Reported by Stan Bernstein
Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the UN Statistical Division, opened the 2 March briefing. CSO briefings are now held before all Commission sessions and other relevant events.
Schweinfest, putting the current discussion in context, referred to 70 years of the same statistical institutions participating at the Statistical Commission. Statisticians only meet once a year, unlike other functional commissions of ECOSOC. All communications within that period are among the multiple stakeholders. There are 12 or 13 items on the Agenda., with the most important discussions on Tuesday 8 to Thursday 10 March. The final day will be devoted to the programme of work and other institutional requirements.
The key concern is comparable data across countries: standardization gains economies of scale and allow better exchange of experiences and data traffic procedures. The Commission’s work will include standards on national accounts, refugee, climate change (new areas) and others. There is a resource guide on the website with a CSO section with practical information. The website also lists almost 80 side events: a mix of closed (ExBo, programme committee, etc.) and open sessions. There will be an overflow room for Tuesday. Last year over there were 700 participants for discussion about indicators. Fewer participants are expected in subsequent discussions.
Reviewing the IAEG process: it has been an impossible job of nine months for global indicator framework, as work on standards like national accounts requires some 10 years of effort. The indicators are needed to allow initiation of the SDG agenda. Statisticians see far too many targets too (they are still struggling to get MDGs sorted out still). There were two years to negotiate the Agenda, then nine months to finalize, while still doing other regular work.
Statisticians are responsible for the database for global monitoring for input to report to the General Assembly (one report per year). The task is not regional or national indicators. They hope that global indicators will be the starting point for national work. All will modify by squeezing or expanding it relevant to national policy. There can be many suggestions on indicators relevant to national decision-making. The IAEG had the task of ensuring global consistency. Many suggestions died because they are not appropriate at the global level.
Disaggregation is recognized as a key area, but it is very expensive: more data from more constituents. This requires more money and expands the instrument, which reduces response rates. All national statistical offices face capacity constraints and require help from other stakeholders. He asked whether they should delay, or start, and build capacity and review and modify standards as we go forward. There have been appeals to build in a mechanism for refinement. They are at the beginning of the effort to build the system and system capacity. The UN World Data Forum is planned for later in the year, where all stakeholders will be invited to work out how to collaborate better over the next 15 years.
The universality of the Agenda is a key benefit, but there is a question as to how to interface with national level work and ongoing modifications.
The IAEG will carry on the work as was done for the MDGs. In March, the IAEG will review all indicators. (See: Report on briefing on work of IAEG for members of ECOSOC) Defining the gaps will take time, with interactions with those in the political arena. Will have open consultations. Modifications at national level will happen a lot: national ownership. He hopes countries will chose indicators from the global framework. Modifications of global will be decided in process and content by the General Assembly. Discussions between now and June will decide if the initial framework is sufficient and will recommend further work. They do not want to preempt other processes (SENDAI). The comparison dimension (how countries are doing relative to each other) requires global consistency. Official statistical offices are not good, for example, in capturing refugee situations (health, demography, etc.). What is needed is an architecture with different elements that work together. There will be a challenge for areas not part of official statistics. The Forum should generate ways to ensure timely data for needs, while ensuring quality.
The HLG (High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity Building for post-2015 Monitoring) is working on what is needed to implement the indicators (chosen at lower level). A proposal for a global action plan is being developed and there should be an allocation of responsibilities at the proposed World Data Forum: data, communication about data, role of public and private entities, etc. It will take place in the last quarter of the year, hopefully in a developing country.
Questions were asked on a number of areas including migration and disaggregation. I response on disaggregation, Schweinfest said that it goes to the heart of the agenda for many people. It is incumbent on professional statisticians to spell out ther requirements (as well as CSOs stating their needs). The IAEG also still needs to look at interlinkages and indicators that can be used across various components (linkages on March agenda) and there will be two or three years of examination as to how to leverage linkages.
GA needs to give a mandate to the Statistical Commission and to the IAEG. The current work is only mandated through March. Hopefully there will be a mandate for continuous and periodic monitoring. The tiers will help to focus work starting with addressing Tier 3. They will go to the specialized agencies for field testing of new procedures, eg how to measure the safety of a city -- some suggested # police but does that indicate safety or its lack? It will take 3-5 years to get some indicators effectively monitored. It is worth getting it right. (An there will still be 12 years to monitor.)
He noted that UNICEF is working on developing new tools. They know there are gaps in censuses and surveys and are working on methodologies to correct for under-coverage developed. They may have to go beyond official statistics: food distributions in refugee camps etc, to complement the official systems. A lot is being developed: geospatial information (working group on integration of geospatial and other systems): it is scary as to what information can be collected from satellites. Pilot projects on development are underway.
On ECOSOC timing: they want resolutions before July HLPF. The Statistical Commission report will be distributed 6-8 weeks after the session. As to whether ECOSOC can take action earlier? They will need to decide. Migration statistics were on last year’s agenda. Refugee statistics are on this year’s agenda (with Turkey taking lead). They will need to produce the numbers and also be quality advisers on data from other sources. (This not historically the role of statistical agencies)
He cited the Canadian example of developing a price index on housing as they didn’t have it. National Realtors Association was regularly collecting information so Statistics Canada suggested their numbers were good enough, if they met specified coverage conditions.
There will be a dialogue between formal and informal data producers key. Sustainability will be a key question. Cell phone examples. Privacy concerns need to be addressed.