Note by the secretariat
1. This note contains updated information on the programme of work of the Conference carried out since the February 1995 meeting of the Bureau. It includes recommendations for decision by the Conference. Consequently, it supplements the information presented in the addenda of document CES/1995/R.15 in respect of the following programme elements:
Programme element (P.E.)
1.2 Transition countries
3.1 Implementation of the SNA
4.5 Population and housing censuses
4.8 Education statistics
5.1 Standards and frameworks for environmental data and indicators
The Statistical Division organized the first meeting of the Steering Committee of the new UNDP-financed regional project in Sinaia, Romania in April 1995. The project is aimed at assisting CIS countries and other countries in transition in the field of social and demographic statistics. The meeting decided that work in the project should focus on the following five priority areas:
i) assisting newly-independent states and other interested transition countries to plan and organize their next (2000 round) population census, through training courses and other means (for most of the newly independent states, the next census will be the first census that they will have to plan and organize on their own);
ii) assisting transition countries in making much better use of administrative data in the areas of vital statistics, health, education and so on.
iii) assisting transition countries to develop an improved capacity for conducting household surveys, which could be used to produce a wide range of policy-relevant social and demographic data for example in gender, age and family unit specificity (this is expected to involve training courses in sampling techniques, questionnaire design, etc.);
iv) assisting statistical offices in transition countries to develop an improved infrastructure in the field of Information Technology (this will include inter alia training courses in data processing methods, client-server architecture, computer networks, and database management system applications);
v) assisting transition countries to produce in the near future national statistical compendia which will bring together as much relevant social and demographic data as is available. (The data would be made available for researchers and policy makers in each country; it is often claimed that data exist but are not readily available; such reports will help identify important gaps in the available social and demographic series).
None
The ECE-OECD joint meeting of national accounts experts was held in Paris from 9-12 May 1995. The participants recommended that a further joint meeting be held in Geneva in April/May 1996, and that the agenda items be selected from the following list: subsidies; FISIM; COFOG; institutional sectoring; valuables and intangible assets; productivity of the government sector; policies and methods for rebasing; valuation of natural resources in balance sheets; valuation of non-market household production; new SNA questionnaires; country experiences in dealing with problems of the hidden economy; measurement of retained earnings in the external account; and satellite accounts for R&D.
- To include the ECE-OECD joint meeting of national accounts experts in the Conference's 1995/96 meeting programme.
The ECE-Eurostat joint work session on population censuses was held in Geneva from 17-19 May 1995, in order to determine how the recommendations for the 1990 round of population censuses in the ECE region should be modified and updated for purposes of the 2000 round of censuses. The participants identified several key areas where the 1990 recommendations need to be updated. They also agreed that the complexities of the issues involved in four areas (census methods; geographical characteristics of persons; households and families, and economic characteristics of persons) were such that they would require follow-up work, and that this might best be done by a small group of countries interested in those areas. The participants recommended that, if deemed necessary, an informal meeting for one or more of these groups be organized in 1995/96 under the auspices of the Conference and/or Eurostat.
- To authorize the secretariat to organize in 1995/96, if deemed necessary, an informal meeting for one or more of the groups of countries).
The programme of work of the Conference makes provision for a work session on education statistics to be convened in 1995/96 jointly with Unesco to consider the following topics: (i) conceptual and measurement issues between education and training on the one hand and between education and entry to the labour market on the other; (ii) issues in the interpretation, implementation and application of ISCED; and (iii) adult education statistics.
Unesco recommends that the terms of reference be amended by replacing topics (ii) and (iii) with the topic "review of the preliminary version of the revised ISCED manual". The preliminary version of the revised manual is expected to be available by this autumn. Unesco also considers that there is no need to have a separate agenda item on adult education statistics as this is also dealt with in the revised version of the ISCED manual.
- To include the ECE-Unesco joint work session on education statistics in the Conference's 1995/96 meeting programme, with the amended terms of reference indicated above.
The ECE-Eurostat joint work session on waste statistics was held in Geneva from 29-31 May 1995. It formulated suggestions for consideration in the context of the development of a single European statistical classification of wastes. Furthermore, recommendations were made regarding future work on statistics of waste and recycling at large.
- To include a further ECE/CEC work session on waste and recycling statistics in its programme of meetings for 1995/96 (Luxembourg, possibly in April 1996). The purpose of the meeting would be the consideration of the final results of the work undertaken by the French Institute of the Environment (IFEN) on behalf of the CEC.
- To include a joint ECE/CEC meeting on waste and recycling statistics in its programme of work for 1996/97 (to be convened in Geneva, possibly in fall 1996) with terms of reference to be developed later jointly by the ECE secretariat and CEC.