Conference of European Statisticians
The Conference of European Statisticians (CES) and its secretariat, the UNECE Statistical Division, continued in 2008 to play an important role in coordinating the international statistical activities in the region. CES and its Bureau provide a forum for the heads of national and international statistical agencies to address the most relevant issues of official statistics. The Conference also attracts membership from outside the UNECE region. Countries such as Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea and South Africa regularly participate in its activities. Participation of the major international organizations (including Eurostat, OECD, United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), IMF and World Bank) helps to ensure that statistical work undertaken by these organizations in the UNECE region is coordinated and that duplication is avoided. UNECE has been asked to share its experience with organizing the work of CES with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) and UNECA.
The annual CES plenary sessions include two seminars providing a forum for top-level management of statistical offices to explore the fundamental issues of statistical systems and leading-edge emerging topics. The seminars in 2008 were devoted to measuring population movement and integration in a globalized world, and strategic issues linked to the measurement of international transactions.
The CES plenary session in 2009 will deal with balancing principles of professional autonomy and accountability with the mandate to produce policy relevant data. The Conference will look at what defines “official” statistics and the relationship between statisticians and policymakers. The seminar will also consider how to achieve accountability of statistical systems to the Government and taxpayers for making good use of the public funds allocated for the production of official statistics. A second seminar will be devoted to the strategic issues in business statistics. It will focus on new domains and user needs in business statistics, and reduction of respondent burden through the use of new production techniques. The Conference will discuss emerging areas of business statistics, such as how to measure structural change in the context of strong integration, multinational enterprises, environment-related business statistics, intangible asset accumulation (e.g. knowledge, “goodwill”), business and innovation strategies, and emerging trends in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, as statistical agencies face an increase in demand for new data, the Conference will discuss how to meet the challenge of providing adequate information about the new emerging issues while reducing the respondent burden.
Economic statistics
The UNECE secretariat participates in updating the global methodological standard for national accounting, the System of National Accounts 2008. The aim is to ensure that the countries of SEE and CIS are well informed of the process and that their opinion is taken into account. In 2008, UNECE issued a publication providing an overview of the methods used in 43 countries to estimate the Non-Observed Economy and two seminars on measuring it were organized for the countries with economies in transition (April 2008 in Switzerland and September 2008 in Azerbaijan).
UNECE is working jointly with Eurostat, OECD, IMF and UNCTAD to prepare recommendations on how to deal with the distortions to statistics that are occurring as a result of globalization. The growing number of multinational companies, as well as the advances in communication and transport that allow companies to operate across borders, make it more difficult to measure economies from the national viewpoint. A joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group was set up to develop proposals on how to deal with these problems in statistics and improve the quality of national accounts. The Group will have its second meeting in Geneva in May 2009 to discuss issues such as the allocation of income of multinational enterprises to national economies, the treatment of goods sent abroad for processing, merchanting, transactions in intellectual property, remittances, labour mobility, foreign direct investment and transit trade and re-export.
A report on the international comparability of short-term economic statistics in the SEE and CIS countries was prepared in 2008, documenting a serious lack of internationally comparable key short-term indicators in these countries. Most SEE and CIS countries do not compile seasonally adjusted short-term statistics, which prevents meaningful comparative studies of the economic development. To fill this gap, in 2008, UNECE undertook compilation and publishing of seasonally adjusted industrial production indices for SEE and CIS countries. Further steps will be taken to identify other areas where support is needed in order to implement international recommendations on short-term statistics and seasonal adjustment methods in these countries.
The secretariat also aims to ensure that the SEE and CIS countries implement statistical business registers – an indispensable tool for an efficient system of data collection from businesses. In 2008, a survey of statistical business registers in UNECE non-EU member countries was carried out in cooperation with Eurostat. The results were presented and analysed at a meeting of the Wiesbaden City Group on Business Registers in November 2008.
UNECE has actively contributed to the revision of the existing manuals on price statistics, including the Export and Import Price Index Manual, expected to be published in late 2008 or early 2009. The results of a joint UNECE/ILO survey on the implementation of the Consumer Price Index Manual were published on the web. A special meeting for developing countries and countries with economies in transition was organized to discuss the forthcoming Supplementary Handbook: Practical Guide to Compiling Consumer Price Indices. Since March 2007, the UNECE Statistical Division is chairing the Intersecretariat Working Group on Price Statistics, which coordinates international work on price statistics and develops and documents methods and best practices on price statistics.
Social and demographic statistics
UNECE has a leading role (sometimes jointly with other organizations) in selected areas of social and demographic statistics, such as gender statistics, population and housing censuses, migration, and crime statistics. In gender statistics, UNECE carries out methodological work, as well as providing data on gender disparities in various fields. Training tools on gender statistics, such as multimedia presentations and training modules have been developed (in collaboration with the World Bank) and have been used in regional and national training events in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries. UNECE is also offering a unique forum for statisticians, researchers, and policymakers to improve the measurement of violence against women.
In the area of population and housing censuses, UNECE focused its work on supporting countries in the implementation of the CES Recommendations for the 2010 round of Population and Housing Censuses. In 2008, two population census workshops were organized in South-East Europe. A publication of country practices in the 2000 round of censuses was issued in 2008 (in English and Russian). Five multimedia presentations on population and housing censuses to be used for training activities were finalized in 2008. The presentations are available on the UNECE website.
The Steering Group on migration statistics aims to assess the role of household sample surveys to collect migration-related data. The work will continue in 2009 (in collaboration with Eurostat and the World Bank) to develop standard survey tools to collect data on migration and remittances. In the field of emigration data, a task force finalized the guidelines on the use of immigration data of receiving countries to improve emigration estimates of sending countries. Moreover, an assessment was made on the use of a census module to measure emigration on the basis of countries’ experiences during the last census round.
In crime statistics, UNECE is preparing a manual on victimization surveys jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The manual will provide countries with a useful tool to develop national victimization surveys within the framework of official statistics and following international methodological guidelines, and is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2009.
UNECE provides statistical support in monitoring achievement of the MDGs. The joint UNECE/United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)/UNDP Task Force on MDG statistics launched the 2008 round of data collection on MDGs for the UNECE region (Regional MDG Info available on-line and on CD-ROM).
The rising concern for quality of employment impacts both social and economic policy areas across the UNECE region and beyond. Moreover, there is a pressing need for an internationally agreed framework for its measurement. Such a framework is currently being created in collaboration with UNECE, ILO, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Eurostat and several national statistical offices. In 2008, the common conceptual framework was agreed upon and several sub-sets of statistical indicators to measure the quality of employment at a national level were tested. The validation study of the framework, which is funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities through the ILO Decent Work programme, is expected to be carried out in October 2008-January 2009.
Cross-cutting issues
In 2008, the Joint UNECE/Eurostat/OECD Working Group finalized the Report on measuring sustainable development. The Report aims to reconcile the two main methods used so far by different countries and organizations to measure sustainable development, based either on the concept of capital, or sets of indicators linked to sustainable development policies. The report draws the best from the conceptual work of the researchers and the practical work of policymakers and statisticians. It is hoped that the report will provide an impetus for further work on statistics for sustainable development in national statistical offices. Further work is foreseen to refine certain elements of the capital approach in identifying indicators to present the long-term dimension of sustainability.
The UNECE secretariat provides unique forums for informatics managers, methodologists and dissemination experts from national and international statistical offices to share experiences with other countries. Task forces and working groups are currently preparing a number of outputs including a framework for sharing statistical IT tools between national and international agencies, principles for statistical data integration, and a generic statistical business process model. In addition to the regular meetings of these groups, special workshops on developing data dissemination systems and on communication and dissemination of census results were organized in 2008. Cooperation with other agencies has intensified, particularly in the field of statistical data and metadata exchange (SDMX), and data dissemination systems (including the new UNdata portal).
The dissemination and communication of statistics remains an area in which UNECE is actively involved. Annual meetings are held to share experiences and promote good practices in communicating with the media, managing customer relationships and outreach, gathering and analysing feedback, improving statistical literacy and managing dissemination and communication within a statistical organization. A task force is preparing a style guide for the visual presentation of statistics. In May 2008, in connection with the meeting on statistical communication and dissemination, Professor Hans Rosling of Sweden delivered a lecture on how to maximize the value of statistics using tools that reveal the story behind the numbers. The event was co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of Sweden in Geneva.
A Forum on human resources management and training in statistical offices was organized in September 2008, the first ever of its kind. The Forum identified further needs for exchange of best practices and proposed to continue international work in this area to look at what competencies are needed in official statistics in future, needs for statistical training, and how to attract and retain the staff in statistical offices.
UNECE Statistical Database
UNECE maintains a free online statistical database (www.unece.org/stats/data) available in English and Russian, covering the countries of the UNECE region. The database includes macro-economic, social, demographic and transport indicators. An important feature is that gender breakdown is included where possible. New data on work-life balance, science, technology, and information and communication technology (ICT) were added during 2008, as well as seasonally adjusted data for selected macro-economic series and revised Purchasing Power Parity data. Significantly, data downloads in 2008 were approximately double those for 2007, and a user survey gave positive feedback. Updates planned for 2009 include the addition of data on progress towards the MDGs, and new datasets on timber in partnership with FAO and the UNECE Trade and Timber Division.
Technical assistance
An important part of the work is to assist CIS and South-East European countries in building and improving their statistical capacity by organizing seminars and workshops, providing advisory services, promoting the implementation of international standards and recommendations, transmitting best practices, and promoting exchange of experience. UNECE also helps countries to implement the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, a standard that was adopted by UNECE in 1992, by giving advice on statistical legislation and institutional frameworks, and on how to ensure the independence and impartiality of official statistics.
At the request of the countries, advisory services and training workshops were provided to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on various topics such as the organization of statistical systems, statistical legislation, population and housing censuses, national accounts, non-observed economy, price statistics, gender statistics, measuring sustainable development, MDGs, statistical quality, statistical literacy, and dissemination and marketing of statistical information.
A joint UNECE/Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific seminar was organized in Tehran in November 2008 to provide training on short-term economic statistics and price statistics to Central Asian countries and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Training workshops were organized and training materials developed in gender statistics (jointly with the World Bank Institute, UNDP, United Nations Population Fund and FAO). Regional and national training events were carried out in 2007 and 2008 under the World Bank funded project using the innovative training module developed by UNECE and the World Bank.
Two workshops took place in 2008 within the UNDA Project for statistical capacity-building under the Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA). The project focuses on three areas: population and housing censuses, measurement of the health status of population and measuring non-observed economy. The project will come to a close in 2009.
Together with Eurostat, Council of Europe and UNSD, UNECE continued to monitor the population and housing census in the United Nations Administered Province of Kosovo.
UNECE contributed to the First Meeting of Heads of National Statistical Agencies of the member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). It also provided information on the work of CES, donor activities relating to statistics in Central Asia, and dissemination of official statistics.
A Global Assessment of the National Statistical System of Kazakhstan carried out together with the Statistics Division of UNESCAP was finalized in February 2008.
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