1. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division Conclusions from the Management Seminar on Global Assessments EFTA-Eurostat-UNECE Seminar on Global Assessments Yalta, Ukraine 23 – 25 September 2009 Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECE

2. Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 225.9.2009 Challenges inviting the need of performing Global Assessments  Special Cultural and Statistical traditions in the ways NSIs of CIS countries work  Global Assessments are needed by The NSIs themselves The Governing structures in the country International donors  Seven background factors influencing NSS´s operational environments today

3. Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 325.9.2009 The “Seven background factors”, mentioned by Eurostat  Meetings of statisticians: Possibilities to meet and talk on an international level have enormously increased;  Internet: Almost all information available directly on line;  IT in general, more and more shared tools easy to access;  Today it is much more easy to see what other statistical offices are doing - We can visit each others internet, look at the data, easily make comparisons;  Globalisation - much more relations between countries, asking for reliable statistics, also for negotiations. Important to have good information accepted by the other party(ies);  Global international programs implemented in the field of Statistics: SNA, ICP, MDGs, Population and Housing Censuses, Agricultural Censuses…;  Statistical information is one of the important infrastructural cornerstones of modern societies.

4. Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 425.9.2009 GA – a tool for building reliable and efficient statistical systems  10 years experience accumulated in performing Global Assessments of statistical systems, performed by UNECE and Eurostat  Country experiences on Gas were reported from 6+ countries in the Management Seminar  Assessor reports were given by 5 assessors  The importance of the legal and institutional framework Special focus on Confidentiality issues

5. Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 525.9.2009 GA – A tool in exchanging international cooperation and best practices  Support for GAs will be given to participating countries by International organizations jointly – UNECE, EFTA and Eurostat  The importance of exchanging NSI experience Best practices Twinning  Advise can be obtained also on very problematic issues Priority settings Budget cuts

6. Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 625.9.2009 Assessments of Statistical Domains in a GA  Growing importance of this part of GAs the more developed the statistical system is  In this Management Seminar more detailed observations were made on assessing Social and demographic statistics Economic statistics  In all statistical domains Development is taking place from old stove-pipe approaches – e.g. data collection only by statistical domains - to a more generic business model as an organizational basis in modern NSIs

7. Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 725.9.2009 The importance of building stakeholder and user relations  For building trust  For having statistics really used by numerous user groups “Only used statistics is useful statistics”  Experience and guidance given by international organizations – “Making data meaningful” ...and from experienced NSIs; Twinning

8. Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 825.9.2009 Expressions of Gratitude  To the hosting country and organisation, SSCU – for Yalta, for excellent facilities, good food and nice atmosphere  To EFTA, providing sufficient financing of the Management Seminar + presenters  To Eurostat and UNECE for their support  To the interpreters and all technical staff  To participants for active discussions

9. Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 925.9.2009 Wise words of Samuel Johnson  “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it”