CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
IN THE COORDINATION OF A
DECENTRALIZED STATISTICAL
SYSTEM
By
Romulo A. Virola
Secretary General, NSCB, Philippines
Seminar on the Evolution of National
Statistical Systems
Prospects and Risks in the Future: How to
Manage Uncertainties?
UN Statistical Commission
23 February 2007
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Outline of Presentation
I.
Introduction
II. Coordination Mechanisms of the Philippine
Statistical System (PSS)
III. Challenges & Opportunities in Coordinating
the PSS
A. General Considerations
B. Data production, dissemination and use
C. Capacity building
D. Financing of statistical development
E. Building trust & maintaining integrity
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I. Introduction
National Statistical Systems (NSS) are
“centralized” or “decentralized”
Centralized – e.g. Australia, Canada,
China, India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka
Decentralized – e.g. France, Japan,
Korea, Philippines, Sweden, United
Kingdom, United States
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I. Introduction
Centralized can be more efficient but
decentralized can be more effective
Blurred boundary between centralized
and decentralized
Culture-bound: what works in some
countries does not necessarily work in
others; cultural transformation needed
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I. Introduction
Difficult to pinpoint any unambiguous
reason why countries should put in place
either centralized or decentralized
statistical systems (PARIS 21)
FPOS #8: Coordination among statistical
agencies within countries is essential to
achieve consistency and efficiency in the
statistical system
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I. Introduction
When coordination of the national
statistical system is the responsibility of
the NSO
6

Core data production function of the
NSO can suffer

Imbalance in the statistical
development of the national statistical
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
A decentralized statistical system with
NSCB as the policymaking and
coordinating body
NSCB as coordinator is not engaged in
primary data collection
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
NSCB Executive Board - chaired by the
Secretary of Socioeconomic Planning and
composed of undersecretaries of different
departments with NSCB Technical Staff as
the secretariat; holds quarterly meetings
Regional Statistical Coordination
Committee in all regions and Provincial
Statistical Coordination Committee in
selected provinces with NSCB Regional
Divisions as the secretariat
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
A. Statistical planning and coordination
1. Statistical policies
2. Philippine Statistical Development
Program (2005-2010)- NSDS
3. System of Designated Statistics
4. Statistical frameworks and indicator
systems (SNA, STATDEV,MDG, etc.)
5. Statistical standards and classification
systems
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
A. Statistical planning and coordination
6. Statistical budget review
7. Statistical Survey & Administrative
Records Review and Clearance System
8. Interagency/Technical Committees and
Task Forces
9. Agency statistical calendars
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
A. Statistical planning and coordination
10. Bilateral meetings
11. Performance Measurement Scheme
for Statistical Agencies and Other
Data Producers
12. Hosting of international
conferences/meetings
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
B. Statistical information dissemination
1. National Statistical Information
Center
2. Standards & Policies for Statistical
Information Dissemination –
GSAP/GSSID
3. Press releases/articles/website
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
C. Statistical advocacy
1. National Statistics Month – every
October which includes statistical
oratorical contest for fourth year high
school students
2. Press conferences, producers’ and
users’ fora – collaboration among PSS
agencies
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
C. Statistical advocacy
3. Statistical Conferences
3.1. National Convention on Statistics –
every three years
3.2. Statistical Congress –Western
Visayas and Mindanao
3.3. Philippine Statistical Association,
Inter/Intra University
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II. Coordination Mechanisms of the PSS
C. Statistical advocacy
4. Philippine Statistics Quiz – annual for
first year college students
5. Feedback/evaluation mechanisms
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
A. General Considerations
1. Opportunities thru the compilation of
the SNA as a powerful tool for statistical
coordination
2. Unhealthy attitude towards coordination
– institutional jealousies
3. Need of statistical units in line
ministries
4. Low salaries of statistical personnel
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
A. General Considerations
5. Strong partnership and collaboration
with the academic and research
communities
6. Strong cooperation and interest
towards statistical development of many
sectoral ministries
7. Low budget for statistics – 0.55% of
total government budget in 1992 to 0.32%
in 2005
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
B. Data production, dissemination and use
1. Data production
1.1 Need to have widely acceptable
statistical frameworks – responding to
questions on the integrity and
objectivity of official statistics
1.2. Need to further enhance and
strengthen the monitoring and
coordination of the PSS, specifically
the system of designated statistics
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
1. Data production
1.3 Need to strengthen compliance to
statistical policies and standards and
classifications, especially at the
subnational level
1.4.Need to respond to data demands with
finer disaggregation – subprovincial,
basic sectors
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
1. Data production
1.5 Need for methodological improvements
especially of major surveys and
compilation systems
1.6 Use of proxy indicators
1.7. Need to rationalize and design more
cost-effective surveys and strengthen
the use of the administrative-based
statistics
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
1. Data production
1.8. Responding to international data
initiatives versus national priorities
amidst resource constraints
1.9. Enhancing relevance thru involvement
of statistical offices in new frontiers like
measurement of democracy, human
rights and governance (METAGORA)
1.10 Need to be proactive in addressing
emerging concerns
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
2. Data dissemination
2.1 Need to strengthen advocacy on the
use of best practices among the
agencies in the PSS, such as
dissemination of ARC, metadata and
revision policies and transparency of
methodologies
2.2 Need to develop a culture of
information sharing within and among
the various departments
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
2. Data dissemination
2.3 Need for pricing policy on statistical
products and services
2.4 Need to develop marketing skills of
statistical agencies
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
3. Data use
3.1 Need to evaluate users’ demand for the
generation of lower/specific
disaggregations of data to consider
resource requirements & constraints
3.2 Need for greater advocacy for and
documentation of actual policy uses of
statistics (PARIS 21 initiatives)
3.3 Need to generate public use files
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
3. Data use
3.4 Need to provide commentary on the
erroneous interpretation and misuse of
statistics within the shortest possible
time (FPOS #4)
3.5 Need to continue building confidence
on statistics by maintaining the
integrity and independence of the
statistical system
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
C. Capacity building
1. Need for continuous capacity building
of data producers
1.1 At the national and especially at the
subnational levels
1.2 The major data producers (NSO)
and particularly the statistical units
in line ministries
1.3 On data production but also on use
of statistics
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
C. Capacity building
2. Need for capacity building of data
users including the media
2.1 How to use and interpret statistics
2.2 Appreciating the limitations of
statistics generated by the PSS
3. Need to strengthen the capability of
agencies to undertake statistical
researches
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
C. Capacity building
4. Inadequate government resources to
undertake statistical capacity building
programs
5. Loss of trained statistical personnel
including to statistical agencies of
foreign countries and to international
organizations
6. Implementation of the Scientific
Career System for Statisticians
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
D. Financing of statistical development
1. Inadequate government appropriations
for statistical activities, particularly for
periodic activities
2. Inadequate financial resources to
undertake developmental activities or
address emerging concerns
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
D. Financing of statistical development
3. Availability of technical and financial
assistance through foreign grants to
undertake developmental activities but
institutionalization of the activities could
not be ensured
4. Opportunities for Cost-sharing with
Local Government Units
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
D. Financing of statistical development
5. Cost-sharing with Users of statistics.
6. Need for the private sector to share the
cost of statistics
7. Need to draw eminent persons as
champions of statistics
8. Need to muster political will on the part
of government to invest in statistics
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
E. Building trust and maintaining the
integrity of the national statistical system
Challenges:
 Natural distrust for government
 Politicians flame the fire of distrust
 Government officials
intentionally/unintentionally
contribute to the problem
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
E. Building trust and maintaining the
integrity of the national statistical system
Challenges:
 Estimates by international
organizations inconsistent with national
estimates can damage the credibility of
national statistical agencies
 “Conflicting” estimates from different
statistical agencies
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
3.5 Building trust and maintaining integrity
of the national statistical system
Challenges:
 Lack of appreciation by official
statisticians on the need to build
public trust in statistics
 Questions on the professional
integrity of the Chief Statistician
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
3.5 Building trust and maintaining integrity
of the national statistical system
Opportunities:
 Strict adherence to FPOS
 Transparency in
Methodologies/Revision Policies
 Adopting Best Practices (production
and dissemination of data)
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
3.5 Building trust and maintaining integrity
of the national statistical system
Opportunities:
 Conduct of Users-Producers Fora
 Use of ICT
 Draw in partners/statistical
advocates from the academic and
research communities, the private
sector and the media
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III. Challenges and Opportunities
THERE ARE MANY INTERESTING
CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES FOR
STATISTICAL AGENCIES IN THE
PHILIPPINES TO ENHANCE OUR
RELEVANCE TO SOCIETY AND
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
BUT THERE ARE TOO FEW
WORKERS!
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CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN
THE COORDINATION OF A
DECENTRALIZED STATISTICAL
SYSTEM
Visit our website at:
www.nscb.gov.ph
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