Regional Progress Report ICP 6th Regional Workshop for 2011 round in Western Asia Region; 21 – 27 January 2013; Istanbul, Turkey Regional Progress Report

Outline Regional Activities Regional Progress Regional Challenges & Lessons learned Upcoming Regional Activities Workshop’s Regional Objectives Regional National Accounts Meeting

Regional Activities ICP 5th Regional Workshop, March 2012 ESCWA held its ICP 5th Regional Workshop for the 2011 round in WA Region at the Kempinski Ishtar Hotel, Dead Sea, Jordan from the 12th to the 15th of March 2012. The Workshop hosted ICP national coordinators, price experts and NA experts from all 11 participating countries and featured consultants from the World Bank. The Workshop focused on 4 main objectives: The validation of the Q3 HHC price data; A first look at the Machinery and Equipment data; The discussion of the ICP Special Surveys; Assessment, discussion and evaluation of the National Accounts activities.

Regional Activities ESCWA Training Workshop on ICP National Accounts Activities ESCWA held a Training Workshop on ICP National Accounts Activities at the Kempinski Hotel, Amman, Jordan from the 17th to the 18th of July 2012. The Workshop focused on four main objectives: The presentation of MORES process, approaches for estimating expenditures and impact of expenditures on results; Hands on training of MORES by each participant; The validation of expenditure values; The discussion and evaluation of Exhaustiveness and QA questionnaires.

Regional Activities ESCWA’s participation in Africa’s forth ICP Regional Workshop ESCWA participated in Africa’s fourth ICP Regional Workshop, which was held by the AfDB in Tunisia from June 4 to 8, 2012, and was attended by a total of 120 participants from 49 African countries taking part in the 2011 ICP round. The regional coordinator for WA was invited to be part of the event and share with the African countries WA’s experience and expertise in the implementation of the 2011 ICP Round. ESCWA’s representative organized several side meetings with AfDB, to put in place a submission and validation mechanism for Egypt’s and Sudan’s ICP data, as the two countries are participating in both ESCWA and Africa regions. This participation formed a qualitative development in the level of communication within the ICP framework, taking coordination beyond the countries level and into the regional level.

Regional Activities The 7th ICP Regional Coordinators’ meeting The 7th ICP Regional Coordinators’ meeting was held during September 19 to 21, 2012 at the World Bank in Washington, DC. In attendance were Regional Coordinators and representatives from all regions as well as staff and consultants of the ICP Global Office. The meeting offered the Regional Coordinators an opportunity to discuss the progress made on the program in their respective regions. Subsequent to the validation of the preliminary data, the meeting tackled the outstanding technical issues and gave the experts and the regional coordinators the chance to share and discuss the best methodologies for the computation of PPPs and the final results of the program. In regards to the use of importance indicators and the choice of importance weights, further examination of the concept and its use will be conducted once the validated data is available.

GCC contribution WA Regional Office (RO) would like to thank GCC countries for their appreciated contribution in bearing the ticket costs on their own expense. Consequently, it gave chance for all participating national teams to benefit from additional meeting days and elongated validation sessions for better and more reliable results.

GCC contribution Country Ticket cost USD Number of participants Saved amount USD Bahrain 550 2 1,100 Kuwait 625 1,250 Oman Qatar 750 1,500 KSA 600 1,200 UAE 7,500 Interpretation cost (interpreters, interpretation booth, …) 12,000 Total saved amount 19,500 Extension of the workshop for a more comprehensive data validation, to enhance the validation procedure, and to improve data quality.

Regional Progress Data Submission - Data Collection period is concluded. - All needed data were received by the RO.* The national participating teams showed a lot of dedication and cooperation. And in its turn, the RO was always there to support and guide the national teams with continuous follow up, clear instructions and technical support whenever needed. - Currently, the RO is running several rounds of data Validation in order to filter the national and regional price data. * Except MORES 2011 data

Regional Progress HHC price data validation - Quaranta Tables - Dikhanov Tables - Skainov Tables PLI and CV analysis

Regional Progress Validation guidelines WA RO developed Validation guidelines particularly to assess and validate national and regional submitted data. These Validation guidelines tackle the evaluation of the data of the special surveys in particular. The RO came up with a specific validation strategy for each survey to improve data at both national and regional level. These guidelines will assist in generating better data and results.

Regional Progress Validation guidelines The procedure covers both intra-county and inter-country validation. The intra-country validation tackles problems and potential errors within the data of the same country, while the inter-country validation cross-checks item prices between all the participating countries and questions the discrepancies.

Regional Progress Private Education Validation guidelines Intra – Country Validation: 1.1 - The General Education Indicators sheet: Checking data provided in GEI sheet. 1.2- Data Collection Form sheets: Checking data provided in DCF sheets under National Standard Information and Information for Each observation sections. Inter-Country Validation method: 2.1. The Quaranta Tables constructed after the preparation of country average price files, regrouping all the observations presented by each country. 2.2. The Actual Validation carried out through the special Private Education QT and in the presence of PE from all the participating countries. 2.3. Potential sources of error

Regional Progress Machinery and Equipment Validation guidelines Intra – Country Validation: 1.1. Number of priced items: Checking the number of priced items in every country and calculate the coverage percentage 1.2. Intra-country price validation: Checking the consistency of several price observations for the same item, and make sure that the difference between them is logical and/or justified. 1.3. Validation of additional costs: These additions affect the end price of the product and should be noted and taken into consideration, since they could help explain price discrepancies during the inter-country validation. 1.4. Validation of the order quantity: Some item prices collected are based on an order quantity that is superior to one, and this indeed can affect the final price of the unit. 1.5. Validation of the Importance Matrix: The validation of this matrix consists mainly in making sure that at least one item is considered important under each of the eight basic headings, and that countries provided prices for all the items it considered as important.

Regional Progress Machinery and Equipment (Contd) Inter-Country Validation method: 2.1. The Quaranta Tables constructed after the preparation of country average price files, regrouping all the observations presented by each country. 2.2. The Actual Validation carried out through the special Machinery and Equipment QT and in the presence of PE from all the participating countries. 2.3. Potential sources of error

Regional Progress Constructions (1st data review) Part 1 Review of Country Submissions and Initial QTs Revision of Country Submissions Part 2 Overview of the Approach for Construction PPPs Overview of Validation Steps Analysis of 1st QTs Validation of Resource Mixes, Mark-ups and Professional Fees

Regional Progress Government Compensation (1st data review) Introduction: Overview of Validation Steps Intra – Country Validation: Review of Country Submissions Intra-Country Analysis Inter-Country Validation method: Analysis of 1st QTs

Regional Progress Housing (1st data review) Introduction: Overview of Validation Steps Rentals Quantities Intra – Country Validation: Review of Country Submissions Intra-Country Analysis Inter-Country Validation method: Review initial QTs Revision of country submissions Analysis of 1st QTs

Regional Progress Water Tariff (1st data review) Intra – Country Validation: Review of Country Submissions

Challenges and lessons learned General challenges Specific challenges

Challenges and lessons learned General challenges Unavailable or lack of data Unpublished data Uncooperative entities Technical problems with using software Rotations in some national teams Translation of data submitted in Arabic to English

Challenges and lessons learned Specific challenges – Housing Housing Rentals: - Not all dwelling types were covered - New dwelling specifications for some countries - Data submitted not in the required format Missing information (weights, …) Housing Volume: - Unavailable data - Lack of recent data - New specifications

Challenges and lessons learned Specific challenges – Private Education Missing information Misunderstanding of some requirements Insufficient number of observations Uncooperative data providers

Challenges and lessons learned Specific challenges – Water Tariff The questionnaire’s requirements and water tariff cost structure were not consistent for some countries.

Challenges and lessons learned Specific challenges – Government Compensations and Expenditures Lack of data (compensation data and aggregate indicators) Technical problems Confidential information not allowed to be published by the authorities

Challenges and lessons learned Specific challenges – Constructions Uncooperative data providers Lack of data Non standard alternative UoM

Challenges and lessons learned Specific challenges – Machinery and Equipment The importance Matrix concept Items specifications Same item with considerable difference in prices.

Upcoming Regional Activities The 8th ICP Regional Coordinators’ meeting The meeting will offer the RCs an opportunity to discuss the progress made in data submission (coverage and quality) with the GO and other regions, to decide on next steps to the Spring meetings of the TAG and RCs, and to agree on timeline for delivery. Regional Executive board meeting: Presentation of main findings and preliminary results computed basing on HHC data (preliminary PPPs)

Workshop’s Regional Objectives To validate HHC quarterly and annual data To validate special surveys data To improve input data quality and reliability in order to meet the international comparability standards and to generate enhanced preliminary PPPs.

Regional National Accounts Meeting ESCWA will hold a Workshop on ICP National Accounts Activities in March/April 2013 The Workshop will host ICP NA experts from 12 participating countries. The Workshop will mainly focus on the validation of expenditure values.

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