ASEAN Regional Workshop on Strategic Statistical Planning: Towards a Stronger ASEAN Community Statistical System 28 - 29 November, Jakarta

1
ASEAN Regional Workshop on Strategic Statistical
Planning Towards a Stronger ASEAN Community
Statistical System 28 - 29 November, Jakarta

• Developing and implementing a Regional
  Statistical
• Strategy - Example from the Pacific
• Gerald Haberkorn
• Manager, Statistics for Development Programme
• Secretariat of the Pacific Community
• Noumea, New Caledonia
• (www.spc.int/sdp)

2
Structure of presentation

• Political context growing awareness and
  recognition of statistics
• Designing a regional statistical strategy in the
  Pacific island region
• Commitment to, and monitoring of implementing
  the regional statistical strategy

3
1. Political context growing awareness and
recognition of statistics

• Growing acceptability to talk about statistics
  (moving from policy-making on the run to
  evidence-based policy development and policy
  /performance monitoring
• Evident from recent developments at regional,
  national, and international levels

4
1. Political context growing awareness and
recognition of statistics

• Recent developments at regional level
• Starting Point Pacific Plan regional policy
  framework (2006)
• Commissioning of Regional Statistical
  Benchmarking Study (2007)
• Implementation in 2008
• Recommendations endorsed at Ministerial level in
  2009
• SDP/ADB commissioning study to help strengthen
  the implementation of its various recommendations
  (2010)
• Endorsement of Cook Paunga report by 3rd
  Regional Conference of Heads of Planning and
  Statistics (2010)
• Development of Ten-Year Pacific Statistics
  Strategy and associated Pacific Statistics Action
  Plan by SPC and partners(2010)

5
1. Political context growing awareness and
recognition of statistics

• Recent developments at national level (a)
• Vanuatu solid political and financial support to
  statistics by very committed Minister of Finance
  (and Statistics) annual budget allocation
  commensurate with activity commitments laid out
  in long-term statistical master plan developed
  through an Australian funded/ABS-assisted ISP)
• Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea
• strong political support with prime ministers of
  Samoa and Tonga, and the National Executive
  Council of PNG endorsing in 2010 the development
  of National Strategies for the Development of
  Statistics (NSDS), jointly undertaken by a
  PARIS21-SPC partnership,
• Strong support by government of Vanuatu
  requesting to also be involved in process of
  developing such a long-term statistical strategy.

6
1. Political context growing awareness and
recognition of statistics

• Recent developments at national level (b)
• various types of statistical master plans at
  varying stages of development , political
  endorsement and implementation
• Cooks Islands, Niue, Tokelau (assisted by
  Statistics NZ)
• FSM, Guam, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau (assisted by
  ABS/SPC )

7
1. Political context growing awareness and
recognition of statistics

• Recent developments at international level
• Statistics becoming a politically acceptable
  discussion point in policy debates and aid
  negotiations (beyond perennial complaints about
  timeliness, quality, lack of accessibility)
• The emergence, energy, perseverance and
  commitment to the cause by PARIS21.

8
1. Political context growing awareness and
recognition of statistics

• Growing recognition at all levels (a)
• Existing/growing demands for national and
  regional statistics cannot be met by adhering to
  the status quo
• most small island states NSOs are not in a
  position, and most likely will never be in a
  position to collect and compile, tabulate and
  analyse, report and disseminate everything
  required (let alone desired), and even less so
  do this on their own

9
1. Political context growing awareness and
recognition of statistics

• Growing recognition at all levels (b)
• need for regional solutions to address national
  statistical demands and priorities that do not
  undermine the statistical sovereignty of small
  island states
• regional solutions to be complemented (in most
  cases preceded) by national solutions
• illustrated in the insufficient allocation of
  resources to NSOs to undertake basic statistical
  work, including undertaking routine statistical
  collections and regularly proving a regionally
  agreed-to standard set of statistics and
  indicators.

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2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in
the Pacific island region

• Key messages
• The design process (managing the process) was
  critical in paving the way to secure political
  acceptance and financial support to start
  implementing the Ten Year Pacific Statistics
  Strategy (2011 2020)
• Process involved careful choice (strategic) of
  consultants to ensure
• technical/substantive content and acceptance of
  strategy,
• Solid knowledge of political culture and
  management (of national government agencies) to
  facilitate political acceptance and
  implementability)
• Process involved close collaboration between
  consultants and SPC throughout development of the
  strategy.

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2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in
the Pacific island region

• Outcome
• Design of strategy expanded on earlier
  benchmarking study
• Recommendations of various strategic, thematic,
  operational priorities over a 10 year period,
  organized along 3 distinct phases.
• Recommended SPC Statistics for Development
  Programme to coordinate implementation of the
  strategy, with a statistical steering committee
  (PSSC) providing the governance structure to
  guide / oversight SPC in this process
• Strategy and proposed governance arrangements
  adopted by Regional Conference of Heads of
  Planning and Statistics (7/2010)

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2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in
the Pacific island region

• Pre-Strategy implementation (additional
  activities)
• Step 1 develop Pacific Statistics Strategy
  Action Plan
• Purpose prioritize objectives and define
  associated activities
• Development team one of the previous consultants
  (to provide obvious link to overall strategy
  development) and myself.
• Step 2 develop PSSAP M E Framework (focus on
  Phase 1)
• Purpose self-evident
• Development team AusAID programme officer
  AusAID contracted external M E specialist
  myself (SDP manager).

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2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in
the Pacific island region

• Pacific Statistics Strategy Action Plan
• Outlines
• six key strategic objectives guiding statistical
  development in the Pacific Island region over the
  next decade
• Specific activities to be undertaken to achieve
  these objectives
• Purpose as well as the importance of each
  activity, and what would be missed by not
  implementing each activity,
• Expected outcomes of each activity,
• Activity costs (for Phase 1 only), and
• Potential partnerships with other statistics
  providers and agencies with distinct comparative
  advantages .

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3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of
regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy

• Principal financial support AusAID (4 funding
  envelopes)
• Multi-year funding support to SPC to implement
  regional statistical strategy related activities
  (A 10 million, 2010-2013)
• Multi-year funding support to the Australian
  Bureau of Statistics to support TYPSS-related
  priority activities, as jointly agreed-upon with
  AusAID and SPC (A 3 million, 2011 2013)
• Direct support to Pacific island NSOs in pursuing
  national statistical developments , as part of
  AusAIDs bilateral Partnerships for Development
  policy ( value varies between countries current
  beneficiaries, PNG and Samoa)
• Funding support to Paris21 to implement Pacific
  islands focused statistical development
  initiatives (A 750,000, 2011-2013).

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3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of
regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy

• Others funding sources
• ADB provides multi-year financial support to
  SPCs regional household survey programme
  (2012-2013 US 1 million)
• PARIS21 joint development of NSDS with SPC, plus
  assistance with statistical advocacy initiatives
  (2011-2013)
• PFTAC IMFs Pacific arm makes a much valued and
  appreciated contribution to statistical capacity
  building, particularly in the field of
  macro-economic statistics ( value unknown)
• SPC core and programme budget provides ongoing
  support to our statistical development
  activities across the region (2012 A 2,4
  million)

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3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of
regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy

• Monitoring system
• Pacific Statistics Steering Committee (PSSC)
  meets six-monthly to review implementation of
  Pacific Statistics Action Plan, Phase 1
  (2011-2014) the 1st of 3 discrete operational
  phases supporting TYPSS implementation
• Monitors on behalf of Regional Conference of
  Heads of Planning and Statistics the regional
  governance mechanism which reviews the
  work/performance of SPC Statistics for
  Development Programme and approves work programme
  for next 3 years.
• Meeting every 3 years not seen suitable to
  effectively and efficiently monitor TYPSS
  implementation -gt hence PSSC set-up.

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3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of
regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy

• Monitoring system (2)
• PSSC comprises of 6 heads of Pacific island NSOs,
  2 financial (AusAID, ADB) and 2 technical
  partners (UNFPA, current chair of UNDAF ME TWG
  University of the South Pacific) PFTAC ex
  officio adviser on macro-economic statistics.
• All members
• committed to implementation of Phase 1,
• involved in guiding/monitoring overall plan
  coordination by SPC,
• monitor performance and impact of Pacific
  Statistics Action Plan activities executed by all
  active players SPC, PFTAC, ABS, UNFPA, Unicef
  and other development partners
• Mid-term review of Pacific Statistics Action Plan
  Phase 1 implementation planned for February
  April 2013 to
• Ascertain ongoing relevance of TYPSS priority
  objectives for Phase 1
• Evaluate relative importance of emerging
  priorities
• Make adjustments where deemed necessary.

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3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of
regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy

• Summary observation
• Ten-year strategic outlook combined with
  four-year commitment by all players (including
  four year financial commitment by AusAID) helped
  develop stronger and more effective partnerships
  between national clients/stakeholders and SPC and
  other development partners.
• SDP well on track in delivering against key TYPPS
  outcomes, as noted by a SPC-wide independent
  review mid-year, highlighting recognition by both
• Pacific island clients/stakeholders (heads of
  NSOs and other key players in NSSs) who were
  consistently supportive of SDP and largely
  enthusiastic about the level and content of
  support received, and
• key donors, who saw no real alternative to the
  (statistical capacity building) support it (SDP)
  is giving to the region.

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3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of
regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy

• Challenges
• More effective coordination and communication
  between implementing partners of TYPSS (good
  work in progress not experiencing anything
  different from others working in the reality of
  multi-agency and multi-agenda dynamics).
• Achieving greater harmonization of statistical
  concepts, classifications and systems (need
  stronger/tangible political support at national
  level, and from technical/financial partners
  common methodologies, including core
  questionnaires/core set of questions
  strategies DP systems)

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3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of
regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy

• Opportunities
• Improve management of Pacific development
  statistics and indicators
• build on progress of regional NMDI database
  (www.spc.int/nmdi) that provides
  instant/user-friendly access to comparable
  development statistics and indicators as
  requested by Pacific Leaders in 2005
• Improve NMDI thematic sectoral coverage (e.g.
  agriculture, forestry, energy)
• Ensure regular compilation of baseline data by
  sectoral specialist, to maintain timeliness and
  provide QA function
• Expand geographic coverage to include Pacific
  islands territories