United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Statistical Division
Global Assessments
A tool in building an integrated system of
economic statistics
Developing a Programme for the Implementation of the 2008 SNA and Supporting
Statistics in the ECO member countries
10-13 September 2013, Ankara, Turkey
“Raison d’être” of Global Assessments
The “raison d’être” of a Global Assessment (GA) of a NSS is to:

Provide a clear picture of the state of development of official
statistics in a country

Set objectives for the development of official statistics according
to international standards, including the Fundamental Principles of
Official Statistics

Monitor the progress of countries in the development of their
national statistical capacities
GAs should cover the entire (global) NSS and not only the activities
of the NSO
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 2
Coverage of Global Assessments

Legal and institutional aspects of the NSS:
Fundamental principles of Official Statistics, Statistical Law,
Coordination of the NSS …

Technical and organizational capacity to produce and disseminate
official statistics:
Structure and functioning of the NSO and other producers of official
statistics, data collection – statistical registers –data processing –
dissemination …

Compliance of statistical output with international standards, norms
and recommendations
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 3
Expected Outcome of GAs

Unique opportunity to get a comprehensive picture of the overall
state of development of NSSs

Deliver recommendations for the development of NSSs that should
be incorporated into capacity building programmes and strategies

Guide international and bilateral partners in designing,
implementing and coordinating their contributions to the
development of national statistical capacities

Ideal tool for advocacy and fund raising

Provide to all (NSO, national authorities, international and bilateral
partners and other stakeholders) an objective evaluation of the
achievements of capacity building programmes and activities
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 4
Challenges for NSSs
• Increasing demand for internationally comparable, coherent and
timely statistics to monitor economic, social and environmental
policies (sustainable development)
• Swift development of information and communication technologies
• Economic and financial crises with additional budget constraints for
national administrations and official statistics
• Pressure to further reduce response burden
 Streamlining statistical production processes
5
What Does Streamlining Mean?
Streamlining can be defined as adapting the business and
technology infrastructure in order to deliver statistical information
that meets user’s requirements in a more effective and efficient way.

Effective:
Adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or
expected result: an effective decision

Efficient:
Performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the
least waste of time and resources (human and financial)
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 6
From the Stovepipe Model …
The stovepipe model is an organisation of the production where
each substantive department has exclusive ownership over the
production process of one or more specific statistical products




Excessive burden on respondent: each statistical product relies on
its own data sources
Inefficient: this model does not allow to standardize statistical
production and to deploy common IT platform and tools
Inconsistent: statistical information from different sources are not
systematically reconciled and might diverge;
One-dimensional: the model is not well adapted to the primary data
collection on statistical domains that cover multiple dimensions,
such as national accounts, globalization or environment.
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 7
… to the Integrated Model
The integrated model is based on common and standardised
processes, transforming a combination of primary data into
statistical products

Vertical integration (simplification of the production chain):
Reducing the unnecessary layers and tasks between the data
collection and the dissemination

Horizontal integration (economy of scale):
Increasing the operational coordination of the National Statistical
System by organizing jointly the collection of primary statistical
data and avoiding duplication of tasks
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 8
Integrated Economic Statistics:
from Products towards Processes

Integrated economic statistics approach does not focus only on
products or services but also on the means to achieve them

Effective design and improvement of processes that ensure that
products and services are fit for their purpose and meet their
specification (Quality management)

More ex-ante quality assurance built into the production
process rather than a ex-post quality control on products
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 9
International standards / nomenclatures / guidelines
Coherent
Business processes
SNA
BoP
Sectoral statistics
STS – SBS – CPI – ETS – GFS …
Statistical
registers
Data warehouse
Editing and processing (quality control)
Data collection
Integrated
Administrative data – Surveys – Censuses
Effective
Legal / institutional / organizational framework
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 10
Processes are embedded in products
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 11
2009 EECCA Seminar in Yalta
Management Seminar on Global Assessments for EECCA countries
organized by EFTA-Eurostat-UNECE, hosted by SSSU, September 2009
in Yalta, Ukraine:

GA shall be initiated in a country only in response to a formal
request from national statistical authorities

GAs shall cover the quality dimension of the final output in a user
oriented perspective

GAs shall also cover the organisational and technical capacity of
NSSs to produce and disseminate official statistics
With the exception of 2 countries, Global Assessments were requested
by and conducted in all EECCA countries
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 12
“Adapted” Global Assessments
After Yalta, all Global Assessments were adapted in order to focus more
on production processes that meet users’ requirements in an effective
and efficient way.

Focuses not only on statistical products and services but also on the
means to achieve them (resource allocation and management)

Evaluates to what extent processes ensure that products and services
are fit for their purpose (effectiveness)

Assesses the coordination of the NSS and the organization of the
production process from data collection to dissemination (efficiency)
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 13
Conclusions

GAs address all elements of quality, coherence and efficiency of
statistical systems and contribute to an integrated approach of
the statistical production

The consistency and exhaustiveness of national accounts data
can substantially benefit from a more integrated production of
economic statistics

In return, the national accounts, as the overarching framework
for economic statistics, is an essential tool for improving the
coherence of major sectoral statistics

Streamlining statistical production is an ongoing task since
economic statistics must constantly adapt to the evolving
environment (e.g.: globalization)
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 14
UNECE project proposal /1
UNECE to launch a UN Development Account (UNDA) project:
Strengthening National Statistical Capacity

To support countries to formulate, prioritize and eventually incorporate
recommendations into multi-year (strategic) and annual (operational)
statistical programmes

To mobilise financial and technical resources from multilateral and
bilateral donors

To coordinate and provide technical assistance and advisory services

If requested, to conduct new GAs (every 5-7 years) in full coordination
with the partner organisations (Master plan and NSDS)
UNECE Statistical Division
Slide 15
GA
(year 0)
Master Plan – NSDS
(year 1)
Work programme
(annual)
Self-assessment surveys
(annual)
Donor questionnaire
(annual)
GA
(if requested, year 5)
Master Plan – NSDS
(year 6)
UNECE Statistical Division
Fund raising / Technical cooperation
Feedback
UNECE project proposal /2
Slide 16