International Seminar on Modernizing Official Statistics Meeting Productivity

International Seminar on Modernizing Official Statistics: Meeting Productivity and Data Challenges Tianjin, China, 24 -26 October 2013 Modernization of Management and Structure of Statistical Organization (Session 2) Stefan Schweinfest Acting Director, United Nations Statistics Division

“Never has so much been expected from statistics; never have statisticians had such means at their disposal; and never has there been so much willingness to learn from each other and standardize internationally the outcomes of that learning. ” Handbook of Statistical Organization, Third Edition, 2003 The Operation and Organization of a Statistical Agency http: //unstats. un. org/unsd/publication/Series. F_88 E. pdf 2

Institutional Set up Today • Centralised systems • Decentralised systems • Centralised/Decentralised • As administrative data is increasingly used for statistical purposes, more work is undertaken outside of NSOs • Even in these systems, there is always a central statistical agency • Tendency to improve coordination to improve reliability and cohesion of statistical system • Recent trend is for these two approaches to be coming together • Not the issue anymore but we need to: • • • Coordinate Modernize Communicate 3

Why Modernizing the Official Statistics? • Opportunities • Demand • Huge volume of data become available – IT revolution • New methods and technologies provide opportunities for significant efficiency savings • Integration of statistical and geospatial information gains importance • Users want MORE: more data, more detail, more rapidly, more access • New measures e. g. wellbeing • Instant web access 4

Competition by the Private Sector • Private sector understands the value of data • Could they provide alternatives/complements to official statistics? • Google • Store cards • Credit agencies The Official Statistics has to react to the new realities or it will risk losing its relevance 5

Addressing increasing demand: Restructuring of the NSOs? • All reorganizations should accomplish the following: • Create new ideas • Lead to efficiency gains • Improve the organization’s focus on strategic objectives • However, an organizational restructuring is not necessary to achieve these goals in many circumstances 6

How to Modernize? • Modernization of products • Modernization of production processes • Modernization of organizational and human resources dimensions • • Detailed and integrated datasets; geocoded data Available more rapidly Combination of various data sources Data solutions created by the users • Use of new devices for data collection • Use of SDMX to facilitate the integration of IT systems • Use of common generic business processes across all statistical domains • Organization to adapt to the new data environment • Staff to be trained and equipped with relevant new skills 7

The larger picture: from NSO to NSS: Improving Coordination • As demand for data increases, consistency across data sources becomes more important (quality assurance framework) • Improved efficiency can result from sharing infrastructure across statistical agencies within a National Statistical System 8

NSOs Driving the Modernization • • Leadership, vision, strategy Adequate Statistical Legislation • Improved structure and coordination – vertical and horizontal • Rethought business processes along which data are produced and disseminated • Modernized resource management – human, financial and IT resources • Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics endorsed by the ECOSOC and General Assembly provide a strong foundation of NSOs • upgrade computers – upgrade human skills 9

To do list • Differentiate between needs and “wants” and focus on needs • Review relevance of existing data vs. user requests • Pilot test new statistical collections • Explore new partnerships • Find new/sustainable funding sources in order to increase statistical dissemination capacity of NSOs 10

Key points • National Statistical Offices should modernize to survive • Modernization is not only IT related • Modernization is strategic – to define the future of Official Statistics 11

Thank You! Stefan Schweinfest Acting Director UN Statistics Division 12