Microdata dissemination best practice Draft note prepared by the World Bank Development Data Group for the CCSA twenty-second session, Ankara, September 2013 Olivier Dupriez

The demand for microdata Growing and diversifying; justifies investments in microdata dissemination by international or regional organizations But evidence is still anecdotal – Example: World Bank Microdata LibraryWorld Bank Microdata Library 400,000+ hits in past 6 months; 4,000 registered users Catalog of citations shows diversity of outputs A more detailed assessment would be useful to better quantify and qualify the demand/use

The supply Few CCSA member agencies disseminate microdata: EUROSTAT, UNICEF, WB, WHO – Based on review of CCSA members’ websites – These agencies: Provide data free of charge Impose some restrictions (no “open data”) Comply with (some) best practices

UN Fundamental Principles Microdata dissemination for research purpose is not incompatible with the UN Fundamental Principles of Statistics as long as it is not possible to identify data referring to an individual – See UNECE Principles and Guidelines of Good Practice United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Conference of European Statisticians, 2007, Managing Statistical Confidentiality and Microdata Access

Best practice - Organizational Key principles: openness (i.e. provided on equal terms at low/no cost), transparency (detailed metadata and clear access procedures and terms of use), legal conformity, privacy and copyright protection, quality of data, security, and accountability. – See IHSN and OECD guidelines

Best practice - Technical Originate mainly from academic data archives Adapted by the IHSN Adopted by many (including FAO, ILO, UIS, UNICEF, WB, WFP, WHO) Free software and guidelines available for: – Documentation (based on DDI metadata standard) – Cataloguing – Preservation of digital information – Statistical disclosure risk management – Dissemination

Best practice - Technical Areas where more needs to be done to improve the best practice: – Practice manual for statistical disclosure risk control (ongoing work by PARIS21 and World Bank for the IHSN) – Development and use of a common taxonomy of topics as a data discovery tool (ongoing by IHSN)

Implementation Significant cost of curating data and providing a service of microdata dissemination – Requires sustainable staffing and budgeting Not all agencies can/should do it – Rely on trusted repositories (other international organization, or academic data centers)

CCSA Task Team Limited role in best practice development: already exist or other/better mechanisms are in place to develop the missing components (IHSN open to all CCSA member agencies). Possible CCSA role in: – Assessment of demand for data (report) – Adoption of the DDI metadata standard as a preferred UN standard (UNSC) – Advocacy for improved curation and dissemination of microdata