Joint UNECE/Eurostat/OECD Working Group on Statistics on Sustainable Development

Terms of reference

Introduction

Sustainable development indicators are used by national governments and international agencies for monitoring progress towards goals set by national governments and comparing performance among countries. The Working Group should identify good concepts and practices in order to assist national governments and international organizations in the design of sustainable development indicator sets and in the development of official statistics in the area. However, it should be clear that the objective is not to develop international recommendations on a particular set of sustainable development indicators to be used at the national level. Effort should be devoted to establishing a common understanding of the “object” of sustainability (that which is to be sustained) and to establishing core principles of the measurement of sustainability.

Mandate

The Working Group should:

Articulate a broad conceptual framework for sustainable development measurement. While the starting point of this work should be the concept of capital, the Working Group should also consider other approaches to the extent the capital approach is found insufficient from a conceptual standpoint;
Identify the broad domains that good indicator sets should span;
Develop a menu of good sustainable development indicators in order to help governments and international organizations when they are designing indicator sets;
Identify a small set of indicators from the menu that might become the core for international comparisons;
Identify basic data systems necessary for a small set of indicators and identify their possible sources (existing or new statistical surveys, administrative records, information derived from environmental monitoring systems);
Discuss the relationship between integrated environmental and economic accounts and sustainable development indicators.

The Working Group will be a joint working group of the OECD and the UNECE Conference of European Statisticians chaired by Robert Smith from Statistics Canada. The working group will submit a more detailed project (with milestones) to the Bureau of the Conference of European Statisticians in February 2006. The Working Group should, at the conclusion of its work, report back to the Conference of European Statisticians and the OECD Annual Meeting of Sustainable Development Experts.

Work plan

Background

As mandated in the Terms of Reference for the Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development, the proposed work plan with milestones for the Working Group is submitted for consideration by the Bureau at its February 2006 meeting.

This work plan should be considered as preliminary since it has not been discussed yet with the Steering Committee. Its purpose is to give the Bureau a general sense of the Working Group’s objectives and timeline. It should not be seen as definitive. The final version of the work plan will be agreed to when the Steering Committee meets in Paris in March. It should be noted that the “final report” referred to below is the “book” that has been discussed as the concrete output of the Working Group.

Workplan and timetable

Establishment of Working Group – April 2006;
evelop a draft outline for the final report of the Working Group – April 2006;
Articulate a broad conceptual framework for sustainable development measurement – September 2006;
Identify the broad domains that good indicator sets should span – September 2006;
Develop a menu of good sustainable development indicators in order to help governments and international organizations when they are designing indicator sets – September 2006;
Identify a small set of indicators from the menu that might become the core for international comparisons – September 2006;
Identify basic data systems necessary for a small set of indicators and identify their possible sources – September 2006;
Discuss the relationship between integrated environmental and economic accounts and sustainable development indicators – September 2006;
International conference on measurement of sustainable development in Oslo – October 2006;
Prepare interim report to CES Bureau with preliminary recommendations – April 2007;
Review first drafts of chapters for final report – April 2007;
Present interim report to CES Bureau – June 2007;
Review revised drafts of chapters for final report – August 2007;
Present draft final recommendations to the OECD Annual Meeting of Sustainable Development Experts – October 2007;
Submit final report – December 2007.

Clarification of the mandate of the working group

At the request of the Working Group, the CES Bureau further clarified the mandate at its October 2006 meeting. In conclusion, the Bureau agreed that:

The WGSSD is encouraged to thoroughly explore the approach based on the four types of capital - economic, natural, human, and social capital, as the basis for the measurement of sustainability. However, in each of the four capital areas, the WGSSD was encouraged to go only as far as it can in a conceptually sound manner;
The WGSSD should limit its work to looking at existing practices in countries that have adopted policy-based approaches to the measurement of sustainable development in order to reveal commonalities, and also commonalities with the capital approaches. The Working Group should only highlight the commonalities rather than develop recommendations.

List of members

ARMENIA National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia	Mr. Stepan Mnatsakanyan Ms. Anahit Safyan

AUSTRALIA Australian Bureau of Statistics	Mr. Michael Vardon

AUSTRIA Statistics Austria	Mr. Ferdinand Kassberger
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management	Ms. Ingeborg Fiala

BELGIUM SVR - Research Centre of the Flemish	Mr. Peter De Smedt
Government Federal Planning Bureau	Ms. Natacha Zuinen

BULGARIA National Institute of Statistics	Ms. Diana Yancheva

CANADA Statistics Canada	Mr. Robert Smith

CHILE National Statistical Institute of Chile	Ms. Mariana Schkolnik-Chamudes Ms. Veronica P. Oxman Vega Ms. Lylian Mires Aranda

CZECH REPUBLIC Czech Statistical Office	Mr. Slavoj Czesany

CYPRUS Statistical Service of Cyprus, Ministry of Finance	Mr. George Georgiou

DENMARK Statistics Denmark	Mr. Kristian Hjulsager

ESTONIA Statistical Office of Estonia	Ms. Eneli Niinepuu Ms. Urve Kask
Estonian Institute for Sustainable Development/Stockholm Environment Institute	Ms. Tea Nõmmann

FINLAND Statistics Finland	Mr. Leo Kolttola

FRANCE INSEE	Ms. Sylvie Le Laidier
French Institute for Environment	Ms. Cécile Dormoy Ms. Françoise Nirascou

GERMANY Federal Statistical Office	Mr. Joachim Thomas

GREECE National Statistical Service of Greece	Mr. Panagiotis Vlachos

HUNGARY Ministry of Environment and Water	Mr. Elemer Szabó
Hungarian Central Statistical Office	Ms. Ildikó Szũcs Mr. Attila Rausz Ms. Andrea Meszaros

IRELAND Central Statistics Office	Mr. Pat Fanning

ISRAEL Central Bureau of Statistics	Mr. Amit Yagur-Kroll

ITALY Italian Agency for Environment Protection and Technical Services	Ms. Roberta Pignatelli
ISTAT	Mr. Corrado Abbate Ms. Stefania Schipani

LATVIA Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Agency	Ms. Sanita Sīle
Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia	Ms. Inita Buce
Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Agency	Ms. Dace Vainauska

LITHUANIA Statistics Lithuania	Ms. Jurate Jokubauskaite Ms. Danute Zilinskiene Ms. Liberiene Birute

LUXEMBOURG Ministère de l’Environnement	Mr. Eric De Brabanter
Service Central de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques	Mr. Victor Molling

MONTENEGRO Statistical Office of Montenegro	Mr. Ilija Stanisic Mr. Vladimir Radenovic

NETHERLANDS Statistics Netherlands	Mr. Peter Kee Mr. Rutger Hoekstra Ms. Anna Kulig

NEW ZEALAND Statistics New Zealand	Ms. Rachael Milicich Mr. Kent Hammond

NORWAY Ministry of Finance	Mr. Thorvald Moe
Statistics Norway	Ms. Julie Hass Mr. Olav Ljones Mr. Knut Alfsen
Ministry of Environment	Mr. Oyvind Lone Mr. Mads Greaker Mr. Per Arild Garnasjordet

POLAND Central Statistical Office of Poland	Ms. Dominika Rogalinska

PORTUGAL National Statistical Institute	Mr. Albano Miranda Ms. Isabel Quintela

REPUBLIC OF KOREA Korea National Statistical Office	Mr. Jung Su Choi Mr. Chul Joo Kim

ROMANIA National Institute of Statistics	Mr. Dan Ion Ghergut Mr. Nicolae Cristian Stanica Mr. Ilie Dumitrescu Ms. Livia Dragusin
National Centre for Sustainable Development	Ms. Ana Vasiliu Mr. Radu Stefan Vadineanu

SERBIA Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia	Mr. Dragan Vukmirovic

SLOVAKIA Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic	Mr. Marian Labaj Mr. Karol Papaj

SLOVENIA Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia	Ms. Mojca Suvorov

SPAIN National Statistical Institute	Mr. Pedro Javier Herrera Giménez Mr. Jorge Saralegui Mr. Cesar Berrade

SWEDEN Statistics Sweden	Ms. Viveka Palm

SWITZERLAND Swiss Federal Statistical Office	Ms. Andrea Scheller

THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA State Statistical Office of the Republic of Macedonia	Ms. Blagica Novkovska

TURKEY Turkish Statistics Institute	Mr. Ali Can

UNITED KINGDOM Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	Mr. Stephen Hall

UN DEPARTMENT FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS Division for Sustainable Development	Ms. Mary Pat Silveira

UN ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE Statistical Division	Ms. Lidia Bratanova Ms. Tiina Luige Ms. Vania Etropolska

UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN KOSOVO Statistical Office of Kosovo	Mr. Avni Kastrati

WORLD BANK Environment Department	Mr. Kirk Hamilton

EUROSTAT Eurostat D1 - Key indicators for European policies	Mr. Pascal Wolff Ms. Laure Ledoux

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DG Environment	Mr. Oliver Zwirner
DG Information Society and Media	Mr. Carlos Rodriguez Casal
DG Economic and Financial Affairs	Ms. Geneviève Galloy Mr. Mark Hayden Ms. Ariane Labat

OECD Statistical Directorate	Mr. Enrico Giovannini
Environmental Directorate	Ms. Candice Stevens Ms. Tone Smith Mr. Marco Mira D’Ercole