E/ESCAP/STAT.10/3
16 October 1996
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Committee on Statistics
Tenth session
25-29 November 1996
Bangkok

Introduction

1. STATISTICAL INFORMATION SERVICES
   1. Data collection and dissemination
   2. ESCAP Statistical Information System (ESIS)
2. STATISTICAL DEVELOPMENT
   1. Regional advisory and expert services
   2. Technical meetings and other group activities
3. RESOURCE SITUATION
4. MATTERS ARISING AT THE ANNUAL SESSIONS OF THE COMMISSION

Annex.Meetings of other organizations attended by staff of the Statistics Division, January 1995-June 1996

List of tables

1. Advisory missions and technical consultations by country or area, January 1995-June 1996
2. Advisory missions and technical consultations by broad area of technical assistance, 1989-1990 to 1995-1996
3. Utilization of Professional work-month resources by main work programme categories, January-June 1996
4. Professional work-months utilized by broad function of output activities

INTRODUCTION

1. The present document is intended to summarize secretariat activities in the field of statistics since the ninth session of the Committee of Statistics. Under the current programme structure of ESCAP, Statistics is one of six subprogrammes, as follows

1. Regional economic cooperation
2. Environment and sustainable development
3. Poverty alleviation through economic growth and social development
4. Transport and communications
5. Statistics
6. Least developed, landlocked and island developing countries

The Statistics Division, one of the nine substantive divisions in the secretariat, coordinates activities under the Statistics subprogramme and contributes and provides support to other subprogrammes.

2. The secretariat activities in statistics mainly address the following mandates of the Commission, as stated in its terms of reference:

"(c) Undertake or sponsor the collection, evaluation and dissemination of such economic, technological and statistical information as the Commission deems appropriate;

"(d) Perform such advisory services, within the available resources of its secretariat, as the countries of the region may desire, provided that such services do not overlap with those rendered by the specialized agencies or the relevant United Nations bodies." 1 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, Fifty-second Session, 1996, Supplement No. 16 (E/1996/36-E/ESCAP/1044), annex V.

3. In 1995-1996, the activities under the Statistics subprogramme comprised four main components: statistical information services, statistical development, coordination and government computerization. Activities under the latter component are covered in document E/ESCAP/STAT.10/10. The first two sections of the present paper cover statistical information services and statistical development, and a summary of resources available to the Statistics Division and their utilization is presented in section III. The last section of the paper is intended to apprise the Committee of the issues concerning statistics discussed at the fifty-first and fifty-second sessions of the Commission, including those related to the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP). The Committee may wish to discuss the implications of the Commission's recommendations and comment on their implementation by the members and associate members of ESCAP, donors, regional and international organizations, and the secretariat.

4. While reviewing the secretariat activities, the Committee may also wish to note the continuing severe constraints on the regular budget of the United Nations. These led to the introduction of special measures in September 1995, including a freeze on recruitment, suspension of consultancies, severe limitations on travel of staff and purchase of equipment etc., which have affected the secretariat's operations very significantly.

5. In addition to the statistical information and operational activities, a considerable portion of the available resources was devoted to the promotion and coordination of statistical development activities in the region. The ninth session of the Working Group of Statistical Experts was organized in early 1996. The report of that session, which had to be postponed from 1995 because of the special measures, is available to the Committee as document E/ESCAP/STAT.10/1. The secretariat also serviced the Meeting of the Bureau of the Committee held prior to the ninth session of the Working Group. The organization of the sessions of the Committee on Statistics is a major effort of the secretariat towards promoting regional cooperation and coordination of statistical activities.

I. STATISTICAL INFORMATION SERVICES

A. Data collection and dissemination

6. The primary means used by the ESCAP secretariat to disseminate statistical information continues to be recurrent publications. For that purpose, the secretariat compiles information obtained from various sources, including copies of questionnaires completed by countries for the United Nations Statistics Division, publications sent by the national statistical organizations and the statistical outputs of other international agencies.

7. The regular statistical information publications of the secretariat are the Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific (annual), Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific (quarterly), Foreign Trade Statistics of Asia and the Pacific (annual) and Asia-Pacific in Figures (annual). Thanks to a greater use of computer technology and additional efforts by staff of the Statistics Division, it has been possible to produce these core publications on a regular basis despite severe personnel constraints (see paras. 13 and 26). It also proved possible to expand the geographical scope of the publications to reflect the changes occurring in the Commission membership and include more regional and subregional tables; moreover, consultancy funds were utilized to prepare an ad hoc publication entitled Socio-economic Profiles of SAARC Countries, which is to be issued soon. However, owing to the Professional staff constraints, very little progress was made on expanding the scope of the publications and including various data on topics identified by the 1994 readership survey and endorsed by the Committee. Indeed, the Commission itself has stressed the need for the dissemination of data "to address the rapidly changing social and economic requirements of the region". Ibid., Fifty-first Session, 1995, Supplement No. 17 (E/1995/37-E/ESCAP/1014), para. 405. The inability to respond adequately to that recommendation remains of great concern to the secretariat.

8. The Committee was informed at its ninth session of the problems faced by the secretariat in the timely distribution of its statistical publications. This issue was recently addressed by an efficiency review conducted in ESCAP during the first half of 1996, as part of an exercise conducted throughout the United Nations Secretariat with the aim of improving the performance of the Organization and reducing costs. The efficiency review team also made recommendations on information dissemination and publication. It was suggested that the secretariat should promote sales publications and examine opportunities for rechannelling funds generated from sales to improve quality and distribution. Again, however, the resource situation has effectively prevented the ESCAP secretariat from an energetic pursuit of the relevant recommendations.

9. As in the past, the Statistics Division continued to supply ad hoc information and special tabulations to various divisions and units within the secretariat, and to requesting organizations and individual research workers, including those from the private sector. However, owing to resource constraints, low priority had to be assigned to those requests which demanded a considerable amount of human resources. The Statistics Division continued to provide inputs to the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, which is a major publication prepared by the secretariat and presented to the Commission at its annual session. Under a cooperation arrangement with the Overseas Development Administration of the United Kingdom, the Division has been distributing the population projection software packages People and Workers, which remain in demand both within and outside the region. The International Trade and Economic Cooperation Division of the secretariat is planning to produce jointly with the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) detailed trade statistics on CD-ROM for selected ESCAP members and associate members. The CD-ROM is being prepared on a pilot basis and funded under an extrabudgetary project. Subject to review of its utilization, efficiency of distribution and other factors, it will become a regular ESCAP trade statistics product.

10. The Statistical Newsletter was produced on a quarterly basis, although some issues were delayed and restricted in topic coverage owing to resource constraints. Similarly, the secretariat has not yet been able to follow through on the recommendations made by the Working Group of Statistical Experts concerning its content. The secretariat is thankful to the countries or areas and organizations that provide input to the Newsletter. The Committee may wish to encourage others to contribute as well. It would be helpful if concise inputs were sent for direct inclusion into the Newsletter. It is planned that the future Internet home page of the Statistics Division will include the recent issues of the Newsletter, along with the documents of the Committee on Statistics and recent technical meetings.

B. ESCAP Statistical Information System (ESIS)

11. At its ninth session, the Committee was informed of the progress that had been made towards setting up an ESCAP-wide statistical database, utilizing client-server architecture, to provide on-line access to data within the secretariat and subsequently for outside users. Under phase II of the development of the ESCAP Statistical Information System (ESIS), the detailed design, development and implementation of the core system was carried out by the selected developer. The developer started work on this second phase in August 1994.

12. During the past two years the development work on ESIS has progressed as follows:

• a prototype of the user interface was reviewed by the secretariat in December 1994
• detailed technical specifications of the core ESIS and the Inventory of Databases were completed by March 1995
• test data were uploaded in June-July 1995
• the core ESIS and the Inventory of Databases were installed at the secretariat in September 1995
• initial user training and testing of the system by users was organized by the developer in September 1995
• the conversion programs for selected external data sets were completed and they were installed and tested at the secretariat in January-March 1996; subsequently, some data were uploaded with each program

13. It is unfortunate that, in spite of the success of the technical development, which was completed within budget and only slightly behind the original time schedule, ESIS is still not usable for the production of publications. As described in the initial requirements analysis and master design document in 1993, the successful running of the system requires a full-time professional statistical database administrator to supervise and coordinate the training, data upload and user support, and to ensure the security and integrity of the data. All efforts to obtain an additional post for recruiting a database administrator were unsuccessful. To make matters worse, during most of 1995-1996, two of the three Professional posts in the Statistical Information Services Section remained vacant. The absence of a full-time database administrator has not only delayed the operationalization of the core ESIS, but has also made the future improvement of the system and the introduction of new statistical products uncertain. In view of the importance placed on ESIS by the Committee at its ninth session, as well as the interest shown by the Commission, the Committee may wish to discuss the need to allocate adequate personnel and financial resources on a priority basis for the full and early operationalization of ESIS and make appropriate recommendations to the Commission and to donors.

14. At United Nations Headquarters, development of the United Nations Economic and Social Information System (UNESIS) has started with projects on the national accounts data collection and processing system and database, the review of estimation methods for national accounts data, the development of a standard data structure for UNESIS, and the update of the country code register. The ESCAP secretariat has provided Headquarters with the technical documentation related to ESIS; it is also sharing its experiences in developing ESIS with the UNESIS team.

II. STATISTICAL DEVELOPMENT

15. One major focus of the Statistics subprogramme is to assist in improving national statistical capabilities to produce the data required by planners and users in the public and private sectors. To assist countries in statistical development, the secretariat has been providing technical assistance through such modalities as advisory services, technical and expert group meetings, and training courses and workshops. These and other activities promote the exchange of technical information and country experiences, contribute to skills development, facilitate the evolution of regional norms and standards, and help to incorporate regional concerns into global standards. These activities also contribute to the promotion of international statistical standards. Collaboration and liaison with international and national statistical agencies are other important elements in the statistical development activities of the secretariat, enhancing the effectiveness and coordination of technical assistance to the countries. The secretariat is grateful to donors who have provided financial and other support to the Statistics subprogramme; without that support it would not have been possible to implement operational activities in statistics.

16. The ESCAP advisers in the field of population statistics, attached to the United Nations Population Fund's country support teams located in Bangkok, Kathmandu and Suva, continued to provide advisory services, mainly by backstopping the country projects. However, in 1995-1996, the regional advisory services rendered directly from the secretariat remained mainly in the field of national accounts; these services are funded from the United Nations regular programme of technical cooperation. Limitations to this regular budget component owing to the financial crisis of the United Nations and the unavailability of extrabudgetary support made it difficult to provide dedicated advisory assistance in other fields of statistics. However, advisory and other technical missions were undertaken in connection with ESCAP-implemented projects on gender statistics, the International Comparison Programme (ICP) and environment statistics.

17. In 1995-1996, five technical meetings were organized under the multi-year projects in the fields of gender statistics, environment statistics, environmental accounting and ICP. An expert group meeting on public-sector computerization and a seminar on statistics on trade in services were also held. In addition, the secretariat provided support to the second round of national workshops on the improvement of statistics on gender issues held in India, Pakistan and the Philippines, as well as to the statistical meetings convened at the NGO Forum on Women, organized prior to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The programme of technical meetings showed a marked slowing of activity compared with the previous two bienniums, reflecting different project design among other factors.

18. A number of technical publications were produced as part of multi-year and other projects in statistics implemented by the Statistics Division:

• Women of Bangladesh: A Country Profile
• Women of Nepal: A Country Profile
• Women in the Philippines: A Country Profile
• Women in Thailand: A Country Profile

Computerization Development in the Public Sector: Proceedings of an Expert Group Meeting

The printing of the Operational Handbook on Environmental Statistics was delayed for further review and clearance of the manuscript.

19. Collaboration with SIAP continued to be actively pursued, through support on substantive and other matters, and in implementing Commission resolutions 50/5 of 13 April 1994 (on the status of SIAP) and 51/1 of 1 May 1995 (on the statute of the Institute). Coordination with regional and international statistical agencies was actively maintained in 1995-1996 in such areas as the 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA), ICP, statistics related to trade in services, gender issues, environment statistics and environmental accounting, statistical training, and statistical development in the Pacific subregion. A close working relationship has been maintained with the United Nations Statistics Division on technical and promotional matters. The secretariat was represented at a number of meetings organized by other agencies, including the sessions, held in 1995-1996, of the United Nations Statistical Commission, the Subcommittee on Statistical Activities of the Administrative Committee on Coordination, the Regional Conference of Statisticians of the South Pacific Commission, and the International Statistical Institute. However, owing to restrictions in utilization of the travel budget, the capacity of the secretariat to implement its coordinational and liaison functions declined compared with previous years. A list of meetings that the secretariat attended is presented in the annex to the present note.

A. Regional advisory and expert services

20. Table 1 provides information on the delivery of advisory services and expert consultations by country or area between January 1995 and June 1996. During that period, the Regional Adviser on National Accounts responded to requests for setting up systems, training of staff and review of methodology for implementing the 1993 SNA. A significant amount of time was spent on lectures and preparation of training material to introduce the revised SNA and to explain specific issues on compiling national accounts. Assistance was also provided on the preparation of national project proposals, the development of aggregate measures at the provincial level and the treatment of value-added tax.

21. In the area of population statistics, a total of 39 missions were undertaken by the two advisers on population statistics and the adviser on population data processing/database management. More than half of these missions concerned various aspects of population and housing censuses, including planning, preparation, implementation, evaluation and analysis. The other missions focused on assisting countries with data processing, editing and use of software packages for survey data processing and analysis, development of data processing procedures for health management information systems, and on training. About one third of the missions involved the development of project proposals, reviews of the population and development sector, and assistance to national seminars on population and development.

22. The delivery of advisory and technical consultation missions by broad area of technical assistance is given in table 2, covering the period from 1989 to 1996. The delivery of these outputs is directly linked to the availability of expertise. For the established advisory services, in the fields of national accounts, population statistics and population data processing, the number of missions seems to have stabilized at current levels. As mentioned earlier, missions in other areas undertaken in 1995-1996 were mostly in connection with ongoing projects on ICP, gender statistics and environment statistics. Owing to the freeze on the use of regular budget consultancy funds, a number of requests for advisory services in other areas could not be met.

Table 1. Advisory missions and technical consultations by country or area, January 1995-June 1996

a January 1995-June 1996.

B. Technical meetings and other group activities

23. Since the ninth session of the Committee on Statistics, the secretariat has organized the following group activities in statistics:

Technical meeting	Date and venue
1. Seminar on Environment Statistics	23-27 January 1995, Jakarta
2. Second Regional Workshop for Core Members of National Working Groups on Gender Statistics	13-17 February 1995, Bangkok
3. Workshop on the Review of 1993 International Comparison Programme Data	16-20 October 1995, Bangkok
4. Seminar on Statistics on Trade in Services	6-10 November 1995, Bangkok
5. Expert Group Meeting to Review Computerization Development in the Public Sector	12-15 December 1995, Bangkok
6. Meeting of the Bureau of the Committee on Statistics	29 January 1996, Bangkok
7. Working Group of Statistical Experts, ninth session	30 January-2 February 1996, Bangkok
8. Expert Group Meeting on Environmental and Resource Accounting	20-23 February 1996, Bangkok
9. Seminar on Environmental and Resource Accounting	27-31 May 1996, Seoul

The secretariat also provided administrative and other support in the organization of the workshops and courses of SIAP, as follows:

Training courses	Date and venue
1. First group training course in automatic data processing for trainers, 1995	15 May-14 July 1995, Tokyo
2. Fifth special group training course in analysis and interpretation of statistics	24 July-22 September 1995, Tokyo
3. Sixth group training course in practical statistics	5 October 1995-27 March 1996, Tokyo

III. RESOURCE SITUATION

24. The allocation of established regular budget posts for the Statistics subprogramme has remained unchanged since the ninth session of the Committee:

category	1994-1995	1996-1997
Professional
D-1	1	1
P-5	1	1
P-4	1	1
P-3	3	3
P-2/P-1	2	2
Total	8	8
General Service	15	15
Grand total	23	23

When extrabudgetary staff are taken into account, the Professional and General Service resources within the Statistics Division are organized as follows:

Office/Section	Resources as of August 1996
	Professional		General Service
	RB	XB	RB	XB
Office of the Chief	1	-	3	-
Statistics Development	3	4a	2	3.5
Statistical Information Services	1	-	8	-
Government Computerization	1	-	-	0.5
Subtotal	6	4	13	4
Vacancies	2	-	2	-
Total	8	4	15	4

^a Countrysupport team advisers and Regional Adviser on National Accounts.

25. In monetary terms, the extrabudgetary funding allocations for 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996 are detailed below (in United States dollars):

	1993	1994	1995	1996 (Estimated)
Bilateral sources	530,000	792,700	601,500	607,000
Asian Development Bank	-	100,000	-	-
United Nations Population Fund	199,300	471,900	421,500	502,000
United Nations Development Fund for Women/Swedish International Development Authority	51,400	272,400	202,500	133,000
Other sources	2,000	2,000	2,000	-
Total	782,700	1,639,000	1,227,500	1,242,000

26. In 1995-1996, the personnel resource situation in the Statistics Division worsened. Owing to the current freeze on recruitment in the United Nations, two regular budget Professional positions which have become vacant since the last Committee session have remained unfilled, resulting in a 25 per cent vacancy ratio compared to 16 per cent for ESCAP as a whole. The vacancies are in the statistical information services area, as can be seen from the dramatic fall in work-months in 1996 in this field (table 4). So far, information services output in quantitative terms has been sustained through additional efforts from staff in other areas and a greater reliance on support personnel. However, there has been an unavoidable adverse effect on statistics development work, exacerbated by the assignment of the Division Director to other tasks for a substantial part of 1996. The extrabudgetary resource base in human terms has also shrunk somewhat. The Regional Adviser on National Accounts is expected to be available throughout the biennium, as are three UNFPA-funded regional advisers with the UNFPA subregional country support teams. The expert on price statistics on a non-reimbursable loan basis was recalled in January 1996 and an early replacement is not foreseen. Another non-reimbursable loan expert, on computerized information systems, separated from the Organization in June 1996.

Resource utilization

27. For the sake of simplicity, information on resource utilization is presented in terms of Professional staff resources. Some resource utilization data for the first half of 1996 are shown in table 3 in the current work programme format. However, time-use data are not available in that format for prior years. Table 4 provides time series data by broad functions for regular budget and extrabudgetary Professional work-months combined. Given the nature of information and changes in the work programme reporting format, these time-use data should be treated with caution. In addition, the figures in tables 3 and 4 are not entirely comparable as the latter treat "general supporting activities" as a separate item.

28. Over the years, the largest proportion of resources under statistics has been devoted to advisory services, reaching as much as one third of all resources in 1996. The second biggest resource-consuming group of activities is technical and expert meetings, which reached a very high level of 31 per cent in 1994, but has been tapering off since in terms of its demand for resources. This is a reflection of a recent trend in the Statistics subprogramme where meetings are combined with follow-up activities at the country level and a greater technical involvement of the secretariat staff in national activities. The resources devoted to meetings are mainly influenced by the availability of extrabudgetary funds and the nature of the projects. The personnel resources that are devoted to technical meetings mostly come from regular budget sources; the extrabudgetary sources usually provide funding for developing country participants and the services of consultants.

29. In the area of statistical information, the resources devoted in 1996 to regular statistical publications show the dramatic effect of the vacancy situation. In the period 1994-1996 attempts were made to provide a higher level of resources to database development. While about one tenth of the personnel resources were made available for this important undertaking in 1994 and 1995, it was not possible to sustain that level in 1996, owing to vacancies and commitments in other areas of work. Even those resources committed were seriously inadequate for the development of ESIS, which has also consumed a considerable amount of financial resources. The resource utilization information reported in this document by no means reflects the full extent of the staff effort expended on ESIS, without which it would not have been possible to adhere almost exactly to the development schedule.

30. The other main item in terms of resource consumption is the Committee on Statistics, which is convened biennially. In even-numbered years around 10 per cent of the personnel resources of the Statistics Division are devoted to this important activity, to which other divisions in the secretariat also contribute. The residual item of general supporting activities requires about 15 per cent of resources. A major element in this category arises from the thematic orientation of the work programme of ESCAP, with its requirements for enhanced interdivisional cooperation and coordination.

Table 3. Utilization of Professional work-month resources by main work programme categories, January-June 1996

Particulars	RB work-months	XB work-months*
A. Output activities:	29.75	30.00
1. International cooperation	0.25	0.50
2. Parliamentary services	4.75	0.50
3. Published materials	7.50	3.25
4. Technical materials and services	2.50	2.75
5. Advisory services	2.00	19.00
6. Group training, seminars, workshops	8.25	3.50
7. Coordination, harmonization, liaison	4.50	-
B. Leave, vacancies and other assignments:
1. Vacancies	11.25	-
2. Leave	3.25	1.50
3. Other assignments	3.75	-
Total	48.00	31.50

^* Includeswork-months for the Regional Adviser on National Accounts.

Table 4. Professional work-months utilized by broad function of output activities (RB + XB w/m)

	1994		1995		199a
	Work-months	Percentage	Work-months	Percentage	Work-months	Percentage
Advisory and similar missions (including planning, support, report writing)	43.75	31.2	37.25	23.6	19.75	33.1
Collection and dissemination of information:
Statistical publications	11.75	8.4	25.25	16.0	1.50	2.5
Database development	10.00	7.1	16.25	10.3	3.25	5.4
Methodological publications	2.00	1.4