| Working Group
of Statistical Experts, 11th session |
| Bangkok,
23-26 November 1999 |
|
|
STAT/WGSE.11/Rep
29 November 1999
ENGLISH ONLY
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND
THE PACIFIC
Working Group of Statistical Experts
Eleventh session
23-26 November 1999
Bangkok
|
| Report of
the Working Group of Statistical Experts on its
Eleventh Session |
| Contents
|
- Organization
of the meeting
- Overview
of significant global and regional issues
in official statistics
- Census
2000 and its implementation in Asia and the
Pacific
- Application
of new technology to population data
- Poverty
statistics
- Gender
statistics
- Development
indicators
- International
standard classifications: developments
and status of implementation
- Year
2000 problem: Preparedness of national statistical
offices
- Report
of the bureau including review of programme
matters and provisional agenda for the twelfth
Session of the committee on statistics
- Other
matters
- Adoption
of the report
Annex:
List of documents
|
|
I.
ORGANIZATION OF THE MEETING |
| 1. |
The eleventh session of the
Working Group of Statistical Experts, organized
by the secretariat of the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), was
held in Bangkok from 23 to 26 November 1999. |
|
|
| A. Attendance
|
| 2. |
The meeting was attended by
representatives of the following 23 members and
associate members of ESCAP: Australia; Brunei
Darussalam; Cambodia; China; Fiji; Hong Kong,
China; India; Indonesia; Iran (Islamic Republic
of); Japan; Macau; Malaysia; Micronesia (Federated
States of); Mongolia; New Zealand; Pakistan; Philippines;
Republic of Korea; Russian Federation; Singapore;
Sri Lanka; Thailand; and Viet Nam. |
| 3. |
The meeting was also attended
by representatives of the following United Nations
bodies and specialized agencies: United Nations
Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat); United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); International
Labour Organization; Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations; World Health Organization;
International Monetary Fund; and United Nations
Industrial Development Organization. Representatives
of the following intergovernmental organizations
also attended: Asian Development Bank; Economic
Cooperation Organization; and Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development. The Statistical
Institute for Asia and the Pacific was also represented. |
|
|
| B. Opening
of the meeting |
| 4. |
The meeting was opened by the
Executive Secretary of ESCAP, who expressed pleasure
at the strong participation of countries and agencies
at the meeting and at the close interest it denoted
in the statistical work of ESCAP. He noted the
increasing significance of the Working Group of
Statistical Experts and its influence on the deliberations
of the Committee on Statistics and of the ESCAP
Commission. He thanked the Bureau of the Committee
for their support of the secretariat's work. |
| 5. |
The Executive Secretary noted
that poverty statistics, the application of new
technology to population data, and the 2000 population
census round were important and urgent statistical
topics to be taken up by the Working Group. As
suggested by the Committee on Statistics, the
secretariat had been implementing a UNFPA-funded
project to accelerate the application of new technologies
in the production and dissemination of population
statistics. The Working Party set up to steer
the project had made a comprehensive set of recommendations
for the Working Group to consider. |
| 6. |
The economic crisis in many
countries of the region had highlighted the importance
of statistics on poverty alleviation, while the
Asian Development Bank (ADB) had adopted a new
overarching strategy to counter poverty. The Executive
Secretary invited the Working Group to consider
how ADB and ESCAP could best coordinate their
efforts in studying the various poverty measurement
issues involved and the means of tackling them.
The inclusion of gender statistics in the agenda
reflected the important role that national statistical
offices played in monitoring the achievements
to date in pursuing the objectives of the Beijing
Platform for Action. The development of indicators
and statistics was required to measure the achievement
of progress towards various global conference
goals; coordination of efforts in the creation
and collection of information was important to
avoid duplicative requests and share the data
collected. An agenda item on the development and
implementation status of international classifications
reflected a renaissance of interest in that field. |
| 7. |
The Executive Secretary invited
the Working Group to share information on the
preparedness status and contingency plans for
the Y2K problem. He also invited comments and
suggestions from the Working Group on programme
matters, which he noted had been reviewed by the
Bureau. In particular, the Working Group had the
responsibility of examining the 2002-2005 medium-term
plan of the secretariat's work in statistics.
He wished the participants a successful session. |
| 8. |
It was noted that the Bureau
of the Committee on Statistics would officiate
at the meeting of the Working Group. Accordingly,
Mr Paul Cheung (Singapore) served as chairperson;
Mr Tim Skinner (Australia), Mr Timoci Bainimarama
(Fiji), Mr Frederick W.H. Ho (Hong Kong, China),
and Mr K.V. Irniraya (India) as vice-chairpersons;
and Ms Ch. Davaasuren (Mongolia) as vice-chairperson
and rapporteur. |
| 9. |
The Working Group adopted the
following agenda: |
|
- Opening of the session.
- Adoption of the agenda.
- Overview of significant
global and regional issues in official statistics.
- Census 2000 and its
implementation in Asia and the Pacific.
- Application of new
technology to population data.
- Poverty statistics.
- Gender statistics.
- Development indicators.
- International standard
classifications - developments and status
of implementation.
- Year 2000 problem:
preparedness of national statistical offices.
- Report of the Bureau
including review of programme matters and
provisional agenda for the twelfth session
of the Committee on Statistics.
- Other matters.
- Adoption of the report.
|
| 10. |
On 26 November, the Working
Group held an open forum on the topic of Development
of Performance Indicators for National Statistical
Offices. |
| 11. |
The documentation presented
at the Working Group is listed in the Annex to
this report. |
|
| II.
OVERVIEW OF SIGNIFICANT GLOBAL AND REGIONAL ISSUES
IN OFFICIAL STATISTICS |
| 12. |
The Working Group discussed
the item on the basis of document STAT/WGSE.11/1,
which presented information from recent sessions
of, among other bodies, the United Nations Statistical
Commission, the ESCAP Commission and the Subcommittee
on Statistical Activities of the Administrative
Committee on Coordination. The discussion focused
on issues in official statistics which were not
covered by subsequent agenda items. The Working
Group also had before it document STAT/WGSE.11/1/Add.1,
which covered selected papers which had been presented
at the fifty-second session of the International
Statistical Institute. |
| 13. |
In discussing national accounts
and related topics, the Working Group was informed
of the work by the Canberra Group on Capital Stocks,
which was also reviewing capital services. The
recent meeting of the Canberra Group had reviewed
the forthcoming Manual on Capital Stocks, which
should be available around July 2000. The representative
of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) drew attention to the consultation
process involved in the revision of the Manual,
but recognized that participation by developing
countries was difficult due to scarce resources.
The Working Group welcomed the fact that the OECD
intended to step up its technical cooperation
activities in national accounts and related matters
in the region, in cooperation with ESCAP and ADB. |
| 14. |
The Working Group noted the
progress made and problems encountered by countries
of the region in implementing the 1993 System
of National Accounts (SNA). While acknowledging
that the responsibility for the actual compilation
of national accounts rested with the countries
themselves, it felt that ESCAP and the Statistical
Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) should
sustain national efforts through adequate provision
of technical cooperation, including in-depth training.
The effect of the growth of electronic commerce
on the practical compilation of the national accounts
was raised; first indications were that existing
statistical instruments might adequately capture
the phenomenon, and that electronic commerce would
have more impact on the balance of payments component
rather than the national accounts as a whole.
Noting that electronic commerce was not the main
subject of discussion in any of the existing global
statistical forums, the Working Group recommended
that such a group be created. |
| 15. |
Similarly, it was noted that
there was no existing mechanism to take stock
of the various types of SNA-related satellite
accounts that were being developed by countries.
The Working Group noted the usefulness of a clearing
house of information on what initiatives countries
were taking on the creation and development of
satellite accounts. It was suggested that the
OECD might play such a role. |
| 16. |
On statistics of services, the
Working Group was informed that the Voorburg Group
had met recently in New Zealand and that several
developing countries of the region had been represented.
The focus of future work of the Voorburg Group
would be on the pricing of services but it would
also continue to function as a forum for discussions
on general developments in the field of services
statistics. The Working Group welcomed the increasing
participation of Asia-Pacific countries in some
city groups, while noting that others remained
less accessible. |
| 17. |
With regard to the Expert Group
on Informal Sector Statistics (the Delhi Group),
the Working Group was informed of the current
and future areas of focus. The Working Group heard
from participating countries about both progress
and difficulties in the compilation of statistics
on the informal sector, the latter relating mainly
to definitional questions. |
| 18. |
The Working Group directed its
attention to the subject of data dissemination
standards, and in particular to the Special Data
Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and General Data
Dissemination System (GDDS) of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). The Working Group noted that
ESCAP had a role to play in providing assistance
in implementing the GDDS, thus concentrating on
countries still developing their statistical systems,
but noted that extrabudgetary resources for that
purpose would need to be sought. Monitoring, however,
would be better operated by the IMF itself. The
Working Group concurred with the concerns expressed
by the Statistical Commission and ESCAP Commission
that implementation of the SDDS in particular
might drain scarce statistical resources away
from national priority areas. |
| 19. |
The Working Group also noted
with great concern that the SDDS had been used
by the media for the ranking of countries utilizing,
among various criteria, their implementation of
such data dissemination standards. While recognizing
that such use as an international ranking mechanism
was not intended by the IMF or other United Nations
agencies, it felt that it might continue unless
national statistical offices took more active
steps to benchmark their own performance through
suitable indicators. |
| 20. |
The Working Group raised some
issues and concerns on the accuracy of statistical
data at country level as sometimes published by
some international agencies. The issue of discrepancies
between country data and data published by them
was highlighted. Although it was recognized that
those discrepancies might originate from the efforts
of international agencies to estimate or procure
the data from other sources rather than requesting
them directly from countries and hence increasing
the reporting burden, the importance of accurate
data was stressed. |
| 21. |
The Working Group also discussed
the electronic dissemination of statistical data.
The agencies represented informed the Working
Group about their practices with a particular
focus on pricing policies; several different approaches
to product pricing were noted. The Working Group
agreed on the high potential represented by electronic
dissemination of data and also noted how that
medium often stimulated the demand for statistical
data, including that in printed form. It was noted
that pricing policies adopted for printed publications
could not be satisfactorily applied directly to
electronic dissemination as different cost structures
often applied. The importance of access and adequate
connectivity to the Internet for developing countries
was also highlighted. |
|
| III.
CENSUS 2000 AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN ASIA AND
THE PACIFIC |
| 22. |
The Working Group considered
the agenda item on the basis of secretariat paper
STAT/WGSE.11/2 entitled "Census 2000 and its implementation
in Asia and the Pacific", and contributed papers
STAT/WGSE.11/3 by the Bureau of Statistics of
Fiji entitled "Model population and housing questionnaires
for the 2000 round of census in the Pacific",
and STAT/WGSE.11/4 by the Singapore Department
of Statistics entitled "Singapore's approach to
population census 2000". |
| 23. |
The Working Group noted that
a large number of countries/areas in the region
planned to undertake a population and housing
census in either 2000 or 2001. Several countries
conducted their censuses on a quinquennial basis;
the scope of those censuses varied according to
the census cycle and national data needs. The
Working Group noted that in some countries, including
those in Central Asia where the 2000 round of
censuses were the first after they had attained
independence, particular challenges were faced
owing to the process of transition to the market
economy and the deterioration of previous systems
of data collection. |
| 24. |
The Working Group was informed
that the United Nations publication Principles
and Recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses had been revised and circulated for
use during the 2000 round of censuses. It noted
with satisfaction that applications of new technology
to various steps of the conduct of population
census had been discussed extensively at the Workshop
on Application of New Information Technology to
Population Data, organized by the secretariat
in Bangkok from 12 to 20 October 1999. |
| 25. |
The Working Group expressed
its appreciation of external assistance, especially
that made available by UNFPA, which had played
a significant role during the earlier census decades
in the conduct of censuses in the least developed
and island developing countries. It noted with
regret, however, that such assistance was shrinking.
Several countries acknowledged with appreciation
the technical assistance provided by the advisers
located in the UNFPA Country Support Teams but
noted with great concern that UNFPA was contemplating
the elimination of the post of the ESCAP regional
adviser on population statistics situated in the
South Pacific team. In view of that emerging scenario,
the Working Group felt that technical cooperation
among the countries of the region assumed greater
importance. It urged the secretariat to give higher
priority, in its operational activities, to the
sharing of best practices and exchange of information
on methodological developments and statistical
development experiences. |
| 26. |
While external funding had assisted
in some crucial aspects, the Working Group noted
that governments in developing countries had borne
the bulk of census financing themselves. Thus
government's commitment and due recognition of
the resources required were essential for the
success of population and housing censuses. |
| 27. |
The Working Group welcomed the
model population and housing census questionnaires
for the 2000 round of censuses in the Pacific,
which was one of the outcomes of a UNFPA-funded
subregional workshop in 1997 and follow up meetings
held in 1998 and 1999 concerning the 2000 round
of censuses for the Pacific. It was informed of
experiences in some countries with multi-person/multi-page
census questionnaires, which required extra care
and effort at the data collection and data entry
stages. |
| 28. |
The Working Group heard with
interest about the adoption of a register-based
approach by Singapore for its 2000 population
census. It noted that with the existing conducive
legal environment and the high quality of administrative
data, Singapore would save more than half the
cost of a full-scale census by adopting the new
approach. The Working Group also noted that in
Singapore's 2000 census, a tri-modal data collection
strategy -- Internet enumeration, computer-assisted
telephone interviewing, and fieldwork -- would
be adopted for the 20 per cent sample enumeration. |
| 29. |
The Working Group recognized
the potential of administrative records and registers
for organizing population censuses and surveys.
However, they needed updating and further enhancements
to their statistical components before they could
be effectively utilized. Moreover, deficiencies
in the accuracy and completeness of their registration
systems deterred many developing countries from
adopting the register-based approach at present. |
| 30. |
For many countries in the region
the conventional face-to-face fieldwork interview
was still a common means of data collection. Consequently,
a large proportion of the census budget would
still be devoted to the fieldwork, especially
on hiring and training numerous temporary enumerators
and supervisors. At the data entry stage, while
such new technologies for data capture as optical
mark recognition/readers (OMR) and intelligent
character recognition (ICR) had been successfully
used in some censuses, some participants felt
that the high cost of those technologies proved
prohibitive in their circumstances. A number of
countries mentioned that they were planning to
use decentralized data processing utilizing key-to-disk
data entry. The Working Group noted that some
countries had devised a combination of technologies
for data capture. |
| 31. |
The Working Group took note
of the preparations for the forthcoming round
of censuses and various issues encountered by
countries. It observed that most countries had
been following an elaborate process of consultation
with various data users and stakeholders in designing
questionnaires, while in some cases feedback was
also sought on data dissemination. The Working
Group noted that many countries would do a 100
per cent head count using a short questionnaire
form, while in many instances detailed questions
would be canvassed through a longer questionnaire
on a sample basis. Raising public awareness of
the importance of censuses was mentioned as one
key success factor in their conduct. |
| 32. |
In determining the population
coverage, the issues of permanent residence, illegal
migration, and nationality/ethnicity assumed importance
in some censuses. In noting that attempts would
be made in some cases to collect data on disability,
the Working Group cautioned that the census might
not be suitable for the purpose due to the complexity
of the concept and limits on the number of questions
that could be asked. |
| 33. |
The Working Group emphasized
the need for sharing experiences, methodologies,
and best practice examples through a forum. That
would help countries in identifying new approaches
to overcome problems faced in conducting censuses.
The Working Group was informed that assistance
on such tasks as questionnaire design could be
sought from experts located in regional/international
organizations, including through correspondence.
It noted with appreciation the offer by the International
Labour Organization (ILO) to render census assistance
through comments on items related to economic
activity included in the census questionnaire. |
|
| IV.
APPLICATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGY TO POPULATION DATA
|
| 34. |
The Working Group had before
it document STAT/WGSE.11/5, containing a summary
of activities undertaken since 1997 under the
UNFPA-funded project entitled Application of New
Technology in Population Data Collection, Processing,
Dissemination and Presentation (RAS/96/P12). The
document also contained recommendations of the
ESCAP Working Party on the Application of New
Technology to Population Data and of the Workshop
that it had recently organized. The Working Group
appreciated the practical and forward-looking
nature of the recommendations and recommended
that statistical offices and census organizations
adopt them at an early stage. |
| 35. |
The Working Group expressed
its appreciation to the Working Party and their
host offices (the national statistical offices
of Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Macau,
New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand)
for sharing their experiences in evaluating and
using new information technologies for improving
their census and survey operations. The concrete
outputs included a large number of technical papers
and three guidelines and reports on the three
pilot applications, which were all being finalized.
The Working Party had been instrumental in organizing
the Workshop on the Application of Information
Technology to Population Data in Bangkok in October
1999. The Working Group noted that the Working
Party members had been key resource persons for
the Workshop; the demonstrations and presentations
from private vendors were also highly rated by
the participants. |
| 36. |
The Working Party had agreed
that statistical offices could best benefit from
information technology (IT) if they adopted it
on a systematic and continuous basis. It also
agreed that the traditional way of conducting
censuses and surveys had to make way for a more
IT - intensive method. The main driving forces
behind that were the changing requirements of
data users, the cost savings, and timeliness and
quality gains that new IT offered. To improve
long-term productivity, it was important to start
accumulating organizational IT knowledge and management
skills. In that process, the importance of the
vision and hands-on involvement of senior management
could not be overemphasized. Informed and determined
leadership on IT issues could on some occasions
have a catalysing impact beyond the national statistical
office (NSO). The Australian Bureau of Statistics,
for instance, had been able to expedite the digitization
of maps for statistical purposes through close
collaboration with the responsible government
mapping agencies. |
| 37. |
Noting that the sharing of experiences
had benefited all members of the Working Party,
the Working Group recommended that ESCAP should
promote that type of technical cooperation in
the region, on IT and other areas. Bringing together
such working groups could be tried on a self-funding
basis on topics that received sufficient initial
interest. However, the Working Group felt that
it might be necessary to provide funding for the
participants from developing countries that could
benefit most from such cooperation. |
| 38. |
Noting the proximity of the
2000/2001 cluster of censuses, the Working Group
requested the secretariat, the Working Party and
SIAP to expedite the finalization of the three
draft guidelines, the reports on the pilot projects,
the remaining two newsletters and the multimedia
awareness package targeted at the decision makers.
It also requested the secretariat to disseminate
the existing material from the project web site
to statistical offices in the region as soon as
possible. The Working Group agreed with the suggestion
to focus the final meeting of the Working Party
on data analysis, storage and dissemination and
to open it to a wider audience. It recommended,
however, that the meeting should be held earlier
than October 2000 in order to have a greater impact
on dissemination strategies for the upcoming censuses. |
| 39. |
In discussing the changing user
demand and dissemination media for census and
population data, the Working Group noted that
the pricing of data products and services had
become an increasingly complex issue. The private
sector users were requesting small-area statistics
for determining market potential for their commercial
functions, and were willing to pay for the data.
The statistical offices needed to decide to what
extent they were mandated to entertain such requests
and on what basis they should charge for such
services. Small-area statistics were also requested
for academic research, which potentially created
the need for two-tier pricing. The issue was further
complicated by the fact that the distinction by
the type of data use was not always easy. For
instance, it was not uncommon for university staff
to offer private consulting services externally
on a commercial basis. There were also commercial
information service providers whose business was
to redisseminate data. |
| 40. |
With regard to pricing on a
cost recovery basis, the Working Group noted that
it was important to recognize that statistical
offices had significant fixed costs tied up in
their infrastructure and staff, including the
maintenance of statistical capabilities. Also,
the demand for data, particularly from censuses
and occasional surveys, was cyclical or irregular,
which had to be taken into account in the costing
of data. The Working Group noted that the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (ABS) was charging government
agencies for data services. It had recently introduced
an option for them to pay a flat annual fee for
global access to all statistical series. With
some commercial information service providers,
the ABS had contracts that guaranteed it royalties
for all data sold to final users. The Working
Group noted that the introduction of charges,
even if nominal, had an immediate moderating impact
on the volume of individual requests. |
| 41. |
The Working Group recommended
that the secretariat should arrange discussions
during the next biennium focusing on pricing experiences
among the statistical offices in the region. Those
discussions could investigate, among other issues,
if common pricing methods and policies were feasible
and if different delivery media warranted price
differentiation. The inclusion of national data
compiled by NSOs in the sales products of international
organizations was also an issue that could be
looked into. |
|
| V.
POVERTY STATISTICS |
| 42. |
The Working Group considered
the documents "Report of the Seminar on Poverty
Statistics " (STAT/WGSE.11/6), "Poverty measurement
in transition countries: a case of Mongolia "
(STAT/WGSE.11/7) prepared by the National Statistical
Office of Mongolia, and "Poverty Incidence in
the Asian and Pacific Region: Data Situation and
Measurement Issues" (STAT/WGSE.11/8) and "ADB's
Technical Assistance in Poverty Statistics" (STAT/WGSE.11/8/Add.1),
both prepared by the Asian Development Bank. Another
paper by ADB, "Fighting Poverty in Asia and the
Pacific: The Poverty Reduction Strategy of the
Asian Development Bank" (STAT/WGSE.11/9) was also
provided for the Working Group's information. |
| 43. |
The main concern of the Seminar
on Poverty Statistics, which had been organized
by ESCAP in June 1999, was the availability and
development of statistical data and methodology
for understanding and measuring poverty. It was
observed that there was remarkable homogeneity
in the ESCAP region in the conceptualization of
poverty as a state of deprivation. While there
was a general agreement on the conceptual definition,
there was less agreement on the statistical measurement
of poverty. Great diversity existed in efforts
being made by governments and statistical authorities
to quantify the poverty situation. Some countries
monitored poverty in a systematic manner, while
many others, especially the least developed and
transition economies, had launched those efforts
only very recently. The initial interest in poverty
research was focused on the proportion of people
whose income (or expenditure) fell below a particular
poverty line. More recent work, however, recognized
that poverty had many dimensions which needed
to be measured. |
| 44. |
The Working Group took note
of the experience of transition economies both
in measuring poverty and in terms of the poverty
situation itself. In Mongolia, for example, a
change in methodology had produced significantly
different estimates of poverty incidence. The
passage of a law in 1998 had enabled the national
statistical office to produce independent estimates
of poverty. The Working Group noted that Mongolia
had drawn on the Fundamental Principles of Official
Statistics in disseminating the results; the National
Statistical Office had held regular press conferences,
conducted user-producer workshops on methodology,
and enlisted support from international agencies.
The Working Group also recognized the need of
statisticians of transition countries for training
in poverty measurement. |
| 45. |
The Working Group was informed
about the ADB's adoption of poverty reduction
as its overarching objective, the related framework
and strategy, and the implications for ADB's organizational
structure. The Working Group was also informed
about the implications of the new objective and
strategy for the Bank's Statistics and Data Systems
Division (EDSD) and for technical assistance in
poverty statistics. One of the objectives of the
ADB's efforts was to develop an agreed and common
approach in measuring poverty, leading to more
or less comparable poverty estimates, at least
regionally. The ADB also outlined the implications
of the new objective on national statistical offices.
Among those mentioned, the possibility of enlarging
sample surveys to produce poverty statistics at
the lowest administrative level drew varied reactions
from the Working Group. The Working Group was
also informed about the procedures for securing
technical assistance from the ADB. |
| 46. |
The Working Group took note
of the efforts of the ADB, the experiences of
several countries, and the work of various other
groups in developing measures of poverty. In particular,
it recognized the leadership role in that field
of the Expert Group on Poverty Statistics (the
Rio Group), which was working under the auspices
of the United Nations Statistical Commission. |
| 47. |
The Working Group expressed
the need to collect documentation on national
practices and methodologies with the aim of identifying
best practices. Such metadata could be used as
a basis for possible benchmarking. The Working
Group recalled that the Rio Group had been asked
to produce material on best practices in poverty
measurement and urged that representations be
made to speed that work up. The Working Group
also urged countries of the region to participate
more actively in the work of the Rio Group. |
| 48. |
The Working Group concurred
with the Seminar's recommendation that while efforts
should be made to choose indicators of poverty
on a broadly comparable basis, countries should
make the choice that best suits their national
needs. In that context the Working Group discussed
the issue of whether a standard methodology for
poverty measurement needed to be developed for
purposes of international comparability. The general
consensus was that the present early stage of
methodological development was not conducive to
the formulation of standard methodologies, although
the Working Group recognized the validity of the
Seminar recommendation that the search for more
appropriate methodologies for international comparisons
should continue with greater transparency and
additional resources. |
| 49. |
The Working Group noted that
NGOs and other groups were active in the field
of poverty alleviation and recalled the recommendations
of the ESCAP Seminar that statisticians should
consult those groups and involve them as appropriate
in the various stages of poverty measurement.
A participatory approach in the choice of methodology
and data would help reduce the confusion that
often accompanied multiple poverty estimates.
The Working Group recommended that statistical
offices should take a proactive stance in poverty
measurement issues at the national level. |
| 50. |
In endorsing the recommendations
of the Seminar on Poverty Statistics, the Working
Group strongly urged the Asian Development Bank
to take up the recommendations in the course of
implementing its technical assistance activities
on poverty reduction. It also enjoined the ADB
to take proactive steps in providing technical
assistance to the countries, and to work closely
with regional organizations such as the ESCAP
and SIAP. While recognizing that developing a
technical manual on poverty measurement might
be premature, the Working Group stressed the importance
of training on the methodological issues of poverty
statistics and asked the ADB and SIAP to collaborate
in developing training programmes for countries
in the region. |
|
| VI.
GENDER STATISTICS |
| 51. |
The Working Group reviewed the
topic on the basis of secretariat document STAT/WGSE.11.10,
"Measurement of Paid and Unpaid Work"; and the
country experiences of Australia and India in
documents STAT/WGSE.11/11," Gender Statistics:
The Australian Experience", prepared by the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and STAT/WGSE.11/12,
"Development of Gender Development Indices-Indian
Experience" prepared by the Department of Statistics
and Programme Implementation. |
| 52. |
The Working Group noted the
recommendation in the Platform of Action of the
Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995
for more comprehensive measurement of work and
employment, and its possible reflection in accounts
which might be developed separately but be consistent
with the national accounts. It also recognized
that many countries in the region had taken steps
to respond to that recommendation within their
respective circumstances and available resources,
particularly as they recognized that analysis
would thereby be more comprehensive and policies
more responsive in addressing gender issues. |
| 53. |
The Working Group was cognizant
of the importance of measuring unpaid work within
and outside the SNA production boundaries in terms
of improving the usefulness of national accounts
in analysing factor income distribution and labour
productivity, formulating and monitoring poverty
alleviation programmes, measuring the role of
women and men in nurturing and developing human
capital, and addressing many other social issues.
It also heard the experiences of countries in
their attempts to measure paid and unpaid work
through time use, whether by adding items to existing
surveys or through a separate survey. The Working
Group noted that while time use surveys were well
established in the developed countries of the
region, national statistical offices in developing
countries were just embarking on such undertakings.
It also observed that time use surveys were conducted
with a range of primary objectives, such as to
measure the changes in the lifestyle of society
or to measure work not covered through traditional
data sources. The Working Group noted, however,
that time use surveys conducted primarily for
one purpose could also yield useful information
on another. |
| 54. |
National experiences demonstrated
that the methodology of collecting information
on time use varied according to the culture and
practices of the country. The choice of diary
or recall method was raised and the Working Group
agreed that there was no hard and fast rule on
the approach to use in collecting time use data.
The importance but also the difficulties of collecting
secondary and tertiary activities in time use
surveys was noted by the Working Group. The need
to pilot-test time use survey methodologies adequately
was underlined. |
| 55. |
The Working Group was informed
that time use surveys were likely to improve the
quality of statistics on the labour force, particularly
in obtaining information on marginal economic
activities which were undetected in traditional
labour force or other household surveys. It suggested
that recent practical experience in that regard
in the surveys of developing countries might imply
a need to rethink the components of the economically
active population about which statistics were
provided. |
| 56. |
The Working Group recognized
that the conduct of time use surveys needed thorough
planning and appropriate design to ensure that
the instruments would be sensitive enough to measure
the desired information and that the results would
be properly analysed and disseminated to facilitate
policy formulation and decision making. |
| 57. |
The Working Group was informed
of various means both at the international and
regional level whereby knowledge on time use surveys
could be expanded. Developing countries were encouraged
to participate in the activities of the International
Association for Time Use Research, for example.
The Working Group noted that a Seminar on Time
Use Surveys would be conducted jointly by ESCAP,
the Centre For Development Alternatives (CFDA)
and the Department of Statistics and Programme
Implementation of India from 7 to 10 December
1999. The Working Group looked forward with interest
to the outcome of that Seminar, which would be
the first in which the experiences of developing
countries would be systematically examined, and
recommended that it review the various methodological
issues raised during the discussion. |
| 58. |
The Working Group was informed
of the trend to mainstream gender issues into
wider policy and programme development in Australia,
and the concomitant developments in gender statistics.
It took note of ABS's experience with gender statistics
issues in the context of its overall activities
in social statistics, in which several areas of
social concern were recognized. The Working Group
noted however that there might be a need for special
gender-based data in support of emerging policy
debates. It was agreed that while data should
be policy relevant, they should also be policy
neutral. |
| 59. |
The Working Group noted the
different data sources of gender statistics in
Australia, ranging from the population census
to household surveys and administrative sources,
including special surveys such as the Women's
Safety Survey. To meet the growing demand for
gender responsive statistics, existing data sources
were revisited for additional sex and age disaggregated
data, changes in classification, and operationalization
of concepts. The ABS had fully utilized time use
surveys as an instrument to collect information
on gender-related policies, and had adopted an
innovative analysis and dissemination strategy,
including "statistical fellowships" granted to
academics for a period of 6 to 12 months to undertake
studies, using the results of ABS surveys. |
| 60. |
While statistical offices were
making every effort to respond to emerging policy
issues, the Working Group recognized that with
limited resources, priority choices would have
to be made between addressing current conditions
and maintaining essential time series data. Caution
was also expressed at the use of statistically
dubious methods to arrive at relatively meaningless
breakdowns of aggregates (e.g., GDP) by sex. |
| 61. |
The Working Group noted the
efforts of India to refine UNDP's Gender Development
Index and improve its relevance to developing
countries. It considered the limitations of the
index and its weakness in providing a sensitive
and comprehensive measure to monitor the changes
in the welfare of women and men. It also expressed
concern about the validity of measures such as
the GDI. Recognizing the limitations of a single
composite indicator, the Working Group noted the
efforts of countries in compiling several indicators
to measure social well-being. |
|
| VII.
DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS |
| 62. |
The Working Group
had before it secretariat note STAT/WGSE.11/13
entitled "Discussions on Development Indicators
in the Context of United Nations Conference Follow-up"
and an invited paper STAT/WGSE.11/14 entitled
"National Progress Indicators", prepared by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics. |
| 63. |
The Working Group noted that
the series of global conferences and summits during
the 1990s had generated new statistical data requirements
for evaluating progress on the goals adopted,
and considered it useful for national statistical
agencies to be more involved in future such meetings.
It welcomed Resolution 1999/55 adopted by the
Economic and Social Council on 30 July 1999 and
appreciated in particular the recognition by the
Council of the need to lessen the data provision
burden on member States pertaining to the basic
indicators needed as a follow-up to the conferences.
It noted that overlap among international organizations
in the creation of indicators and collection of
information persisted. The Working Group welcomed
the Council's realization of the importance of
strengthening national statistical capacity, and
supported the full involvement of the regional
commissions and recipient countries in the proposed
high-level working group on donor coordination
in support of national statistical development
strategies. |
| 64. |
The Working Group reviewed various
core indicators sets that had been developed,
including the Minimum National Social Data Set
(MNSDS), the OECD - United Nations - World Bank
set, the Common Country Assessment (CCA) indicators
of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework
(UNDAF-CCA) and the indicators set developed by
the Task Force on Basic Social Services for All
of the Administrative Committee on Coordination
(BSSA). It noted that UNDAF-CCA had by far the
largest number of indicators. It expressed concern
that some of the indicators were not methodologically
robust; moreover, many were neither readily available
nor were needed for national requirements. Also,
the burden involved in reporting on them could
divert limited resources from national statistical
organizations and could affect priority setting.
It noted further that the CCA framework also contained
qualitative indicators on governance and civil
and political rights on which statistical measures
had not yet been developed. The Working Group
asked the secretariat to keep countries in the
region regularly informed of developments in the
CCA indicators, and urged that concerns be conveyed
to the United Nations Statistics Division and
Statistical Commission. |
| 65. |
The Working Group noted many
expressions of misgivings with regard to the Human
Development Index (HDI) contained in the Human
Development Reports produced by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), and heard with concern
that some national statistical organizations were
obliged to utilize their limited resources to
respond and to clarify misconceptions generated
by the Reports. It expressed regret that some
international organizations persisted in presenting
erroneous estimates despite efforts made by countries
to have such mistakes rectified. The Working Group
appealed to international agencies to use statistical
data responsibly, and to be mindful of the potential
implications that publication of erroneous or
conceptually controversial statistics had on the
countries concerned. |
| 66. |
The Working Group noted that
while international organizations had arrangements
to share data provided to them on a regular basis,
it was difficult to do so for ad hoc data requests.
It noted that many countries in the region had
been sending their data to the secretariat in
electronic form through e-mail. It urged that
such a practice be continued and encouraged other
countries to do likewise. |
| 67. |
The Working Group noted with
interest the efforts made by the Australian Bureau
of Statistics in developing national progress
indicators. It noted that the work was in response
to the issue of the appropriateness of GDP as
a single measure of progress, and to the issues
of environmental impact on sustainable development.
The ABS considered that a set of more broadly
based indicators would provide a measure covering
both economic and social concerns. |
| 68. |
The Working Group was informed
of the two alternate approaches to developing
indicators, a composite indicator with weights
assigned to a number of measures to arrive at
a single index, and the alternative, a framework
of indicators which together sought to cover a
range of issues relevant to the theme. It noted
a major advantage a composite index provided:
namely the convenience in making comparisons with
one number. There were however serious drawbacks
with composite indicators because of their lack
of statistical validity and conceptual underpinning;
in that connection, the ABS had particular problems
with the HDI because of the apparent unwillingness
of UNDP to address errors in its compilation.
The Working Group also noted the relative difficulty
that users had in relating to a framework of separate
indicators, though such a framework had the advantage
of not involving an arbitrary weighting system. |
| 69. |
The Working Group noted that
the proposed National Progress Indicators of ABS
covered among others 10 areas of social concerns,
each comprising between 20 and 30 indicators.
It noted that indicators could be developed based
on policy considerations, as had been done in
the United Kingdom. With regard to the utility
of indicators, the Working Group noted that indicators
which only measured changes should be supplemented
with those assessing the stock position, in order
to provide a complete picture of the issues of
concern. |
|
| VIII.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD CLASSIFICATIONS: DEVELOPMENTS
AND STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION |
| 70. |
The Working Group had before
it document STAT/WGSE.11/15, the Report of the
United Nations Workshop on Classifications held
at Canberra from 27 September to 1 October 1999,
and secretariat note STAT/WGSE.11/15/Add.1, which
focused on some of the conclusions and recommendations
from the Canberra workshop relating particularly
to the ESCAP region. The Workshop had been organized
by the United Nations Statistics Division in cooperation
with the Australian Bureau of Statistics and ESCAP,
and had been attended by 14 countries, almost
all from the ESCAP region, and a number of regional
and international organizations. |
| 71. |
The Working Group noted that
the Workshop, being the first in the region to
deal with classifications in general, had focused
on the current implementation of activity and
product classifications, policy needs and strategic
planning for classification work, and on introducing
to participants the international family of economic
and social classifications. Most of the countries
represented at the Workshop had implemented an
activity classification based on the International
Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic
Activities (ISIC), Rev.3, while the much more
recent Central Product Classification (CPC) was
being implemented or considered for implementation
by only some of the countries. The Working Group
was also informed that the Workshop had discussed
the use of ISIC and CPC in areas such as national
accounts, balance of payments, trade agreements
and policy decision making; the proper linkages
of classifications for those purposes had been
emphasized. The Canberra Workshop had also stressed
the importance of classification work as the basis
for statistical data collection and analysis and
in that connection had noted that national statistical
offices frequently allowed insufficient lead-time
to address classification issues before such major
statistical undertakings as censuses. |
| 72. |
The Working Group noted the
need expressed by the Canberra Workshop for a
more regional approach to the development and
adaptation of classifications, whereby countries
with similar economic structures might wish to
coordinate their detailing of the categories of
international standards such as ISIC or CPC. The
Workshop had foreseen that coordinating that type
of regional or subregional adaptation could be
an important role that ESCAP could in future play
in the field of classifications. While some countries
had studied various international and national
classifications in constructing their own classification
schemes, the Working Group did not feel that there
was sufficient support at the present time for
work on an Asian version of a classification such
as ISIC. However, it requested the secretariat
to survey the status of implementation of classifications
in the region, from which might emerge the need
for the development of regional or subregional
variants of standard international classifications.
The Working Group also asked the secretariat to
keep countries abreast of developments in the
classifications field through the regular dissemination
of information. The Working Group also noted that
classification work would be undertaken in two
areas which were of particular interest to developing
countries of the region, namely statistics on
the informal sector (in conjunction with the Delhi
Group) and time use surveys. |
| 73. |
The Working Group recalled that
the Committee on Statistics was the channel through
which the regional view or views on statistical
issues including classification matters could
be conveyed to global statistical bodies such
as the United Nations Statistical Commission.
It recognized that feedback to the custodians
of the respective classifications was extremely
important for future developmental work on international
standards and considered that the Committee should
play a more active role in that regard in future.
For the time being, the Working Group urged individual
countries to convey their comments to the United
Nations Statistics Division and other organizations
on their experiences and difficulties in working
with various classifications. Statistical offices
were also asked to keep ESCAP informed so that
the secretariat could build up a more comprehensive
picture of the implementation status and problems
being encountered in the field of classifications
in the region. |
| 74. |
The Working Group noted with
interest the discussions at the Canberra Workshop
on the design of alternative groupings of activities
in classifications, and considered that the region
could make significant contributions in that regard.
Currently, for instance, although the "tourism
industry" and "information industry" were very
important in many economies of the region, it
was difficult to obtain data on them using the
current configurations of activity or product
classifications. The Working Group also noted
that because agriculture and fisheries continued
to account for sizeable proportions of GDP and
employment in many Asian and Pacific countries,
the case for a more detailed breakdown of those
sectors in existing classifications was a strong
one. |
| 75. |
The Working Group noted mixed
signals emanating from the discussions of the
Canberra Workshop and a recent survey of training
requirements by SIAP on the extent of training
needs in the field of classifications. It observed
that that situation might be due to the way in
which classifications were handled institutionally
within most statistical offices in the region.
The work of some agencies in the field of classification
training was noted, and the Working Group welcomed
plans for a training seminar to cover classification
concepts as well as technology applications in
classification work, to be organized jointly by
SIAP and Singapore, and possibly ILO, in 2000. |
|
| IX.
YEAR 2000 PROBLEM: PREPAREDNESS OF NATIONAL STATISTICAL
OFFICES |
| 76. |
The Working Group considered
the item on the basis of the secretariat note
"Ready to face the new century?" (STAT/WGSE.11/16).
It was pleased to note that the discussions in
the previous session of the Working Group in November
1997 had been instrumental in initiating discussion
at the ESCAP Commission level. The consequent
activities by the secretariat and SIAP had significantly
improved the awareness in the region and had given
a boost to the rectification efforts in various
national statistical offices. |
| 77. |
The Working Group agreed that
the NSOs should use the remaining weeks of 1999
for last-minute contingency preparations, rather
than for initiating new rectification efforts
that could not be completed before the change
of the century. Some NSOs that had started Year
2000 (Y2K) rectification early and had subjected
their systems to prudent testing expressed confidence
in being internally Y2K compliant. Their main
contingency concerns had shifted to the preparedness
of external data providers, which was difficult
for NSOs to assess and impossible to control.
The Working Group agreed that in case of Y2K failures
external data providers were certain to concentrate
on getting their business operations running on
a priority basis, and in that situation data provision
to statistical offices was likely to receive a
very low priority. It noted that some NSOs had
considered in their contingency plans how to handle
possible drops in response rates. It heard that
one NSO had maintained the capacity to revert
to its old non-compliant applications, if its
rectified and tested applications failed for unexpected
reasons. |
| 78. |
Although there were indications
that the Y2K problem had reached very high levels
of exposure in the media, resulting in a loss
of public interest in the problem, the Working
Group agreed that NSOs had no choice but to take
the problem seriously. The Working Group noted
that it would be interesting to analyse the macroeconomic
impact of government and private sector spending
on Y2K rectification; the overall impact would
not necessarily be easy to estimate as part of
the rectification efforts would have deferred
other investments and development efforts, reducing
productivity elsewhere. |
| 79. |
The Working Group noted that
the secretariat had been unable to raise extrabudgetary
funding in response to Commission resolution 55/3,
"Strengthening the cooperation and support of
nations in the Asian and Pacific region in addressing
the year 2000 problem", which essentially limited
the secretariat's action to providing the mandated
reports to the Commission. The Working Group took
note of the information provided in document STAT/WGSE.11/16
about the United Nations' contingency planning
and the secretariat's internal Y2K remediation
efforts. |
|
| X.
REPORT OF THE BUREAU INCLUDING REVIEW OF PROGRAMME
MATTERS AND PROVISIONAL AGENDA FOR THE TWELFTH
SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON STATISTICS |
| 80. |
The Working Group had before
it STAT/WGSE.11/17, the Report of the fifth session
of the Bureau of the Committee on Statistics,
and secretariat notes STAT/WGSE.11/18 "Review
of Programme of Work in Statistics 2000-2001",
STAT/WGSE.11/18/Add.1 "Results-based budget format
with links to outputs in the 2000-2001 work programme",
STAT/WGSE.11/19 "Draft Medium-Term Plan for the
Period 2002-2005", STAT/BURCOS.5/2 "Review of
Programme Delivery, 1998-1999" and STAT/WGSE.11/20
"Tentative Provisional Agenda for the twelfth
session of the Committee on Statistics". |
| 81. |
The Working Group noted that
the Bureau meeting on 22 November had undertaken
an in-depth review of the implementation of the
recommendations of the Committee on Statistics,
and had categorized them according to the system
agreed on at the eleventh session of the Committee.
The Bureau had also reviewed the delivery of the
1998-1999 work programme, the draft programme
for 2000-2001, the draft medium term plan, 2002-2005
and the tentative provisional agenda for the twelfth
session of the Committee. It had also had an extensive
discussion of the issues pertaining to the format
and orientation |
