1. Current UNSD Work on Data quality
United Nations Statistics Division
Current UNSD Work on Data quality
Alex Blackburn
UNSD
10th Oslo Group Meeting
10-13 May 2016
Aguascalientes, Mexico

2. Overview NQAF Current work on generic UN agency QAF
Quality reports of UN publications
CountryData (a project for the MDG indicators)
SDMX for the SDGs

3. NQAF
In 2012, UNSC endorsed the generic national quality assurance framework template and encouraged countries to use it.
The template provides a structure that countries can use for their own quality assurance systems

4. NQAF
NQAF has links to other quality frameworks (StatCan, IMF, GSBPM etc)
Structure should be familiar to Oslo Group members, incorporated into the data quality chapters of IRES and ESCM
Will likely be on the next UNSC agenda for discussion

5. UN System Generic QAF
Development of a Generic UN Quality Assurance Framework - UNSD is a major contributor to those efforts, working with the chief statisticians of the UN system
Relates to data quality and accountability across the UN system: will allow a common assessment of quality across very diverse areas of statistics
Expected to be made public, to show the UN practicing what we preach

6. Quality Reports of UN Publications
Flagship UN publications such as the Statistical Yearbook, Statistical Pocketbook, Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, UnData have quality reports prepared (soon to be shared)
Makes the publications team accountable to data users, countries, agencies (and internal stakeholders)

7. countryData
A tool to let countries share their MDG development data and compare against those of international organisations
SDMX made data sharing easy and led to higher quality
Could be considered a ”discrepancy analysis”, highlighting differences between country data and agency sources, with explanation. Allows data users to make informed choices

8. IAEG-SDGs work on SDMX
The IAEG-SDG agreed to establish a SDMX working group on SDG data AND metadata
Expected to increase quality by removing processing errors, reducing the response burden
Metadata can describe the quality of data, but are a quality component themselves
Creation of a MSD should be transformative in improving data quality

9. Summary
UNSD (data dissemination branch) has various projects in data quality that are not energy specific
If the Oslo Group wants do something on data quality, UNSD (industry & energy stats section) can be the bridge

10. Thanks Questions?