PROCESS AND CONTENT
STANDARDIZATION FOR DATA
COLLECTION
1
By Eric Dery and Olga Laveda
International Monetary Fund
BUSINESS CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES

Business Context:






2008 financial crisis: Identified important data
gaps
Areas of data collection and processing were
identified to be addressed by IMF
Increase volume of data to be processed
Increase demand within budgetary resources
Minimize country reporting burden
Objectives:
Streamline and standardize data collection
 Respond to business context

2
AFDB OPENDATA PLATFORM
The Open Data Platform is part of the AfDB’s
“Africa Information Highway” initiative aimed at
improving data collection, management, and
dissemination of data in Africa
 Open Data Platform for all countries in Africa
 IMF partnered with AfDB to leverage their Open
Data Platform
 Uses SDMX standards
 Standardize content and process

3
WHAT IS OPEN DATA PLATFORM

Country Open Data is a ready-to-use solution


provides a public website on Internet
end-to-end experience for data users
data access
 data analysis
 content building
 sharing/dissemination


Country’s datasets can be published and found
by people in a single place


Provides a very convenient search engine
Allows for creation of highly visual, interactive
dashboards
4
OVERALL FRAMEWORK OF THE PLATFORM
[Country]
Open Data Platform
Central Bank
AfDB
Central Bank
ODP
National
Statistical
Office
Natl. Stat.
Office ODP
Min. Of
Finance ODP
Ministry Of
Finance
IMF
others
Dashboards and
Visualizations
* ODP stands for OpenData
Platform.
WB
National Summary
Data Page (SDMX)
5
BENEFITS OF OPEN DATA PLATFORM

Reduced reporting burden on countries

Implementation of standardized codes

Timely and more accessible data



Users get up-to-date data
In the formats they want
Data meets “Open Data” criteria and
international standards, and easily re-usable

Data can be retrieved using the SDMX web service by
users and machines (like mobile applications and
websites)
6
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE IAG TASK
FORCE ON INTERNATIONAL DATA
SHARING?
Develop and carry out two pilot projects for
testing practical arrangements implementing the
general principles for two distinct cases:
First test case will put focus on the detailed set of
sector accounts for G-20 economies (recommendation
15 of the G20 Data Gaps Initiative)
 Second test case would put emphasis on a much
wider representation of countries and international
organisations, covering the main aggregates (GDP
and expenditure components) and population from
the System of National Accounts

7
IAG TASK FORCE ON INTERNATIONAL
DATA SHARING

Principles and Globally harmonized reporting
templates for statistics :
International statistical standards (System of
National Accounts (SNA2008), the Balance of
Payments Manual and International Investment
Position Manual 6th Edition (BPM6) and other
related) provide a solid methodological basis for
compiling economic and financial statistics
More aligned statistical methodological standards
lead to indicators that are globally comparable,
timely and sound.
8
GLOBAL DATA SHARING OF STATISTICS:
Promotion of reporting requirements
 Use of globally harmonized templates :

domains, statistics or variables selected
 frequency and timeliness
 SDMX standard formats and codifications
(DSDs)

Defining an efficient exchange between the
International and Supranational Organisations
(I&SOs) of statistics
 Allocating responsibilities among I&SOs on data
validation and dissemination of the various sets
of statistics

9
IAG TASK FORCE ON INTERNATIONAL
DATA SHARING

Single point for data quality management
Identical statistics for similar statistical concepts
(i.e. no vintage or methodological differences) and of
the highest quality at any time
 National authorities ultimately responsible for the
quality of their data


Scope of the task force
Two pilot tests for the implementation of the general
principles on data sharing between international and
supranational organisations
 The task force may decide after a kick-off to work in
two sub-groups on those two pilots

10
IAG TASK FORCE ON INTERNATIONAL
DATA SHARING

Technical Modalities of Data Exchange
Transmission of data messages with regards to the
agreed template for GDP main aggregates and
population statistics
 List of countries for which it is established that
quarterly main aggregates are regularly produced
and disseminated
 SDMX-ML messages using the now nearly finalized
DSD for national accounts
 Automated data exchange through web service and
data API will be implemented with a registry service
and sandbox

11
QUESTIONS ?
12