1. Workshop on New Approaches to Statistical Capacity Development
11 – 12 December 2017
Sufian Abu Harb, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics

2. People
When it comes to Capacity development, the center of the subject always is the people.
And when we talk SDGs the center of the subject as well is the people.
Each country has different priorities in SDGs and in capacity development.

3. How would you define ‘modernization’ of the NSS in your context?
What are the main challenges that NSS face in countries your situation?
How would you define ‘modernization’ of the NSS in your context?
How could your country have more ownership in the implementation of capacity development programmes over the medium term?
I was asked to address main issues related to the implementation of the SDGs from country perspective.
The issues are related to challenges facing national statistical system, the perception of modernization based on our context and the sense of ownership among partners in implementing SDGs.

4. A country under conflict – Fragile environment
Adapting vs adopting vs aligning to donors list of priorities (Core Funding vs Project funding)
50%+ of data comes from surveys or censuses
How to keep up the momentum!
Culture of sharing venture & achievements
The challenges are always there and do not necessarily come with the SDGs. However, the SDGs brings opportunities to tackle these challenges and equip yourself better for the future.
As for Palestine, we are a country under conflict and the statistical system operates under fragile environment.
What does that mean? It means priorities are not stable and they are very much related with the situation on the ground.
Our own priorities not necessarily match that of donors’. This is a problem when Donor’s share of our budget is more than 25%. We adapted to this reality by developing what is called “Core Funding Group” which is based on statistical program for 3 years and one basket for donors support. This mechanism has been operational at PCBS since 2003.
Another challenge is to better utilize administrative records to produce quality statistics. Only 44% of our indicators are covered by administrative records.

5. Institution Production Technology People
For us modernization was not something new but rather part of PCBS development process.
We consider ourselves as a learning institution and we always look for best practices to benchmark. Our development process sits on four legs: The istitution, the production of statistics, the technology and the people are in the center of this development.

6. Stronger reference to professional independence
Fixed term of chief statistician
Terms for dismissal of chief statistician
Adoption of Fundamental Principles
Institutional
The work of PCBS is regulated by statistics act The law was updated in 2013 based on remarks of Light Peer Review in The new drafted Law reflects directly the FP.
PCBS got ISO certificate in 2010 which covers about 30 main procedures covering technical and administrative matters.
PCBS also got European Foundation for Quality Management C2E certificate in 2017.
All of the activities reflects that PCBS is proactive when it comes to the “modernization” of its institutional development.

7. Production
As for production wise, PCBS has been transforming from 5 phases project cycle to GSBPM since Now the Model is applied on All of PCBS surveys. It is also utilized as implementing tool for the Common Metadata Framework and the Common Quality Framework which are expected to be produced early 2018.

8. Technology
As for technology, we seek development in this field to provide solutions to problems at hand rather than for the sake of technology itself.
PCBS has been experimenting with modern data collection techniques since The census 2017 is based on mobile data collection supported by GIS.
PCBS has been developing web based solutions for owners of administrative records.

9. People Standards Statistical analysis Report writing Quality
A capacity building program has targeted more than 500 employees in the NSS for the past three years.
As satisfied employees = satisfied customers, PCBS conducts satisfaction surveys that target employees and users to identify areas for further improvement.
We have 28 MoU with data providers in the government sector.
We conduct stock taking exercise to identify what is available at data providers and what skills they are in need of. The last exercise was conducted in 2016.
Standards
Statistical analysis
Report writing
Quality
Statistical principles

10. Minimize discrepancies in indicators Increase coverage
Gain new experiences
Visibility at the national level
We have prioritized list of targets that correspond to national agenda.
A number of technical committees supported the national team to function thematically for the different topics such as ICT indicators, educational & health indicators…etc.
PCBS is leading the development of data requirements in cooperation with the data providers.
SDGs National team headed by the Prime Minister Office monitors and review the whole progress particularly the integrated SDGs targets within the national policy agenda.
Palestine's National Policy Agenda, “Putting Citizens First" is consistently aligned to the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) “no one left behind”.
We show value of being involved with SDGs committees / teams

11. Finally I would like to tell you about PCBS
It was born in 1993 so now PCBS is 24 years.
Total permanent staff is 274
Of whom 37% are females
And 20% have higher education certificate (Master degree +)
The median age of PCBS staff is about 40 years
Now we have the third population, housing and establishment census underway.
The Palestinian decision to carry out the census in its normal periodicity (1997, 2007, 2017) comes in response to our awareness of the crucial need for very detailed level of statistics to establish a rigorous baseline to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

12. Workshop on New Approaches to Statistical Capacity Development
11 – 12 December 2017
Sufian Abu Harb, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics