United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division UNECE Report on Technical Cooperation in the Field of Statistics in Central Asia Third SPECA PWG Meeting Paris 13 June 2008 Rapporteur: Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECE

Coordination activities are needed Coordination Activities Donors Countries - Long strategic plan for development of the NSS -Plan for funding of donor activities -Criteria for choosing special countries 13 June 2008 -Favourable relationship with particular IO - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 2

Background of present information collection (1) v Need to know, Need to co-ordinate Prevent overlapping and waste of resources • Help to focus on most important issues • Identify and address problems in technical co-operation • v Discussions in the February and October 2005 meetings of the Bureau of the Conference of European Statisticians (CES) 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 3

Background of present information collection (2) v Decision at the CES Bureau February 2006 meeting Focus: Western Balkans and CIS-ENP & CIS Central Asia • Way to proceed • Division of labour between UNECE, Eurostat and CIS-STAT • In the 2006 Survey on Central Asia: Making use of the experience of collecting information on the technical cooperation with the Western Balkan countries by Eurostat • v In the 2008 Survey on Central Asia: Making use of the Survey experience in 2006 and • The results of the work of the CCSA Task Team, active in 2006 -2008 • 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 4

Main outcome of the 2008 UNECE Survey (1): Six donors provide almost ¾ of the funding 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 5

Main outcome of the 2008 UNECE Survey (2): More than 30 organisations were involved in implementation 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 6

Main outcome of the 2008 UNECE Survey (3): Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were main targets in the years 2006 -2007 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 7

Main outcome of the 2008 UNECE Survey (4): Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were main targets in the years 2006 -2007 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 8

Main conclusions to be made v 1. Both the number and the magnitude of reported projects has grown from 2005 More assistance provided to Central Asia • Better coverage of reporting organizations • A more user friendly questionnaire inspired better coverage in replies • Good classification of support activities also improved response quality • 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 9

Main conclusions to be made v 2. No serious overlap or duplication of donor activities could be observed in the Central Asian sub-region On the contrary – there seems to be numerous projects where different donors work in good cooperation • Statistical Master Plans in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan will in the coming years even encourage this cooperation • 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 10

Main conclusions to be made v 3. Some improvements in the Survey implementation could still be made The questioning on multi-donor and multiimplementation projects could still be improved • Totally different reporting structures in different donor organizations presuppose response-seeking from different levels of donor organizations • 13 June 2008 - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 11

With Technical Cooperation to a brighter future v v 13 June 2008 Questions? Comments? Thank you for your attention! petteri. baer@unece. org - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 12