are
• Recently assistance were obtained from UNICEF to
  send few officers abroad for training on
  database management.
• With the assistance from the Ministry of Finance
  and Planning, a group of 30 officers were sent to
  India for training.
• With funds available under the UNDP assisted MDG
  programme, several officers were sent out for
  training.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Participate in international activities

• DCS willingly participates at international
  activities. A few examples for this are
• Conducting the Demographic and Health Survey in
  collaboration with the Macro International. Under
  this activity DCS got an opportunity to train its
  staff on a wide range of statistical activities
  covering questionnaire design to report writing
• Sri Lanka is one of the Asian countries
  participating in the Accelerated Data Programme
  implemented in collaboration with the Asian
  Development Bank. With this programme DCS
  commenced archiving all statistical products of
  the Department including micro data,
  publications, questionnaires etc.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Provide statistical advisory services

• The Department has set up statistical units in
  most of the government Departments and
  Ministries.
• Trained statistical staff of the DCS are posted
  to these units.
• Statistical advisory services to government
  Departments and Ministries are provided mainly
  through these units.
• Advisory services are provided to privates
  sector, UN organizations etc in a limited way.
• Due to staff and other limitations, DCS cannot
  entertain all requests on statistical advisory
  services.
• By providing advisory services, DCS get an
  opportunity to further strengthen interactions
  with other agencies.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Use computer assisted technology for survey
interviews and coding

• The Department is testing computer assisted
  coding with Household Income and Expenditure
  Survey.
• Partly, data entry of this survey has been
  decentralized.
• Based on the success of above activities, this
  technology will be extended to all other surveys
  and censuses.
• Computer assisted technology is yet to be used
  for survey interviews.
• Initial cost of computer assisted technology for
  survey interviews is high. But it is likely to
  help improving accuracy, reliability and
  timeliness of statistics.
• IMPS software package, which has facilities for
  computerized editing, validation, imputations and
  tabulations is largely used for data entry and
  processing of survey and census data at DCS.
• DCS is lacking ICT infrastructure particularly on
  remote data transferring.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Set up databases for internal and external use
towards more effective data dissemination system

• The MDG database and another few interactive
  databases have already been included in the
  Departments website.
• A Meta database for the Department is being
  prepared under the Accelerated Data Programme,
  with the assistance of Asian Development Bank.
• Access to this Meta database will be given to
  users through the DCS website.
• All micro data (of the National Statistical
  System) will be archived and released to the
  users in accordance with the conditions laid down
  in the Data Dissemination Policy of the
  Department.
• This is the first systematic attempt that the DCS
  made to archive its data.
• A copy of the Data dissemination Policy is
  available in the DCS website.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Hold forums to publicize the findings

• DCS holds forums to publicize findings.
• Frequency of holding such forums are not at
  satisfactory levels due to resource limitations.
• When DCS estimated poverty indices at lower level
  administrative units, large number of such forums
  were held to publicize the findings. The
  government used findings for planning development
  programmes.
• Regular quarterly press briefings are held to
  release National Accounts, labour force
  statistics etc.
• DCS staff get an opportunity to meet the press
  and other users through these forums.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Increase personnel skill training programme

• DCS train its staff not only on the subject
  matter but also on other skills such as
  presentations, administration etc.
• DCS does not have enough resource persons for
  this area.
• Sri Lanka Institute for Development
  Administration (SLIDA) is a government agency
  that has been established to train mainly
  government officials in many fields including
  personnel skills.
• DCS officers are sent to places like SLIDA for
  such training programmes.
• DCS also invite eminent personnel in this field
  to conduct programmes to its staff.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Document all job processes for future reference

• Documentation is important in providing a
  resource for evidence-based decision making.
• In the light of this, the technical divisions are
  preparing manuals to documenting all methods,
  procedures etc. of surveys, censuses and special
  studies conducted by them.
• Availability of well documented manuals ensure
  smooth flow of activities in the divisions even
  in the absence of officers due to taking leave,
  retiring, migrating etc. Any officer taking over
  can follow the manuals and continue the work.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Improve sampling techniques

• DCS has a Sample Survey Division and qualified
  samplers.
• Well defined household sampling frame has been
  prepared and sample of household are drawn using
  this frame for all household surveys.
• Sampling techniques will further be improved for
  establishment based surveys.
• Sample survey division will be further
  strengthened to provide advisory services on
  sampling which is in high demand from many
  organizations who want to conduct studies for
  their own purposes.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Strengthen the special studies and research

• DCS has undertaken several important studies
  under special studies and research. Preparation
  of MDG reports, Studies on men and women are some
  of those studies. Findings of these studies have
  found to be very useful.
• Special Studies and Research should be further
  improved by identifying and sending officers for
  specialized training in methodology and the usage
  of software packages for statistical estimation,
  forecasting and analysis.
• Research work on preparation of national accounts
  including review of methodologies, estimation of
  national accounts at sub-national levels have now
  become priority areas.
• Qualitative studies are very important in
  analyzing unexpected situations. For example
  reasoning of unexpected price fluctuations of
  food commodities. DCS staff need to be trained in
  this area.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Publish statistical journal for articles based on
research findings

• DCS does not have its own journal, which would
  have been useful for publishing the findings of
  the research work of its staff.
• I suggest we launch a journal of NSOs of SAARC
  region, encouraging our staff to engage in
  research not only in our own countries but also
  in the region as well.
• At DCS, only a few officers are currently
  carrying out research work.
• It is imperative to expose all the staff officers
  to this culture as without research the subject
  cannot be developed.
• This requires training of the officers
  particularly on research methodology and report
  witting skills.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Implement job rotation

• Staff get bored by working on the same subject
  and sitting in the same place/division over a
  long period of time.
• For duty requirements and based on the
  availability of vacancies staff is transferred.
  Other than this DCS does not have a rotation
  policy.
• DCS is now in the process of preparing a policy
  for rotation of its officers among technical
  divisions.
• A committee has been setup to draft this policy.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Provide incentives for personnel who create
innovative products and services

• A system has been introduced to issue
  commendation letters for exceptional
  contributors.
• There are limitations in cash reward system or
  any other way of appreciating exceptional
  contributions.
• According to the current system, even in
  promotions what matters most is the number of
  years of experience and not the contributions or
  innovations.

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Key activities being carried out under capacity
building
Form think-tank groups to produce innovative
statistical products

• Formation of such groups has been commenced from
  the the National Accounts Division of the
  Department.
• We need to further improve estimation
  methodology, verification and interpretation of
  National Accounts.
• Earlier, both Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the
  DCS used to compile National Accounts.
• Now the sole responsibility is lying with the
  DCS.
• Therefore, lot of research, innovations etc need
  to be carried out in this area and think-tank
  groups are expected contribute particularly in
  these areas.
• Overall objective of forming think-tank groups is
  to build a dedicated and committed workforce over
  the coming years.

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Statistical Capacity Building Project Future
Plans
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Statistical Capacity Building Project Future
plans

• With the assistance of the World Bank, DCS
  is to implement a Capacity Building Project
  called STATCAP. It has two components namely
• Capacity Building
• Construction of a building for the DCS

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Capacity Building Key Performance Indicators -
Future plans

• Following are the expected outcomes of the
  STATCAP
• Improved poverty monitoring, better informed
  economic and social policy evaluation and
  decision-making
• Annual data collection plans and long-term
  strategies produced
• Training plan established, executed and updated
  annually
• Institutional reforms to strengthen capacity of
  the statistical system and its autonomy and
  achieve fuller compliance with international
  statistical standards
• Establishing an integrated meta and database of
  all major economic and social statistics and
  ensure that it is available for users, measured
  by increase in number of visitors to website
• Reduction of duplicative data collection and
  compilations through greater coordination
• Improved efficiency of data collection methods
  through decentralized data entry
• Developing statistical series which are
  compatible with international standards and
  conform to the needs of sustained economic
  development
• Making effective use of IT to achieve high
  efficiency in survey design, data collection,
  transmission, processing, management and
  dissemination

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Construction of an office Building Future plans

• Construction of an office building
• DCS is presently housed in seven different
  rented locations. This situation has and
  continues to exert adverse effects on the
  performance of DCS. It is time consuming and
  inefficient for the units in separate locations
  to work together or even just meet. That aside,
  the inconvenience, and cost are considerable.
  Under the STATACAP it has been planned to
  construct a building to house all the divisions
  of the DCS.

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Conclusion
The ultimate target of the Department is to
become a leading statistical organization
internationally while providing customer-focused
official statistical information and statistical
services of international standard, for national
planning and development through well-trained and
competent personnel, use of superior technology
and methodology, adoption of best practices in
all statistical activities and enhanced research
and statistical analysis.
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Thank You