Conclusions from the Management Seminar on Global Assessments

1
Conclusions from the Management Seminar on
Global Assessments

• EFTA-Eurostat-UNECE Seminar on Global
  AssessmentsYalta, Ukraine 23 25 September 2009
• Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECE

2
Challenges inviting the need of performing Global
Assessments

• Special Cultural and Statistical traditions in
  the ways NSIs of CIS countries work
• Global Assessments are needed by
• The NSIs themselves
• The Governing structures in the country
• International donors
• Seven background factors influencing NSSs
  operational environments today

3
The Seven background factors, mentioned by
Eurostat

• Meetings of statisticians Possibilities to meet
  and talk on an international level have
  enormously increased
• Internet Almost all information available
  directly on line
• IT in general, more and more shared tools easy to
  access
• Today it is much more easy to see what other
  statistical offices are doing - We can visit each
  others internet, look at the data, easily make
  comparisons
• Globalisation - much more relations between
  countries, asking for reliable statistics, also
  for negotiations. Important to have good
  information accepted by the other party(ies)
• Global international programs implemented in the
  field of Statistics SNA, ICP, MDGs, Population
  and Housing Censuses, Agricultural Censuses
• Statistical information is one of the important
  infrastructural cornerstones of modern societies.

4
GA a tool for building reliable and efficient
statistical systems

• 10 years experience accumulated in performing
  Global Assessments of statistical systems,
  performed by UNECE and Eurostat
• Country experiences on Gas were reported from 6
  countries in the Management Seminar
• Assessor reports were given by 5 assessors
• The importance of the legal and institutional
  framework
• Special focus on Confidentiality issues

5
GA A tool in exchanging international
cooperation and best practices

• Support for GAs will be given to participating
  countries by International organizations jointly
  UNECE, EFTA and Eurostat
• The importance of exchanging NSI experience
• Best practices
• Twinning
• Advise can be obtained also on very problematic
  issues
• Priority settings
• Budget cuts

6
Assessments of Statistical Domains in a GA

• Growing importance of this part of GAs the more
  developed the statistical system is
• In this Management Seminar more detailed
  observations were made on assessing
• Social and demographic statistics
• Economic statistics
• In all statistical domains
• Development is taking place from old stove-pipe
  approaches e.g. data collection only by
  statistical domains - to a more generic business
  model as an organizational basis in modern NSIs

7
The importance of building stakeholder and user
relations

• For building trust
• For having statistics really used by numerous
  user groups
• Only used statistics is useful statistics
• Experience and guidance given by international
  organizations Making data meaningful
• ...and from experienced NSIs Twinning

8
Expressions of Gratitude

• To the hosting country and organisation, SSCU
  for Yalta, for excellent facilities, good food
  and nice atmosphere
• To EFTA, providing sufficient financing of the
  Management Seminar presenters
• To Eurostat and UNECE for their support
• To the interpreters and all technical staff
• To participants for active discussions

9
Wise words of Samuel Johnson

• Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject
  ourselves or we know where we can find
  information upon it