Title: Why%20is%20disseminating%20Millennium%20Development%20Goal%20indicators%20important?%20Why%20should%20dissemination%20be%20proactive?
1Why is disseminating Millennium Development Goal
indicators important? Why should dissemination
be proactive?
- Training Workshop on Disseminating MDG Indicators
and Statistical Information - Astana, Kazakhstan, 23-25 November 2009
- Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECE
2and the same goes for MDG Indicators
- Only used statistical information is useful
statistical information!
3Who needs MDG Indicators statistical
information?
- Decision makers
- In Business
- In Administration
- In Politics
- ? The Policy Cycle
- Research and Educational Institutions
- The Media
- Citizens
- NGOs
4What do we mean by the Policy Cycle?
- Policy is a course or principle of action
adopted by a government, party, business or
individual - Policies may aim to retain the status quo or
implement a programme of reform or change - In reality, the policy cycle is often a messy
process
5What is a Policy Cycle?
6What is an effective and efficient Policy Cycle?
- Know clearly where we are analysis
- Know where we want to go objectives
- Understand the steps needed to get there
policies and strategies - Capacity to follow the steps sound
implementation procedures - Know where we are at any time effective
monitoring system - Learning from experience to inform and improve
the next generation of policies and programmes
7What is an inclusive and accountable Policy
Cycle?
- Inclusive means that all relevant actors and
stakeholders - should be consulted and participate at various
stages of the cycle - Accountable requires
- open and transparent procedures
8What is Evidence-Based Policy Making?
- In recent years there has been an effort to
improve the policy cycle in many countries by
moving to evidence-based policy making - Evidence-based policy helps people make
well-informed decisions about policy, programmes
and projects by - putting evidence from good and reliable
information sources and - research based evidence at the heart of policy
development and implementation - A shift to evidence-based policy making will
increase the possibility of meeting the MDG
goals
9The Policy Cycle Analysing the situation
Setting objectives
Policy and strategy
- Where are we now?
- Including quantitative and qualitative analysis
- Characteristics of the population
- Macro, social, political constraints
- Current national strategies
PRSP process the theory
Fully costed programmes
Analysis
Implementation
Monitoring and evaluation
10The Policy CycleSetting objectives
Setting objectives
Policy and strategy
- Where do we want to go?
- Set priorities and objectives
- Define medium- and long-term goals (for growth,
poverty reduction etc) - Integrate MDGs
PRSP process the theory
Fully costed programmes
Analysis
Policy implementation
Monitoring
11The Policy CycleDeveloping policies and
strategies
Setting objectives
Policy and strategy
- What do we need to do to reach objectives?
- Examine existing programmes
- Identify priority policies and programmes
- Research evidence-based policy making
-
PRSP process the theory
Fully costed programmes
Analysis
Policy implementation
Monitoring and evaluation
12The Policy CycleCosting programmes
Setting objectives
Policy and strategy
- How much is it going to cost and where is the
financing coming from? - Cost the range of policies and programmes
- that have been identified
- Align with budget process
-
Costing programmes
Analysis
PRSP process the theory
Monitoring
Implementation
13The Policy Cycle Implementation
Policy formulation
Policy and strategy
- Following the steps to deliver the policies and
programmes - Pilot testing and implementing
- new programmes
Analysis
Fully costed programmes
PRSP process the theory
Implementation
Monitoring
14The Policy Cycle Monitoring and Evaluation
Setting objectives
Financing
- Are we following the steps set out and moving
in the right direction? - Have we reached objectives?
- Do we need to review objectives?
- How can we improve progress against
- objectives?
Communication
Analysis
Monitoring
Monitoring and evaluation
Policy implementation
15How does an MDG strategy fit into the national
policy cycle?
- Developing a strategy for meeting the MDGs
usually has involved / involves three stages
(follow-up) - Setting a baseline and National targets
- Conducting a needs assessment
- Building policies and programmes around needs
assessments
16Important issues for the information providers on
Indicators of MDGs
- We should learn to know the need structures of
our important users and user groups - We should make our information easily accessible
for them - And we should put ourselves in continuous
interaction with them in order to get to know
them better
17User demands how can they be found out?
- Is knowing user demands important or not?
- Not a simple task
- Which users voices are heard?
- How good is the coverage of our information
sources?
18More and more statistical publication takes place
on the internet
- This is a very positive development
- Availability and accessibility of official
statistics has grown substantially - In the beginning of the year 2008
- gt500 Million internet hosts in the world!
- This also increases pressure on timeliness
19So - isnt it enough if we provide information on
our web site? Searching on Google
- Inflation
- 30 Million answers
- Ergebnisse 1 - 10 von ungefähr 30700'000 für
Inflation. (0.26 Sekunden) - Social statistics
- 73 Million answers
- Ergebnisse 1 - 10 von ungefähr 73100'000 für
Social Statistics. (0.08 Sekunden) - For USA only 4 Million
- For Switzerland only 1 Million
- For Kazakhstan only 0.2 Million
20And note There are other traps on the way!
- Just putting your information on your web site
does not automatically mean it is utilized - Even though your web information is utilized, it
does not mean that your most important users make
use of it
21Traps on the way, continued
- You may cover only a tinyshare of your
potential users- but not recognize it!
22Traps on the way, continued
- Counting the popularity of your web site by
hits may deceive you because - a substantial part of the fabulous growth comes
from search engines checking if you have any new
information
23To develop understandable messages may also not
be all that easy in the jungle of statistical
information
24How do we perceive ourselves? How do decision
makers perceive our services?
- How important is our role in real decision
making? - In practical terms?
- How covering is our information on users?
- Do we know enough about our potential users, our
potential customers?
25User demands the basic ones
- User friendly
- Easily accessible
- Understandable and clear
- Focused on the essentials
- With visual presentations
- Impressive
- Balanced
26Basic quality demands for statistical services
- Relevance
- Accuracy
- Timeliness
- Punctuality
- Accessibility
- Clarity and
- Comparability
27Trade-offs almost every day
- Timeliness is a must but what about accuracy?
- Relevance is a must but what about needs
specific only to one or a few users? - RememberOnly used statistics is useful
statistics
28User friendly statistical services
- can be established only through interaction with
users - Interaction with real users
- Not with solely our imagination on them
- Not only governmental users
- Not only the ones we by tradition are mainly used
to
29Who bears the responsibility that communication
with users works well?
- The future
- The importance
- Our place in society is at stake
- Users judgement may well define, how our
statistical services are perceived and used
30Who bears the responsibility that communication
with users works well? (2)
- Is it the individual statistician, the
subject-matter expert? - Program managers?
- Information PR Unit?
- Or Is it a challenge for the top management?
- Who should bring in a systematic approach on
building user relations, if it is missing?
31A modulated approach - basics for efficient user
services
- The importance of
- A good information architecture
- Effective databases
- Metadata information available
- Linking identifications exist between different
data - XML helps to build electronic bridges
32The importance of user friendly Database services
- Statistical agencies produce quite a lot of
statistical information - Different users have different aspects of
interest, they want information - By industries, By enterprise sizes
- By regions
- Comparisons over different time periods
- International comparisons
- And numerous other aspects
- PC-Axis, PX-Web User friendly services!
33Often it is not easy, especially if information
providers work in silos - and behave as that
would be ideal
34Internet has in recent years pushed for building
corporate imagos
- It has also highlighted the often very different
approaches different departments/divisions/units
may have on ways of publishing data - Sometimes these differences are reflected on the
web site of the NSI!
35Tools assisting work for better satisfaction of
user needs
- Customer databases
- Information on regular and heavy users
- Customer Relationship Management system(CRM)
- For good and systematic follow-up and planning of
interaction with regular and heavy users - Example NSOs Canada, Finland, Estonia
- Business Intelligence systems
36But thats already another story
- Thank you for your attention
- Remember
- Only used statistics is useful statistics
- Final question who will have the responsibility
for systematic satisfaction of user needs on
information on MDG Indicators on Statistical
Information in general?
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