The UNESCO Institute for Statistics: How We Decide What Data To Collect Diane Stukel

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The UNESCO Institute for Statistics How We
Decide What Data To CollectDiane Stukel

• IASSIST 2003
• Ottawa, Canada 30 May 2003

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UNESCO Institute for Statistics Who are we ?

• Semi-autonomous body whose mandate is to support
  statistical activities of UNESCO in areas of
  education, Science Technology, Culture
  Communications
• Formally established in November 1999 with new
  director Denise Lievesley
• Statutes and financial arrangements agreed by
  UNESCO General Conference
• Have our own governing board but receive a
  regular budget from UNESCO in a special account
• Relocated in Montreal in September 2001 with
  mostly new staff

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Functions of UIS

• Collection and dissemination of cross-nationally
  comparable data on education, science
  technology, culture communications
• Methodological, technical and conceptual
  statistical development establishment and
  maintenance of international classifications
• Analysis and interpretation of international data
  (often in partnership with others)
• Statistical capacity building within countries
  for users and producers of data

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Principles underpinning the data collection Work
of the UIS

• Data should not be collected for their own sake
  but because they are needed for policy purposes
• Countries should be fully involved in determining
  what data should be collected, with what
  frequency and how
• Data are owned by countries and they should be
  assisted in making use of them
• Response burden on countries should be minimised
• Co-ordination with other international agencies
  is paramount
• Methodology should be used which is appropriate
  to the circumstances
• Data should be collected and used in a way that
  is culturally sensitive

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Barriers to collecting high quality policy
relevant statistical data

• There are too few resources for data collection
  in many countries
• Statistical staff may have inadequate expertise
  and they move posts frequently
• Statisticians in line-ministries may be somewhat
  isolated
• Statistical systems are often fragmented with
  little co-ordination between agencies
• Some of the relevant data are collected outside
  the official statistical system eg by the private
  sector
• There may be no protection against undue
  political pressure

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Why Consult?

• To identify priority policy issues in order to
  define
• UIS programmes of work in education, ST, CC
• To improve the visibility of UIS and promote our
  status as guardian of international database
• To build and maintain a network of experts of
  both users and producers of our data
• To give our stakeholders a voice - to let them
  know their opinion counts
• To gain contextual knowledge of our
  Regions/Member States and their varying
  capacities

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Why Consult?

• To investigate the feasibility of data
  collections and to identify the gaps
• To assess the need for statistical capacity
  building
• To introduce survey vehicles, to encourage
  response and to facilitate the identification of
  problems or areas needing updating
• To build an understanding of data quality issues
  with our existing vehicles and to develop a sense
  of how they can be addressed

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Example 1 Culture Statistics Programme

• Up to recently, battery of six international
  surveys sent annually or biennially to 189 member
  states museums, libraries (2), films and
  cinemas, book production, press
• Need for renewal of UIS culture statistics
  programme!!
• Current data collections limited to cultural
  institutions and cultural products
• Need to consider broader spectrum of issues such
  as cultural producers, cultural participation,
  access to culture, benefits of culture, cultural
  diversity,

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Example 1 Culture Statistics Programme

• First step think tank type symposium to
  solicit ideas on future collections of
  evidence-based policy-relevant data
• Papers/discussions from participants from both
  developed and developing world 80 participants
  across 20 countries and all 5 continents involved
• Included broad spectrum of users from academic
  institutions, national government agencies,
  international organizations
• Symposium considered as first input to launching
  new culture statistics programme

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Example 1 Culture Statistics Programme

• Strengths of Process
• Able to connect multitude of players at the same
  time
• Forged new relationships
• Initiated involvement in projects
• Increased visibility for UIS renewal of culture
  statistics programme
• Weaknesses of Process
• Difficult to identify appropriate players to
  represent opinions from all regions of the globe
  
• Concerns and attitudes often tended to be
  western
• Little discussion given to feasibility of
  suggested priority areas

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Example 2 Science and Technology Statistics
Programme

• Similar need for renewal as in culture statistics
  programme except further progressed in process
• Three phases to review process
• International Expert Meeting, Montreal, April
  2002
• Objective To help identify current and emerging
  science policy information needs involving policy
  makers from RICYT, ALECSO, OECD, Eurostat, etc
• Outcome Background paper suggesting potential
  key areas and outlining currently available ST
  indicators

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Example 2 Science and Technology Statistics
Programme

• B) Consultation of Member States and relevant
  institutions via questionnaire
• ObjectiveTo ask broader audience to rank ST
  policy issues
• C) International Meeting of Key ST Data Users
  Producers, Paris, March 2003
• Objective To discuss the results of the previous
  phases and to comment on proposed action lines
  for short, medium and long term strategies
• Since then first strategy document drafted -
  includes which indicators to collect strategies
  for networking, publication, capacity building,
• To be vetted through stakeholders electronically
  only, ultimately culminating in new ST data
  collections

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Example 2 Science and Technology Statistics
Programme

• Strengths of Process
• Comprehensive and full-scale process
• High visibility given to UIS
• Users and producers given a voice in the process
• Weaknesses of Process
• Process heavy, resource intensive, time consuming
• Tendency to give high priority to everything
  (questionnaire)

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Example 3 Education Statistics Programme

• Annual survey sent out data sought on
  enrollment, teachers and finance for primary,
  secondary and tertiary levels
• Annual workshops held in 11 regions of world 4-5
  days each including bilateral meetings
• Objectives Introduce new survey vehicle for the
  given year, improve quality of UIS education
  database by encouraging responses, identifying
  problems with answering questionnaire, building
  understanding of data quality issues,
  establishing contact with national
  statisticians,
• Education side to implement survey review and
  redesign in coming years