1. United Nations Statistics Division and the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics Stefan Schweinfest United Nations Statistics Division Workshop on the organization of National Statistical Systems and user-producer relations for countries in South Asia Colombo, Sri Lanka, 22 – 24 July 2008

2. 2  Recent initiatives to promote the Principles  International Principles  UNSD portal for the Development of National Statistical Systems  Implementation of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics: selected results of an UNSD survey Overview  Introduction to the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics 1 2 3

3. 3 Introduction to the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics Introduction to the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics 1

4. 4 1985 Declaration on Professional Ethics, ISI 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall  moving from ‘centrally planned economies’ to ‘market economies’, requiring: 1979 Code of Conduct for Statisticians, American Statistical Association Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics Historical Background: 1 1991 Adopted by the Conference of European Statistician 1994 Adopted by the UN Statistical Commission -sound statistical information systems to drive policy making -confidence of the public in statistics

5. 5 Fundamental Principles: The 10 Commandments  Principle 1: Relevance, impartiality and equal access  Principle 2: Professionalism  Principle 3: Accountability and transparancy  Principle 4: Prevention of misuse  Principle 5: Cost-effectiveness  Principle 6: Confidentiality  Principle 7: Legislation  Principle 8: National co-ordination  Principle 9: International co-ordination  Principle 10: International statistical co-operation 1

6. 6 … some explanation (1)  Principle 1: Relevance, impartiality and equal access  Serve users on an impartial basis  Statistics should meet the test of practical utility (demand- driven rather than supply-driven)  Principles 2, 3, 7: Professionalism, Accountability, Legislation  Specify the scientific approach a statistician should adopt: honour impartiality, reliability, relevance and transparency  Principle 4: Prevention of misuse  Statistical agencies to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of statistics and statistically educate major stakeholders

7. 7 … some explanation (2)  Principle 5: Cost-effectiveness  Collect only the data required for the purpose of the enquiry, avoiding over burden of respondents and respecting privacy  Principle 6, 8 : Confidentiality, National co-ordination  Greater trust of raw data suppliers result in better quality of data supplied  Coherence and consistency, effective use of scarce resources  Principle 9, 10: International co-ordination, International statistical co-operation  Adoption of international concepts, classifications, practices  Formulation and establishment of international standards and practices

8. 8 Implementation of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics Implementation of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics 2

9. 9 Implementation of the Fundamental Principles  Results of a UNSD survey (May-Nov. 2003), presented at 34 th session of UN Statistical Commission, March 2004  54 questions  112 out of 194 countries replied 2 Scale used: 1. Fully implemented 2. Largely implemented 3. Somewhat implemented 4. Not implemented

10. 10 Relevance, impartiality and equal access  “Official statistics need to meet the test of practical utility and need to be made available on an impartial basis by official statistical agencies to honour citizens’ entitlement to public information” Fully implemented in 44% and Largely implemented in 45% of responding countries P1 66%have mechanisms to receive regularly feedback from users:  Committee/advisory body to ensure user-producer dialogue  Periodical surveys  Periodical meetings  Product/publication questionnaires 95%no political interference was encountered when preparing their work plans 80%do not need political approval to publish statistical information 66%have advance release calendar 75%statistics are made available to all users at the same time

11. 11  “To retain trust in official statistics, the statistical agencies need to decide according to strictly professional considerations, including scientific principles and professional ethics, on the methods and procedures for the collection, processing, storage and presentation of statistical data” 98%no political interference was encountered in methodological issues + 75% have written guidelines on professional ethics Some concerns:  Insufficient and/or decreasing number of staff  Difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified staff  Lack of analytical capabilities  Lack of information technology capabilities  Insufficient language capabilities  Insufficient international experience  Budget to train staff is inadequate for 2/3 of respondents Professional standards and ethics P2 Fully implemented in 59% and Largely implemented in 37% of responding countries

12. 12  “To facilitate a correct interpretation of the data, the statistical agencies are to present information according to scientific standards on the sources, methods and procedures of the statistics” 90% provide an indication of the quality of data published 95% provide explanatory or analytical text with published statistics Accountability and transparency P3 Fully implemented in 43% and Largely implemented in 50% of responding countries

13. 13 Prevention of misuse  “The statistical agencies are entitled to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of statistics” P4 +90%entitled to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of statistics most misinterpretation are reported to occur in the mass media, (Chief Statistician prepares letter to the Editor) 80% carry out activities to educate users (improve the statistical literacy of key users) Fully implemented in 37% and Largely implemented in 37% of responding countries

14. 14 Sources of official statistics  “Data for statistical purposes may be drawn from all types of sources, be they statistical surveys or administrative records. Statistical agencies are to choose the source with regard to quality, timeliness, costs and the burden on respondents” P5 ~ all have some sort of access to administrative data but with many variations in scope and conditions of access +90% systematically work on improving timeliness 86% work on reducing reporting burden on respondents 63% have a quality management programme for their statistical outputs Fully implemented in 49% and Largely implemented in 42% of responding countries

15. 15 Confidentiality  “Individual data collected by statistical agencies for statistical compilation, whether they refer to natural or legal persons, are to be strictly confidential and used exclusively for statistical purposes” P6 ~ all have practices to prevent disclosure of individual data  77% of countries with practices highly developed  Exceptions in release of individual data mentioned by countries:  As evidence in a court of law;  Data disclosed in emergency situations such as public health crisis “many” provide anonymized microdata files, typically for research Fully implemented in 80% and Largely implemented in 19% of responding countries

16. 16 Legislation “The laws, regulations and measures under which the statistical systems operate are to be made public” P7 +90% Have a general statistical law providing the authority and rules under which the national statistical office operates  Many countries reported the law is currently under revision or expressed the need for such a revision 64% Respondents must “always” respond to official surveys/enquiries from the national statistical office  Participation in the country’s population and housing census seems to be mandatory in almost every country 98% Inform respondents about the nature of the survey and about their rights Fully implemented in 77% and Largely implemented in 17% of responding countries

17. 17 National coordination “Coordination among statistical agencies within countries is essential to achieve consistency and efficiency in the statistical system” P8 +90% in addition to the national statistical office there are other producers of official statistics 86% organizational arrangements are in place to coordinate data collection activities and avoid duplications of statistics at the national level ~ 80% have organizational arrangements for setting statistical standards (definitions, geo classifications, method, sampling frames, etc) Fully implemented in 31% and Largely implemented in 44% of responding countries

18. 18 Use of international standards  “The use by statistical agencies in each country of international concepts, classifications and methods promotes the consistency and efficiency of statistical systems at all official levels” P9 42% 52% 38% Application of international standards, as recommended, by statistical field: National accounting/other economic statistics Censuses and demographic statistics Social statistics System of National Accounts (1993) is the most widely accepted large framework ~ 50% have adapted international standards to country circumstances, particularly in those countries making intensive use of registers for the compilation of demographic statistics, that do not generally use definitions in accordance with international standards Fully implemented in 45% and Largely implemented in 50% of responding countries

19. 19 International cooperation  “Bilateral and multilateral cooperation in statistics contributes to the improvement of systems of official statistics in all countries” P10 96% 55% 11% 29% Confirmed that their office have been involved in international cooperation projects in the last 5 years: as recipients, as donors, both

20. 20 Major conclusions of survey  Fundamental Principles seem well implemented  Best implemented principles are:  Confidentiality (principle 6)  Legislation, although some reported law is outdated (principle 7)  Least implemented are:  Prevention of misuse (principle 4)  National coordination (principle 8)  Major problem areas preventing a better implementation of the principles:  Authorized and unauthorized disclosure of individual data;  Political interference at the dissemination stage;  Need to adapt international standards to national circumstances  Lack of resources

21. 21 Recent initiatives to promote the Principles Recent initiatives to promote the Principles 3

22. 22 UNSD Good Practices Database Database containing 323 documents on countries’ implementation of the Fundamental Principles Relevance, impartiality and equal access = 196 documents Legislation = 180 documents Confidentiality = 114 documents 82 countries contributed

23. 23 Principles Governing International Statistical Activities  Endorsed by the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities on 14 September, 2005  Chief Statisticians or coordinators of statistical activities of United Nations agencies and related organizations, agreed to implement the International Principles to enhance the functioning of the international statistical system  Principles as basis for quality assessment frameworks (CCSA quality conference Rome, July 2008).