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Coordination of National Statistical Systems

Seminar on the Implementation of Fundamental Principles

Konrad Pesendorfer

Director General

CES, Paris7th June 2012

www.statistik.at Slide 2 | 07.06.2012

Outline

• Objectives and implementation of the Coordination Principle

• Common features to the coordination issue in statistical systems (contributions by LT, MEX, PT, SE, SF)

Legal framework Coordination content Coordination tools and instruments

• Coordination provisions of international organisations

• Questions for discussion


Fundamental Principle Nr. 8

Principle 8: ”Coordination among statistical agencies within countries is essential to achieve consistency and efficiency in the statistical system.“

Objectives:

•Avoid duplication of work – efficiency

•Minimize response burden – negative externalities

•Integration of data through statistical standards – harmonisation/standardisation

•Participate in international initiatives – speak with one voice


UN Survey on FP 2004


UN Survey on FP 2004

Coordination Principle:

• 90% of reporting NSIs stated that there are other producers of official statistics

• NSIs are the dominant producer in most countries

• Main concern of coordination:

Data collection Avoid duplication


UN FP Survey (2004) Results


Common features

NSI

Institutional Setup

Legal Framework

Coordination content

Coordination tools


Need for coordination

Soft Coordination

Institutional Setup

centralized

Institutional Setup

decentralized

Strong Coordination

SE

SF

PT

LT

MEX

AT


Legal framework

Soft Coordination

Strong Coordination Strong coordination - NSI can:•Select other entities to become producers•Request the respect of standards from other producers•Request the separation of tasks (Firewalls: user tasks vs producer tasks of statistics) •Assess the commitment to those standards through statistical audits

Soft coordination:•Cooperation instead of coordination•Non-binding common standards•Consensus based decision making•Other producers maintain full decision making power (collection modes, methods, content) over their statistics




Planning Production Processes Quality


Coordination content: Planning

• Define joint direction of the national statistical system

Main lines of Policy - every 5 years (SF) Availability of official statistics (SE)

• Different time horizons of planning (e.g. Mex e.a.)

Strategic Program: direction of system next 24 y National Program: government cycle Annual Program: defines specific activities according to

the National Program


Coordination content: Production

• Methods

• Data collection (e.g. Collection modes, standardisation of questionnaires)

• Processing

• Storage

• Analysis

• Dissemination


Coordination content: Processes

• Standardisation activities

• Common Classifications

• Harmonisation of definitions and statistical indicators


Coordination content: Quality

• Safeguarding (European) Quality Criteria

Relevance

Accuracy and Reliability

Timeliness and Punctuality

Coherence and Comparability

Accessibility and Clarity


Coordination tools + instruments

Coordination tools/instruments

Common institutions

• Coordination Councils

• Subject Committees

• Technical Committees

• Common System Programming

Formal instruments

• MoU• Quality

declarations + reporting

• Peer reviews• CoP self

assessments• Data

transmission through NSI

• Statistical audits

Standardisation tools

• guidelines• Standards• common

classifications• Common

definitions

Communication + other tools

• Common publication calendar

• Common annual report

• Common internet platform

• Professional training

• consulting


International coordination provisions

• UN Fundamental Principles

• Regulation on European Statistics (223/2009) Article 5 (1):

The national statistical authority designated by each Member State as the body having the responsibility for coordinating all activities at national level for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics (the NSI) shall act as the contact point for the Commission (Eurostat) on statistical matters. The Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure the application of this provision.


Questions for discussion (1)

1. Are strong coordination systems preferable to soft coordination systems or vice versa?

2. What are appropriate tools and instruments of coordination given the resource constraints and the absence of enforcement powers of NSIs?

3. There is often a reluctance of other national producers of statistics “to be coordinated” by the NSI. What are incentives for them to accept coordination? What are the costs of non-coordination to the system and its stakeholders?


Questions for discussion (2)

1. Should the coordinating role of NSIs be extended to standardisation activities in the area of administrative data collection?

2. What can international organisations do to assist NSIs in exercising their coordinating role of national statistical systems, while at the same time respecting the subsidiarity principle?

3. Is there scope to further develop Fundamental Principle 8 in order to better achieve the objective of consistency through coordination?


Conclusions

• Almost all NSIs have a national coordination task

• Decentralized systems do not always correspond with stronger coordination roles of NSIs

• Coordination content includes planning, production, processes and quality

• Coordination tools vary a lot – most of them can be applied irrespective of strong or soft coordination

• International institutions have an important role in supporting the NSIs‘ coordination function.

www.statistik.at We process information

Coordination of National Statistical Systems

Seminar on the Implementation of Fundamental Principles

Konrad Pesendorfer

Director General

CES, Paris7th June 2012

www.statistik.atwe process information coordination of national statistical systems seminar on the...

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