19 October 2018: Governments in the Asia-Pacific region adopted a declaration on strengthening national statistical systems in order to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and ensure that no one is left behind. Hongjoo Ham, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), said the recommendations require a whole-of-government approach.
The ESCAP Committee on Statistics meets every other year with the objective of advancing official statistics for the 2030 Agenda. Its sixth meeting took place in Bangkok, Thailand, from 16-19 October 2018.
By the declaration titled, ‘Navigating Policy with Data to Leave No One Behind,’ Committee members identify three principles for a whole-of-government approach to action: linking policy with data, through dialogue between users and producers of official statistics; ensuring that investments in national statistical systems (NSS) correspond to resource requirements for the statistical products and services demanded by users; and empowering national statistical offices (NSOs) and statistical units at all levels of government to “operate as one integrated system.”
The declaration also outlines nine areas for action at the national level, including to:
- Establish a high-level advisory body to the NSS to represent the interests and demands of policymakers, the media, the private sector and the general public;
- Specify the roles and responsibilities of the NSS to improve coordination and cooperation among statistical units of government agencies;
- Empower heads of NSOs to lead in developing and coordinating their respective integrated NSS, avoiding duplicated activities in producing and disseminating official statistics;
- Strengthen legislative provisions and institutional mechanisms to enable NSS to take advantage of innovative and frontier technologies, to follow standards of data exchange and to build partnerships with all stakeholders for data sharing; and
- Improve communication about statistics and strengthen statistical literacy and culture, to support accurate analysis, evidence-based policymaking and transparent governance in the pursuit of leaving no one behind.
In recommendations for development partners, the declaration calls on them to provide “coordinated” assistance, to share their data with countries, to consult with a country’s NSO or NSS before conducting a statistical study or survey, and to strengthen international statistical standards and support their implementation. The declaration requests ESCAP to organize a midpoint conference in 2024 to gauge success. [Declaration] [Meeting webpage] [ESCAP press release]