Conference on Data Quality for International Organizations
Newport, Wales, United Kingdom, 27–28 April 2006
Session 3: Collection, management and dissemination of current best methods, minimum standards, and best practices
“The role of best practices in building a global statistical system”
Presenter: Stefan Schweinfest, UNSD

1. The “What”: Standards/Best Methods/Best
Practices
2. The “How”: Collection/Management/
Dissemination
3. The “Why”: Transparency/
Harmonization/Capacity Building
4. Three UNSD examples of dissemination of ‘best practices’
5. Points for discussion.

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Surprising lack of terminological clarity: ‘standard’,
‘code’, ‘system’, ‘recommendation’, ‘principle’, ‘best methods’, ‘best practices’, ‘good practices’, ‘current practices’….
abstract – concrete (‘standards’ – ‘best practices’)
‘Standard’ = norm / model

Statistical Standards: Approved by legislative body eg. Statistical Commission – question of ‘enforcement’;

Minimum vs. maximum standards
‘Best Practices’ = applied procedures; value judgement

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Collection
 Scope: metadata - complex process descriptions
 Timing: time of data collection – separate
 Mode: questionnaire – assessment mission
Management
 difficult to organize and store (textual information)
 difficult to maintain up-to-date
Dissemination
 whether or not? (sensitive country information?)
 Mode: paper (static) or Internet (dynamic)

Questions: What is the primary purpose of disseminating “Best Practices”?
 Transparency: Extension of metadata
 Capacity building: sharing of knowledge
 Harmonization: Convergence of practices, towards pre-established norm (‘soft enforcement’).

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Trade Index Numbers
“National Practices in Compilation and Dissemination of
External Trade Index Numbers – A Technical Report” UN,
New York 2005, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.F/86
Poverty Statistics
“Handbook on Poverty Statistics: Concepts, Methods and
Policy Use”, UN, New York, forthcoming,
ST/ESA/STAT/SER.F/99, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/poverty/default.htm
Statistical Organization
“Official Statistics - Good Practices Website” http://unstats.un.org/unsd/goodprac/default.asp

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Prompted by a requested by Statistical Commission
Collection mode: questionnaire with follow-up (1999-
2002)
Response: 76 countries and one customs union;
Relatively simple and straightforward questions on 8 categories;
Comprehensive response from respondents;
One-time paper publication (2005): standard description approx. 1 page per country

6
7
4
5
3
4
1
2
Category
Index number series produced
Source of information
Index calculation methods
Limitations of indices, problems and other methodological observations
Release dates
Revision policy
Dissemination
Compiling agency and contact information
Response Rate
100
100
100
75
84
75
99
100

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Part of work on Handbook poverty statistics (inventory of methods)
Collection mode: paper/electronic questionnaire with follow-up during regional workshops (2005)
Responses used for analysis: 65 countries;
Relatively complex questionnaire with approx. 50 detailed questions; also contained request for actual data;
Uneven responses from respondents;
One-time paper publication (2006): tabular summary presentation of main findings (16 pages)

Category Response Rate
5.
6.
7.
8.
1.
2.
3.
4.
9.
10.
National poverty rate (data)
Poverty rate absolute or relative
95
97
Income vs. expenditure
Level of calories threshold
97
68
Use of equivalent scales 98
Poverty specific CPI used to costing the basket of goods 65
Regional patterns in food habits taken into account
Number of food items in the basket
Length of recall period(s)
Diaries method used to collect consumption data?
[….]
68
69
95
35

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Part of follow-up activities to Fundamental Principles of
Official Statistics (Information sharing)
Collection mode: Initial call for provision of information
(2000);
Selected information on 86 countries;
No questionnaire; posting of original material; assignation of keywords based on 10 principles and related categories;
Availability of information related to categories very uneven;
 Internet based data base (ad hoc updates by UNSD).

Principle Category
Advisory bodies
User consultation
Organizational planning and operation
Presentation of statistics
Dissemination and marketing
Release policies
Dealing with the media
[….]
“Response Rate”
49
81
78
95
55
95
92

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Three ‘collections’ of best practices prompted by different circumstances (data/no data; stage of methodological development);
Availability of information for about 30-40% of member countries;
Direct communication crucial to improve response rate and response quality;
Labour intensive exercises; challenge of sustainability
Limited knowledge of use of information.

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What other examples of collection of ‘best practices’ are there?
What are the experiences with the cost-benefit analysis for the exercise?
Under which circumstances are collection efforts of ‘best practices’ most useful?
Do you agree that the collection of ‘best practices’ is an effective tool to promote ‘convergence’ among countries?