Paris21 Meeting on Funding Statistical Development 19 February 2011, New York Funding a Regional Statistical Strategy – Recent experience from the Pacific Island Region Gerald Haberkorn Manager, Statistics and Demography Programme Secretariat of the Pacific Community Noumea, New Caledonia (

Structure of presentation 1.Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics 2.Designing a regional statistical strategy in the Pacific island region 3.Current funding commitments to implement the regional statistical strategy

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 Recent developments at regional, national, and international levels

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 Illustration: compilation of MDG targets and indicators pre 2000

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 3 rd 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)

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): increase of 2010 NSO budget by 40% (based on long-term statistical master plan developed through an Australian funded/ABS implemented ISP); Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea: o 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, o Governments of the Solomon islands and Vanuatu recently expressing interest to also develop such long-term statistical strategies.

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 o Cooks Islands, Niue, Tokelau (assisted by Statistics NZ) o FSM, Guam, Kiribati, Nauru (assisted by ABS/SPC )

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, unrelenting energy, perseverance and commitment to the cause by Paris21.

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;

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 o 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.

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. Process involved careful choice (strategic) of consultants to ensure o technical/substantive content and acceptance of strategy, o 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.

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 providing the governance structure to guide / oversight SPC in this process; Strategy and proposed governance arrangements were adopted by Regional Conference of Heads of Planning and Statistics (7/2010)

2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in the Pacific island region Pre-Strategy implementation (additional activities) Step 1: develop Pacific Statistics Strategy Action Plan o Purpose: prioritize objectives and define associated activities; o 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) o Purpose: self-evident o Development team: AusAID + AusAID contracted external M & E specialist (to ensure principal funder is happy with content, process of delivery, acceptability of milestones and timelines) and myself.

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.

2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in the Pacific island region PSSAP status report Strategy action plan submitted to, reviewed and endorsed with some modifications by Pacific Statistics Steering Committee ( Nov 2010); 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) All members have committed to implementation of Phase 1, and are involved in guiding/monitoring overall plan coordination by SPC, as well as monitoring PSSAP activities executed by ourselves.

3. Current funding commitments to implement the regional statistical strategy Principal supporter: AusAID, with 4 funding envelopes Multi-year funding support to SPC to implement regional statistical strategy related activities (A$ 10 million, ); 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 AusAID’s 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 ($ value: need to check PRESS).

3. Current funding commitments to implement the regional statistical strategy Other supporters: ADB provides multi-year (usually in 2-year blocks) financial support to SPC’s regional household survey programme (US$ 1 million for under discussion); Paris21: joint development of NSDS with SPC, plus assistance with statistical advocacy initiatives (to increase in ) PFTAC: IMF’s Pacific arm makes a much valued and appreciated contribution to statistical capacity building, particularly in the field of macro-economic statistics ($ value unknown);

3. Current funding commitments to implement the regional statistical strategy Other supporters: SPC core and programme budget provides ongoing support to our statistical development activities across the region (2011: A$ 1,6 million); UNFPA has provided ad hoc supplementary funding to support SPC regional DHS programme (currently looking at regularizing financial contribution to Phase 1 development) World Bank: TFSCB grant to develop hybrid multi indicator survey, and assistance with meta-data documentation.

3. Current funding commitments to implement the regional statistical strategy Final observation regards funding commitments: We are in the position to fund most of our agreed-upon TYPSS priority activities over the coming 3 years (the first three years of Phase 1); Currently un-funded priority activities are in the area of o Government Finance Statistics and Monetary and Financial Statistics, and o Improving Education and Health Information Management systems in selected countries.

Take home message While processes described thus far sound very complex and overwhelming (they were/are!), I believe they are worth it. By being inclusive and transparent – partners are less likely to disown what they helped develop and decided to implement in the first place. Thank you