1. OECD Chief Statistician and Director, Statistics Directorate
“50 years since the creation of INDEC: Lessons for a new statistical law”
Address to the International Statistical Session on
INDEC’s 50th Anniversary
Teatro Municipal General San Martín, Buenos Aires
31 January 2018
Martine Durand
OECD Chief Statistician and Director,
Statistics Directorate

2. The UN Fundamental Principles
… Official statistics provide an indispensable element in the information system of a democratic society, serving the Government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation.
…To retain trust in official statistics, the statistical agencies need to decide according to strictly professional considerations, including scientific principles and professional ethics
… 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
The laws, regulations and measures under which the statistical systems operate are to be made public.

3. The OECD Recommendation on Good Statistical Practice

4. Origin and nature of the OECD Recommendation
Origins
UN Fundamental Principles
Regional Codes of Practice
Quality Assurance Frameworks
Experience of OECD members with statistical laws, codes of ethics, censuses, surveys etc.
Nature
12 sub-recommendations covering law and institutions, independence, resources, access, procedures, dissemination etc.
Each sub-recommendation illustrated with good practice examples

5. Main Purposes of the OECD Recommendation
The main aims of the Recommendation are to help countries ensure: 1
The integrity of the national statistical system (NSS) 2
That the NSS has the capacity to operate effectively 3
That the NSS does its job in ways that meet professional and scientific standards and user needs

6. Ensuring integrity (1) Key measures to ensure integrity:
Requires striking a delicate balance between democratic accountability and independence
- A clear statistical law setting out the structure of NSS
- Guaranteed independence of the statistical function
- A clear role and reporting line for the Head of the NSS

7. Ensuring integrity (2) Key measures to ensure integrity (continued):
- A professional board or advisory body of high calibre
- Obligations to respect confidentiality and privacy of information
- Obligations on the NSS to present information objectively
- Technical controls, such as fixed release dates

8. Fostering capacity Key measures to ensure statistical capacity:
- Adequate human and financial resources
- Flexibility in use of resources to meet overall goals
- Annual or multiannual planning
- Access to administrative data

9. Promoting quality Key measures to ensure statistical quality:
- Following manuals and guides
- Performing test runs, consistency checks, documenting errors, checking and updating registers
- Installing quality assessment procedures and using user feedback
- Ensuring clear metadata and access to microdata for researchers
- A quality assurance role for the NSO across the NSS
- Fostering research and innovation

10. Argentina and the OECD Recommendation
June 2016: Argentina first non-OECD member country to notify adherence
November 2016: OECD statistical mission visits Buenos Aires to assess legal and institutional framework and progress in key statistical domains
June 2017: OECD Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy considers report and agrees to Argentina’s adherence
August 2017: Argentina formally adheres to Recommendation
January 2018: launch of full review of legal and institutional framework and all statistical domains

11. Thank you!