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SUMMARY
This document relates
to the activities of the Statistical Institute
for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) in the
period since the tenth session of the
Committee on Statistics. Chapter
I highlights the main activities during
the period November 1996 to October 1998.
It gives information on the contents of
the Tokyo-based courses, the focus of
activities under the outreach programme
and details of other training programmes.
Chapter II is the
most substantive part of the report and
discusses the strategic shift in the approach
to statistical training by the Institute.
The Committee's attention is drawn to
several important issues. First,
new subject areas have been introduced
into the curriculum of the regular courses
of the Institute. Second, SIAP's outreach
programme has expanded significantly through
cost-effectiveness in the utilization
of the institutional budget. Third,
the cost-effectiveness is enhanced by
introducing participation of neighbouring
countries in activities at the country
level. Fourth, there has been a
perceptible increase in the use of regional
expertise through collaboration in the
conduct of training, both in the Tokyo-based
courses and in the outreach programme.
Fifth, SIAP is catering to differential
training requirements by introducing a
judicial choice of activities on specialized
topics in statistics in its outreach programme.
Furthermore, the main elements of the
new SIAP/UNDP project to provide training
on statistics for the national human development
reports are indicated.
Chapter III elaborates
on the collaboration arrangements of SIAP
in conducting its courses, particularly
with the national statistical offices.
Lastly, chapter IV is devoted to a review
of institutional matters. The Committee
is informed about the contributions of
members and associate members of ESCAP
to SIAP, the policy on training activities
funded by the institutional budget, and
partnerships with the national statistical
offices.
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Introduction
1. The present document is
the report on the Statistical Institute for
Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) for the two-year
period spanning the tenth and eleventh sessions
of the Committee on Statistics. The Committee
on Statistics is requested to deliberate upon
the major issues contained in the report.
The Committee may wish to provide guidance and
advice on those aspects that it considers relevant
and important in the implementation of the SIAP
work programme.
I. SIAP
WORK PROGRAMME SINCE THE TENTH SESSION OF THE
COMMITTEE ON STATISTICS
2. A brief overview is given
of the activities of SIAP since the last session
of the Committee on Statistics, held in November
1996. The Institute's activities have
been categorized into three types, namely, Tokyo-based
courses, outreach programme, and other programmes.
3. During the period from
November 1996 to October 1998, several SIAP
training programmes were completed and these
are indicated below.
A.SIIAP courses in Tokyo
4. The following courses,
which absorbed the major share of the resources
of SIAP, were conducted in Tokyo and, unless
otherwise stated, fellowships were offered by
the Government of Japan through the Japan International
Cooperation Agency:
- The seventh and eighth group
training courses in practical statistics were
completed on 21 March 1997 and 20 March 1998
respectively. The courses, each of approximately
six months duration, covered a broad range
of topics targeted at official statisticians
with about five years' work experience.
The course curriculum consisted of methodological
aspects of statistics such as data collection
methods, summarization and presentation of
data, and interpretation, analysis and dissemination
of statistics, as well as subject areas such
as demography and social statistics, the 1993
System of National Accounts, economic statistics
and applied analysis, survey methodology,
and use of computers for statistical purposes;
- The first and second group
training courses in analysis and interpretation
of statistics were completed on 19 September
1997 and 18 September 1998 respectively.
These courses were each of about two months
duration, and participants were middle-level
statisticians from the national statistical
offices. The course aims at assisting
countries in strengthening their statistical
capabilities in regard to analysis and interpretation
of statistics in a specific field, including
report writing and presentation techniques.
A core topic is designated for each year:
population and demography, and macroeconomic
statistics were chosen for 1997 and 1998 respectively.
Four of the participants from Viet Nam for
the 1998 course were funded by the country
office of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) in Viet Nam;
- The third and fourth group
training courses in automatic data processing
for trainers were completed on 11 July 1997
and 12 July 1998 respectively. The course,
also of about two months duration, was designed
for practising statisticians who have some
background in computing and are likely to
become trainers or involved in the training
of others in the use of computer software
packages for data processing and statistical
computing. The course aims at increasing
the knowledge of participants in statistical
software packages as well as developing their
training skills in terms of presentation and
producing course plans that they can use upon
return to their respective countries.
A notable feature introduced in the curriculum
in 1998 was training in the use of the integrated
microcomputer processing system (IMPS), and
the objective behind this is explained in
greater detail in chapter II;
- The third course/workshop
on sample design for household and establishment
surveys was completed on 22 August 1997.
The course, funded by the institutional budget
of SIAP, was of two months duration, and the
objective was to enhance national capabilities
and expertise in survey sampling, particularly
in sample designs and their evaluation with
a view to improving them. It also caters
to the need for sample survey statisticians
to keep abreast of the more recent developments
in sampling techniques which have a bearing
upon their work.
B. Outreach programme
5. The outreach programme
of training by SIAP depends on the availability
of funds. Until the end of 1997, it was
mainly funded by UNDP, with the collaboration
of international organizations and government
agencies of the countries concerned. In
the period under consideration, the following
activities were implemented:
- A training mission to Phnom
Penh to assist the National Institute of Statistics,
Cambodia, to design and train statisticians
in sample selection for the Cambodia socio-economic
survey 1997 under the sponsorship of UNDP
(March 1997);
- A training mission to Bandar
Seri Bagawan, Brunei Darussalam, to assist
and train statisticians in developing a sample
design for the Household Income and Expenditure
Survey 1997 as well as to provide training
on the procedures and the main concepts of
the Survey and the methodology of the construction
of the consumer price index and price collection
procedures (April 1997);
- A country course in sample
design for household and establishment surveys
conducted at the Xi'an Institute of Statistics
with the collaboration of the State Statistical
Bureau of China (May 1997). The course
curriculum included special sessions on the
development of the survey framework for household
economic activities which embraces the informal
sector; (d) A country course on basic statistics
conducted in Male, Maldives, with the collaboration
of the Ministry of Planning, Human Resources
and Environment, for officials who had relatively
little experience in statistical work (September
1997). The course focused on the teaching
of basic statistical measures as well as the
procedures in the collection and compilation
of statistical data;
- A subregional course in
sample design for household and establishment
surveys for the Pacific island countries conducted
in Suva in collaboration with the Bureau of
Statistics, Fiji (November 1997). The
course focused on the sample design and techniques
that are suited to the special characteristics
of the Pacific island countries;
- A training course in sample
design for household and establishment surveys
for countries with economies in transition,
conducted in Bangkok in collaboration with
the National Statistical Office, Thailand
(December 1997). The course focused
on sample design and techniques that are well
suited to countries with economies in transition,
but which have not been applied under the
collectivized economy;
- A follow-up training mission
to Bandar Seri Bagawan, Brunei Darussalam,
in December 1997, to review the progress of
the Household Expenditure Survey 1997/98 and
to evaluate the sample selection plan and
discuss other technical matters on the survey;
- A training course on review
and presentation of different measurements
of poverty with specific reference to the
South-East Asian (or ASEAN) region, in Vientiane
(March/April 1998), in collaboration with
UNDP. Neighbouring countries with similar
conditions to those in the Lao People's Democratic
Republic participated with their travel funded
under ESCAP technical cooperation among developing
countries funds, and the course focused on
the estimation of poverty in the least developed
countries and economies in transition;
- A training course in survey
sampling methods and applications for Cambodia,
in Phnom Penh (June 1998), in collaboration
with the World Bank under the sponsorship
of UNDP. The course focused on sampling
methods and their application in developing
countries with limited resources such as Cambodia.
C. Other programmes
p 6. The fourth course/workshop
on sample design for household and establishment
surveys was conducted at Macau in collaboration
with the Census and Statistics Department of
Macau. The course, completed on 22 May
1998, was of four weeks duration and is included
in the work programme as one of the main courses
of SIAP. The course is conducted annually
and, for reasons of cost-effectiveness in the
utilization of the institutional budget of SIAP,
has been shifted to a lower cost venue from
1998 onwards.
7. The Institute also facilitated
special training programmes in Tokyo at the
request of member countries. The following
programmes were organized:
- An individual training programme
in national accounts for an official from
the Census and Statistics Department of Macau
(completed in December 1996);
- Three one-month country-focused
group training courses in practical statistics
for officials of Cambodia (November 1996 and
June/July 1997 and 1998);
- One six-week special training
programme in national accounts for officials
of Viet Nam under the sponsorship of the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), completed in May 1997.
8. SIAP, in collaboration
with the Statistics Division of ESCAP, organized
a two-day workshop on the year 2000 (Y2K) problem
in computers and strategic issues for national
statistical offices in Bangkok in June 1998
utilizing its institutional funds. The
Committee may note that the workshop was organized
pursuant to the recommendations of the tenth
session of the Working Group of Statistical
Experts. In view of the importance of
the subject, the papers and proceedings of the
workshop are being published and will be disseminated.
9. A list of SIAP courses
completed during the period November 1996 to
October 1998, including the number of participants
in SIAP training programmes during this period,
is given in the annex to the present report.
II. STRATEGIC
ISSUES IN THE SIAP WORK PROGRAMME
10. The two-year period since
the tenth session of the Committee has witnessed
a strategic shift in the approach to statistical
training by the Institute. Several elements
of the new initiatives being implemented by
SIAP should be brought to the attention of the
Committee. First, given the several emerging
areas of importance in official statistics,
the training programme had to be expanded in
order that the Institute's efforts remained
relevant to the requirements of national statistical
offices. In order to induce cost-effectiveness
in the utilization of funds to incorporate additional
activities, the option was to organize courses
in lower cost venues than in Japan, and this
is being practised. Second, resources
available to SIAP had to be increased, and this
has been achieved by making the national statistical
offices contribute indirectly to the Institute
through their collaboration with SIAP in the
conduct of courses for a number of countries.
This approach makes use of the existing training
facilities at the national statistical offices
and has the added advantage of exposing the
participants to the statistical systems of other
countries. Third, by enriching the subject
matter of the course by introducing new topics,
regional expertise is preferred whenever external
assistance is required for providing instruction
to participants in specific topics. In
this regard, it is also important to note that
each course curriculum is moulded to make it
relevant to the needs of the participating group
of countries; therefore, outside of the regular
regional courses, to the extent possible, homogeneity
is an important consideration in selecting the
participating countries. Fourth, in order
to disperse more widely the benefit of the Institute's
efforts in a cost-effective manner, neighbouring
countries are invited to participate in country
courses wherever feasible.
11. In regard to strategic
issues in the SIAP work programme, it is important
to note that the new initiatives still accord
priority attention to the specific needs of
the least developed and landlocked countries,
the Pacific island developing countries and
the disadvantaged economies in transition.
In addition, the attention of the Committee
is drawn to three major outcomes of the above
new initiatives that are now readily discernible
from the implementation of the Institute's work
during the second half of the reference period
of this report.
12. First, while pursuing
vigorously its main business of providing training
of national statistical personnel with a view
to capability-building for developing and maintaining
a system of regular, reliable and timely statistics
and indicators, SIAP has gradually restructured
its Tokyo-based courses with emphasis on flexibility
to respond to the changing demands and needs
of the region. While changing demands
have been mainly on account of global developments
in statistical methodology and emerging areas
of importance for data collection and dissemination,
SIAP is aware that the needs of the region's
developing economies are also changing rapidly
as a result of the development process within
their respective economies. Consequently,
several new subject areas that have surfaced
in recent years and require more focused attention
by the Institute are being gradually incorporated
into its courses.
13. Second, in regard to
its outreach programmes, complementarity with
the Tokyo-based courses is being forged in terms
of organizing short-duration focused activities
on specialized and emerging topics in statistics
for specific groups of countries for whom such
training is relevant and useful. Thus,
a workshop on the year 2000 problem in computers
was organized in June 1998, and a week-long
training course on the system of economic accounts
for agriculture is programmed for November-December
1998. In the next two-year period until
the twelfth session of the Committee, SIAP expects
to expand its statistical training activities
into a much wider range of subjects. For
this component of its work programme, SIAP has
established and will continue to seek collaborative
and partnership arrangements with relevant international
organizations/agencies and the national statistical
offices for implementation.
14. Lastly, given the mandate
by the Governing Board, the Director of SIAP
held consultative sessions with the Government
of Japan and several national statistical offices
of member and associate member countries of
ESCAP, as well as with UNDP and other relevant
organizations. While discussions with
donor agencies were targeted at the extension
of collaborative arrangements, those with national
statistical offices focused on cooperation possibilities
and views on the content and structure of SIAP
training courses in order that these should
meet the training needs of the participants
accurately. The consultations resulted
in positive outcomes, both in identifying areas
of potential collaboration and in providing
suggestions on the restructuring of courses.
15. The specific details
of the new elements in SIAP's training programmes
are provided below.
A. Tokyo-based
courses
16. With regard to the Tokyo-based
courses, major modifications to the curricula
of two of the courses, namely, the six-month
course in practical statistics and the two-month
course in analysis and interpretation of statistics,
were made. These changes are within the
framework of the programme of work (1995-2000)
laid down by the Governing Board at its first
session in March 1996. The curriculum
of the two-month course in automatic data processing
for trainers was also revised to devote special
attention to a specific topic of interest to
the national statistical offices.
17. In the six-month eighth
group training course in practical statistics,
the curriculum was streamlined and new topics,
including those suggested by the Committee on
Statistics and those that had been raised at
the recent rounds of global summit conferences
were incorporated. These included statistics
on the environment, the informal sector, gender
issues, disability, income distribution and
poverty, and short-term economic indicators.
The course participants were also required to
attend all the sessions on the topics covered
in the curriculum. This differed from
the approach in the previous courses where participants
needed only to attend sessions on topics chosen
for a field of specialization in the second
semester. The rationale underlying this
move is that the course is designed for relatively
new statisticians and they should be exposed
to a wide range of official statistics.
Furthermore, the course content of each topic
is now more focused as a result of rationalization
and restructuring of the course curriculum.
In addition, several topics included in the
past which are not very useful for government
statisticians have been omitted. In this
course, several United Nations bodies and agencies,
national governments and international organizations,
namely, the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO), the International
Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the National
Statistical Office of New Zealand, cooperated
by kindly providing specialists and experienced
staff to conduct lectures in Tokyo.
18. In the two-month group
training course in analysis and interpretation
of statistics, the course structure was changed
so that a particular subject or topic is dealt
with in each year. For the first course,
held in 1997, the topic chosen was population
and demography, while that for the second course,
organized in 1998, was macrostatistics.
There are several advantages in adopting this
approach. The composition of the course
participants becomes more homogenous as they
have similar working experience and academic
background. This greatly helps the faculty
members in the delivery of their lectures.
Furthermore, the subject matter can be dealt
with in a more comprehensive manner and in greater
depth. For the 1997 course, the East-West
Center, Hawaii, and the Population Division
of ESCAP provided resource persons to conduct
lectures on selected topics; in 1998, the resource
support was totally in-house.
19. The restructuring of
the Tokyo-based courses is also reflected in
the curriculum of the two-month group training
course in automatic data processing for trainers
which has been revamped to provide the participants
with more focused training. In the current
year, given that the year 2000 round of census
operations will be a very important undertaking
for the national statistical offices, the course
included a three-week module on training in
the use of IMPS provided by an expert on the
software and with the collaboration of the United
States Bureau of the Census. The participants,
mainly from national statistical offices, have
almost unanimously evaluated the training received
in IMPS as useful for their work, and for the
next few years SIAP will accordingly endeavour
to include IMPS as a regular component in this
course.
B. United Nations Development
Programme
20. UNDP has been the main
supporter of the SIAP outreach programme.
Earlier this year UNDP approved the SIAP proposal
on establishing and strengthening national capability
in data collection/compilation and statistical
analysis required in the preparation of national
human development reports for member countries
of ESCAP with an initial budget of US$ 596,750
for a three-year period beginning in 1998 under
the UNDP ICP-VI funding cycle. UNDP also
agreed to review this unique project for additional
funding once the activities are under way.
21. The project seeks to
enhance national capabilities in collection,
compilation and interpretation of reliable statistical
data underlying preparation of the national
human development reports of developing countries
of the region. The project will secure
the involvement of national institutions in
the capability-building exercise, and accord
special emphasis on the utilization of regional
expertise. Standardization of statistical
information to enable inter-country comparisons
will also be focused upon. The project
will build upon the work already carried out
by SIAP on human development indicators, and
will be implemented through a mix of training
activities at the national, subregional and
regional levels.
22. By the end of 1998, SIAP
expects to complete preparation of the training
materials, and the series of country courses
and annual subregional workshops will commence
next year. An updated report on the implementation
of this SIAP/UNDP project on statistics for
national human development reports will be provided
for the Committee at its next session.
C. Courses on sample
design for household and establishment surveys
1. Annual SIAP course
23. Following the endorsement
by the Governing Board at its third session,
and as mentioned earlier in chapter I, the fourth
course/workshop on sample design for household
and establishment surveys was conducted outside
Tokyo with the collaboration of the Census and
Statistics Department of Macau from 27 April
to 22 May 1998. The course/workshop resulted
in greater cost-effectiveness and a larger number
of participants. It was shorter than the
previous courses, but the course content was
not sacrificed; in fact, the number of lecture
sessions on sampling per se increased as lectures
on other topics which were normally a part of
the Tokyo-based courses were excluded.
Moreover, case studies and class exercises were
introduced in place of project work, and the
study trip was replaced by visits sponsored
by government agencies to places of interest
in Macau.
2. Outreach
programme
24. It is an established
fact that sample surveys of households and establishments
are successfully used to collect a wide range
of data, and national statistical offices in
the developing countries of the region have
become increasingly dependent on sample surveys
for the collection of statistics for compiling
and constructing social and economic indicators.
Moreover, as greater importance is assigned
to the timeliness and reliability of socio-economic
data, more frequent surveys have to be undertaken.
As such, sample design plays a critical role
in the conduct of household and establishment
surveys. Recognizing the importance of
the subject, and to enhance the capability of
national statisticians to undertake sample surveys,
SIAP conducted two training courses on this
topic in 1997, one targeted for the Pacific
island countries and the other for countries
with economies in transition, in addition to
the annual two-month course conducted in Tokyo.
Each course focused on sample design and techniques
that are suited and relevant to the specific
group of participating countries.
25. These two courses represented
successful attempts by SIAP at collaborating
with national statistical offices in jointly
conducting courses on a subject of relevance
to a group of countries. The strategy
also resulted in increased participation.
The course for Pacific island countries was
organized in collaboration with the Bureau of
Statistics of Fiji at Suva and had 25 participants
from nine countries. The course for countries
with economies in transition was held at Bangkok
in collaboration with the National Statistical
Office of Thailand and 25 participants from
seven countries attended.
D. Other developments
26. SIAP has developed a
Homepage on the Web with assistance provided
by the host Government of Japan. The address
of the SIAP Homepage is http://www.teleserve.co.jp/siap/
and it has been operational since 21 May 1997.
The contents of the Homepage include information
on the history of SIAP, courses and programmes,
procedures for applying for training courses,
members of the Governing Board, staff and training
facilities.
27. The General Information
Bulletin on SIAP, 1997 and SIAP Newsletter No.
33 (March 1998) were printed for distribution.
III. COLLABORATION
ARRANGEMENTS
A. Collaboration
with governments
28. In the reference period
of the report, SIAP has collaborated with:
- The Census and Statistics
Department of Macau in conducting the fourth
course/workshop on sample design for household
and establishment surveys from 27 April to
22 May 1998;
- The Bureau of Statistics
of Fiji in conducting the subregional course
in sample design for household and establishment
surveys for the Pacific island countries from
12 to 21 November 1997;
- The National Statistical
Office of Thailand in conducting the training
course in sample design for household and
establishment surveys for countries with economies
in transition from 15 to 24 December 1997.
B. Collaboration
with organizations and agenciesp
29. SIAP has also collaborated
with:
- The country office of UNDP
in the Lao People's Democratic Republic and
the Lao National Statistical Centre in conducting
the training course on review and presentation
of different measurements of poverty with
specific reference to the South-East Asian
(or ASEAN) region in Vientiane from 31 March
to 10 April 1998;
- The World Bank and country
office of UNDP in Cambodia in conducting the
training course in survey sampling methods
and applications for Cambodia in Phnom Penh
from 1 to 12 June 1998;
- The Statistics Division
of ESCAP in organizing the workshop on the
year 2000 (Y2K) problem in computers and strategic
issues for national statistical offices in
Bangkok on 18 and 19 June 1998;
- The country office of UNDP
in Viet Nam, by providing training for four
sponsored officials of Viet Nam under the
second training course in analysis and interpretation
of statistics, 1998;
- ADB in conducting a six-week
special training programme in national accounts
for sponsored officials of Viet Nam in 1997.
30. SIAP, with the collaboration of FAO and
the State Statistical Bureau of China, will
be organizing a workshop on system of economic
accounts for agriculture in Kunming, China,
from30 November to 4 December 1998.
31. Discussions have been
held with several international agencies and
national statistical offices with a view to
seeking funding, technical expertise and training
materials, as well as establishing collaborative
arrangements. The response has been very
positive and in some instances such collaborative
activities are likely to materialize in 1999.
As a specific example, the Australian Bureau
of Statistics has indicated that it will provide
assistance to SIAP by assigning staff on a short-term
basis to conduct courses on specialized subject
areas; on the subject of deseasonalization of
time-series data the Bureau has agreed to provide
resource support for a collaborative two-week
workshop, which is tentatively programmed for
implementation in 1999.
32. The Committee may wish
to note that, at the fifty-fourth session of
the Commission, several governments offered
to host SIAP-organized activities. In
this context, a specific likely outcome is the
organization of a training course on disability
statistics in collaboration with the Government
of India. Although the full details have
yet to be finalized, the activity has been tentatively
scheduled for implementation in 1999.
IV. INSTITUTIONAL
MATTERS
33. In view of the unique
status of SIAP as the only regional training
centre in statistics and, given its expanded
training programmes in emerging fields of importance
in statistics, the issue of ensuring an adequate
level of funding for the Institute's activities
is of critical importance. The problem
acquires greater urgency against the backdrop
of an increase in demand by the national statistical
offices of the ESCAP developing countries in
both the range of subjects and the number of
participants.
34. The Committee's attention
is accordingly drawn to the fact that difficulties
are being encountered by Government of Japan,
which generously continues to provide the bulk
of the overall cash contributions to SIAP, in
maintaining its contribution at the prevailing
level. Since any reduction in assistance
by the Government of Japan could have an adverse
impact on the SIAP programme and its activities,
the Committee may wish to urge the Government
of Japan to restrain, to the extent possible,
the implementation of its budget cut on the
Institute's allocation.
35. Currently, the ratio
of cash contributions of the Government of Japan
to the total of cash contributions is approximately
85 per cent, reflecting an imbalanced situation.
It is therefore necessary to increase the cash
contributions from other member and associate
member countries to enable the Institute to
operate on a stable financial basis.
36. The Committee is informed
that the Institute has received increases in
annual contributions from Brunei Darussalam,
India and the Philippines and that financial
support from the Islamic Republic of Iran has
resumed. In addition, Vanuatu began making
contributions annually to the Institute in 1997.
37. In spite of the increases
in contributions to the institutional budget
of SIAP, the need to increase the cash contributions
from other member and associate member countries
is still crucial in order to enable the Institute
to operate on a stable financial basis as well
as to undertake and implement new initiatives.
The Committee may wish to express appreciation
for the continued, and in some cases increased,
cash contributions from members and associate
members. The Committee may also wish to
urge those countries that have not been contributing
to the Institute to do so and also to those
countries not meeting the minimum amounts as
indicated in the Commission's guidelines to
increase their contributions, particularly if
they have been receiving assistance from SIAP
on a sustained basis.
38. The Committee's attention
is drawn to the Governing Board's recommendation
at its third session that courses organized
through SIAP institutional funds may be relocated
outside Tokyo to countries in which costs are
relatively lower. The Board agreed that
such increased cost-efficiency in the conduct
of courses could raise participation in SIAP
training programmes, and allow the possibility
of organizing a larger number of regional/subregional
courses and workshops, particularly in the emerging
areas of importance in statistics. As
the first step in implementing this recommendation,
SIAP collaborated with the Census and Statistics
Department of Macau to conduct its regular annual
course/workshop on sample design for household
and establishment surveys for 1998 in Macau
(see paras. 6 and 23 above).
39. Additional training courses/workshops
in new topics of contemporary interest were
planned by the Institute with the savings effected.
One such activity, the SIAP/ESCAP workshop on
the year 2000 (Y2K) problem in computers and
strategic issues for national statistical offices,
has already been implemented. Preparations
for another such activity, the SIAP/FAO workshop
on system of economic accounts for agriculture,
have been finalized and this will be conducted
shortly. Other activities that are in
an advanced stage of planning for implementation
in 1999 are in the areas of deseasonalization
of time-series data and disability statistics.
To facilitate the work of SIAP in seeking suitable
venues for its training activities, the Committee
may wish to urge member and associate member
countries of ESCAP to forge a partnership with
SIAP in the conduct of regional/subregional
training courses and workshops in which their
national statistical offices have a special
interest.
Acknowledgments
40. SIAP wishes to acknowledge
with deep appreciation the contributions of
the following:
- The host Government, Japan,
for its continuing and generous support, both
in cash and in kind, and for the provision
of fellowships for the courses in practical
statistics, analysis and interpretation of
statistics, and automatic data processing;
- The contributing member
and associate members in the region for their
continuing and in some cases increased cash
contributions, through which they have demonstrated
their interest in the Institute;
- Other agencies of the United
Nations and other international organizations,
particularly ESCAP, FAO, ILO, UNEP and the
World Bank for collaboration with SIAP in
the implementation of its training activities.
41. The Institute is deeply
grateful to UNDP for its continued programme
support to SIAP, and especially for its fresh
funding of SIAP/UNDP project RAS/97/065 under
its Sixth Intercountry Programme for the Asian
and Pacific region.
42. SIAP also thanks the
Management and Coordination Agency of the Government
of Japan, Statistics New Zealand, the United
States Bureau of the Census, and the East-West
Center in Hawaii for providing resource support
in specific subjects at SIAP training courses
through their experts.
Annex
LIST OF SIAP COURSES
COMPLETED SINCE THE TENTH SESSION OF COMMITTEE
ON STATISTICS
A. TOKYO-BASED COURSES
|
Course number
|
Duration
|
Number of participants
|
Number of participating countries
|
|
A. Group training
course in practical statistics
|
|
7
|
October 1996 to March 1997
|
33
|
31
|
|
8
|
October 1997 to March 1998
|
33
|
28
|
|
B. Group training course in automatic
data processing for trainers
|
|
3
|
May-July 1997
|
23
|
23
|
|
4
|
May-July 1998
|
20
|
20
|
|
C. Group training course in analysis
and interpretation of statistics
|
|
1
|
July-September 1997
|
12
|
12
|
|
2
|
July-September 1998
|
15
|
12
|
|
D. Course/workshop on sample
design for household and establishment
surveys
|
|
3
|
23 June-22 August 1997
|
21
|
20
|
|
E. Country-focused group training
course in practical statistics for Cambodia
|
|
1
|
5 to 29 November 1996
|
5
|
1
|
|
2
|
2 June to 4 July 1997
|
5
|
1
|
|
3
|
1 June to 3 July 1998
|
5
|
1
|
B. OUTREACH PROGRAMMES
|
Number
|
Topic
|
Duration
|
Number of participants
|
Country
|
|
A. Country course
|
|
1
|
Sample design for household
and establishment surveys |
12-23 May 1997 |
78
|
China
|
|
2
|
Basic statistics |
21-29 September 1997
|
28
|
Maldives
|
|
3
|
Survey sampling methods
and applications |
1-12 June 1998 |
18
|
Cambodia
|
|
B. Advanced/regional course/workshop
|
|
1
|
Sample design for household
and establishment surveys for the Pacific
island countries |
12-21 November 1997 |
20
|
Fiji
|
|
2
|
Sample design for household
and establishment surveys for countries
with economies in transition |
15-24 December 1997 |
25
|
Thailand
|
|
3
|
Review and presentation
of different measurements of poverty with
specific reference to the South-East Asian
(or ASEAN) region |
31 March to 10 April 1998 |
26
|
Lao People's
Democratic Republic
|
|
4
|
Sample design for household
and establishment surveys |
27 April to 22 May 1998 |
29
|
Macau
|
C. INDIVIDUAL TRAINING
PROGRAMME
|
Number
|
Topic
|
Duration
|
Number of participants
|
Participating country
|
|
1
|
National accounts |
24 September to 20 December
1996 |
1
|
Macau
|
|
2
|
National accounts |
27 March to 7 May 1997 |
4
|
Viet Nam
|
|
