CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY SECRETARIAT

TWENTY-EIGHTH MEETING OF THE RESTRICTED

STANDING COMMITTEE OF

CARIBBEAN STATISTICIANS SCCS/2003/28/14

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands

3-5 November 2003 1 November 2003

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A

DRAFT STATISTICAL PROGRAMME FOR THE REGION

1. Introduction

For several years the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has attempted to provide a range of statistical information and services for users and to facilitate and guide the development and harmonisation of statistics in the Region. These efforts were in pursuant of its function of servicing the integration movement. In compiling this information there has always been heavy reliance on the statistical offices and other agencies in Member States and it has become customary over the years for the National Statistical Offices and Central Banks to submit data to the Secretariat, which would then compile regional databases to inform policy and the decision-makers process.

2. In moving from an era of structural adjustment to that of rapid liberalisation and globalisation together with the continuous changing information communication technology environment, concerns of the CARICOM Secretariat are the establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), geared to position the Community to strengthen the skills of its people; to improve its competitiveness; to enable greater access of resources to nationals in all Member States, and to create better employment and investment opportunities. The important role that statistics can and must play becomes apparent since increased surveillance and intelligence are required to ensure that timely, reliable and harmonised statistics are available for direct input into the decision-making system to enable proactive and informed decisions and policies by governments, the private sector, individuals and regional institutions. Further, the availability of harmonised statistics will provide an objective basis for the resolution of disputes among Member States

3. In preparing for the future, the need to better organise our statistics becomes apparent, if we are to deliver the information required for policy-making and for the successful implementation of the CSME. Therefore, it is essential that we focus on establishing a framework through formulating a regional statistical programme. This common regional statistical programme should be the minimum programme to be followed, that is, there will be core areas of work that should be followed by all Member States if we are to be successful in having harmonised, relevant and high quality statistics for policy-making. While there will be national priorities that would influence the work programmes of the national statistical systems, it is hoped that there would be sufficient convergence of these priorities such that the tension to produce the minimum regional statistical programme will be lessened. Beyond these core areas, the National Statistical Systems can pursue additional areas of statistics required at the national level.

4. Leading up to this recommendation of having a minimum regional statistical programme, has been the recognition and experience of the increasing demand and need for statistical information. Therefore, in recent years the Secretariat has in effect set the foundation for the development of such a regional programme by focusing attention on ensuring comparability of statistics and reliability of the statistics produced in the Region through the following developmental activities:

(i) encouraging the documentation and dissemination of methodologies by Member States;

(ii) identifying a core set of statistics of the social, economic, environmental and information communication sectors and the linkages between these data sets;

(iii) promoting and adopting of international standards, methodologies and classifications;

(iv) facilitating the spread of best methodological practices across Member States through the organisation of workshops and enabling technical assistance and exchange visits, attachments and study tours;

(v) strengthening of existing areas of statistics;

(vi) exploring the compilation of new areas of statistics;

(vii) establishment of regional advisory groups and facilitating the establishment of national statistical coordinating committees;

(viii) using the Internet to facilitate methodology exchange and to provide statistical information to our users;

(ix) giving priority to the compilation of the MDG indicators by way of inclusion in the CARICOM Social Statistics Programme.

5. Very often these approaches required cooperation with national statistics offices and other national agencies, central banks and regional and international institutions. Internally, the Statistics Sub-programme has been attempting to improve its coordination of its activities, update its data compilation and dissemination procedures, such as the streamlining of its trade information system and obtain increased exposure and training for its staff. Despite all of the above, additional efforts are required for sustained and rapid improvement of statistics in the Region. While it is recognised that investment in statistics is critically needed to strengthen and build capacity due to numerous problems and issues faced by National Statistical Offices and the National Statistical Systems in general, at the same time it is necessary to forge ahead in preparing the regional and national statistical system to undertake the crucial task of effectively guiding economic and social development and increasing the competitiveness of the economies of the Region.

6. This Paper therefore, looks towards the future to explore what is required of our statistical systems, given the need to hasten the process of positioning our macro-policy framework to treat with the global and regional economic, social and environmental challenges which necessitate rapid response in providing statistical information for policies and action.

7. The Paper, therefore, focusses on exploring elements of a Work Programme that can lead to the provisioning of the data needs for decisions for national and regional development, a work plan for the improvement of statistics in the Region, which will include an assessment of the deficiencies in the national statistical systems that can be identified and an approach to filling these deficiencies.

2. THE REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTUAL ISSUES

8. The minimum work programme must focus on the policy relevance of statistics and depict and profile the lives of the people of our Region. Data needed for policy and research should be available when required and in general there should be commitment to evidence-based policy. As indicated earlier, among the main policy issues that must be informed by timely and accurate statistics are the responses to the challenges of globalisation and trade liberalisation and the rapid development of information technology. Manifestations of these processes include: the erosion of national borders, the fusion of markets and the expansion of the arena of competition; the stimulation of free movement of persons, capital and the rights of establishments; the increasing phenomena of trade in services that are delivered in a number of ways across borders; and the pervasiveness of the Internet and communication which has further boosted the phenomenon of globalisation and the changes that are occurring in the health, culture and lifestyles of the population.

9. Worldwide, the response to globalisation has been the formation of hemispheric and regional economic integration or trading blocs. In the case of the CARICOM Region, the policy framework is similarly geared to the widening and deepening of the integration process through allowing for the free movement of goods, services and factors of production and the rights of establishment as reflected in the institution of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The removal of barriers to intra-regional investment and the deepening of intra-regional trade provide the basis for competitive production by a process of access to resources, markets and goods and services by all nationals of the Region. Among the outcomes of this duality of globalisation and ICT are: intensive competition, greater interdependence of economies and as a consequence increases in systemic risks. Culturally with the increased connectivity of peoples there are likely to be effects. The loss of preferential market access in Europe for our bananas and sugar has implications for statistics needed in the restructuring process of our Member States, to help individuals restructure their lives.

10. Added to the above, for our Region there are also social an environment issues such as HIV/AIDS and the tendency for natural disasters which affect our capacity to develop our human resource and maintain our infrastructure. Undoubtedly, the central force driving the economic policy environment in the Region is the opportunity being provided by the establishment of the CSME for our economies to become more competitive, to increase the size of our product and factor markets.

11. The regional and national statistical programmes are therefore challenged to provide the data needs to negotiate the establishment of the CSME. Currently, there is for example, the regional merchandise trade database reflecting the application of a harmonised Common External Tariff. This database extends back to the early 1990s and is a reflection of the type of work required in other areas of statistics. The Statistics Sub-programme was also able to compile a database of the restrictions on services useful in enabling the provision of a schedule for the removal of these restrictions by Member States.

12. It is recognised however, that national statistical systems must first produce harmonised statistics or near harmonised, which requires well-coordinated and resourced national statistical systems capable of submitting timely data to the regional institution. Also required, will be additional responsibility at the regional level to enable the production of harmonised statistics in Member States, as well as increased facilitation of funding and technical assistance to drive the statistical capacity-building processes.

13. With the growing complexity of Economic, Social and Environment situations, in order for systems to respond quickly, appropriately and effectively the forces of change must be understood and these are recommended as follows:

(i) The convergence of IT, Communication and Information Technology and the increasing pervasiveness of the Internet, which imply increasingly networked economies and growing pools of Internet service providers;

(ii) The increased pace of globalisation that not only leads to more intensified competition but also greater interdependence resulting in increases in systemic risks.

14. To channel the development of statistics in the right direction requires a work programme that reflects the relevance to current issues by incorporating:

(i) a strong understanding of user needs including planning for the future needs of users and involving users in methodological reviews and changes;

(ii) a National Statistics Advisory Council supported by regional and national advisory groups;

(iii) regular review of work programme and its associated priorities;

(iv) commitment to evidence-based policy;

(v) effective legislation to enable compliance by data providers.

15. Undeniably success in improving statistics demands the use of creativity, innovation and visionary leadership and management and the presence of adequate and highly skilled, motivated and committed staff. The immediate challenges that lie ahead include compilation of a comprehensive database on details with respect to services that can enable negotiations in the international arena; flows of Foreign Direct Investment Statistics; 1993 SNA implementation; data on Free Movement of persons; and of course, a harmonised set of core statistics in the areas of social, economic and environmental statistics.

16. The formulation of a statistical programme should lead to a more coherent approach to the mobilisation of resources and greater efficiency in the use of these resources. It should also foster improved collaboration of regional and international agencies funding statistical projects since a common framework for statistical development is available and agencies can easily identify specific areas of interest.

17. It is therefore, opportune that a statistical programme for the Region be developed to improve and harmonise the statistical information required for decision-making, to reinforce the CSME, to monitor its impact, to enable the participation of businesses and the people of the Region to better organise our Member States for external competition and to deriving the benefits from the expanded integration process. The opportunity is taken through the SCCS to set the foundation of developing such a programme.

3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WORK PROGRAMME FOR THE REGION

Objectives

18. The main objective of a common statistical programme for the Region is to identify the minimum set of statistical activities to be carried out by the national statistical systems in all Member States, consisting of regionally agreed to frameworks, that can strengthen and improve the national and regional statistical offices and agencies to provide timely, reliable and harmonised data for all Member States.

19. This document has been prepared as draft only, as an initial programme to set the foundation for more extensive review.

20. The regional programme is not intended to replace the national programmes or sub-regional level initiatives and strategies but to synchronise and to put in context the national programmes to better articulate and define the national and regional statistical priorities based of course on the policies and the decisions that they are to inform. Input from users and suppliers of statistics will therefore be critical to the finalisation of this programme in the future.

21. The main concerns of the draft programme are:

(i) The recognition that the national statistical systems are the cornerstone of the production of statistics in the Region;

(ii) The need to re-orient statistics to users and in particular to place statistical priorities in the context of national and regional development;

(iii) The need for a collaborative culture in the process of statistical development and to recognise the different levels that operate to improve the system. At whatever level actions are implemented there should be efficiency gains and the national statistical offices should not be encumbered.

Suggested elements of the Statistical Programme

22. Tables 1 contains suggested elements of the Draft Statistical Programme that are:

(i) National Accounts-1993 System of National Accounts Implementation;

(ii) International Trade in Services and Foreign Direct Investment;

(iii) Merchandise Trade Statistics;

(iv) Social Statistics;

(v) Environment Statistics;

(vi) Statistics on Information Communication Technology;

(vii) Other Statistics including Agricultural Statistics, Financial Statistics, Short-term statistics;

(viii) Data dissemination;

(ix) Statistical Coordination.

23. For each of the areas above, objectives; expected outputs; and actions have been drafted. Further, it will also be necessary for each of the actions to list detailed activities and agencies. Undoubtedly, it will take a bit more research and deep-thinking and review to finalise the regional programme and some of the more detailed aspects while these are presented, are best left for the future deliberations of the technical advisory groups to consider and make recommendations.

Sustaining the processes - Work Plan

Major challenges facing the regional national statistical systems

24. General information, situational assessment or inventories that have been conducted in specific areas show:

(i) Inadequate human, material and financial resources. Severe financial constraints mainly due to low priority attached to statistics by governments. This leads to other problems like staff shortages, lack of trained staff, high staff turnover; low morale; poor remuneration, working conditions, under equipped offices and a general lack of direction;

(ii) Lack of clearly defined priorities and, coherent implementation plans and capacity for the collection of relevant and reliable statistics;

(iii) Non-functioning statistical coordinating mechanism at the national level which may imply disparate and isolated national system leading to a lack of comprehensive internal harmonisation;

(iv) Output that perhaps is not demand-driven and therefore does not target the needs of users. Over meet the confidence of users. The need exists for closer collaboration to establish a judicious balance to ensure that statistics produced are used;

(v) Because of the gaps that exist between users and producers, often users attempt to conduct surveys to fill data gaps. Most of these have been motivated by the need to monitor and evaluate specific development projects;

(vi) Inadequate attention paid to Social Statistics due to the traditional pre-occupation with Economic Statistics, even though this image is changing, there is the marked absence of the integration of social policy planning into the overall planning process;

(vii) There is also a lack of standardization of definitions, methodologies of data collection procedures, methods of analysis and dissemination of data. This makes Regional comparison and monitoring of social systems difficult;

(viii) Other major problems include the lack of computer hardware and software and adequately trained staff in Information Technology (IT). At the same time, it appears that different Member States have different preferences in the uses of computer software;

(ix) Another major challenge relates to the need for statistical organisations to be more autonomous. Increased autonomy will enhance timeliness and the quality and perhaps the perception of objectivity relative to the output of the offices of the Region.

Work Plan to Sustain the Programme

25. Costing of the detailed activities relate to the need for additional resources is a mammoth undertaking, and will require a more comprehensive evaluation in the future. However, to some extent an estimate of the contribution of the developmental work required in economic statistics can be obtained out of the situational assessments and feasibility study performed. These do not necessarily incorporate all the activities articulated in the draft programme .

26. Among the activities articulated for the improvement of statistics the following are some major activities to be performed which also require the investment of resources by governments:

(i) Dynamic management of and investment in human resources to cover competitive remuneration/compensation package and conditions of work for statisticians, continuous training and retraining, adequate quantum of staff, autonomy for statistics offices;

(ii) Review of the legislative framework for the modernisation of statistics, enabling improved statistical coordination, greater autonomy of statistical offices, fostering of compliance to requests for data;

(iii) Compilation of regional and national level databases/information in priority areas with harmonised and reliable statistics on a timely basis as well as harmonised metadata for correct interpretation by users;

(iv) Establishment of statistical councils/coordinating committees and regional technical advisory, SCCS advisory groups, and promoting seminars for users and suppliers of information;

(v) A Comprehensive data dissemination strategy that focuses on making available data to users the data they require on a timely basis;

(vi) Generation of a marketing strategy to promote the income generation potential of the regional and national statistical offices/programme.

27. The regional statistical system does not currently possess adequate resources to make a substantive difference at the national level and is heavily dependent on donor resources and technical assistance to implement regional and national level activities. Organisation such as the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) sub-regional headquarters, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and more recently Caribbean Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) have contributed to and continue to contribute to statistical development. At the international level UNSD, EU, CIDA, SIDA, the World Bank, UNICEF, UNFPA and many other organisations are contributing regional, sub-regional and national level support.

28. Taking a look at the draft programme and considering the resources and operating conditions at the national and regional levels undoubtedly brings to mind the formidable challenge facing statistics and the near crisis stage that exists. The contextual issues discussed earlier highlight the necessity to have reliable and timely statistics for the design, implementation and evaluation of sustainable social and economic policies and the measurement and monitoring of the outcomes of policies.

ACTION REQUIRED

29. The Meeting is invited to:

(i) consider the development of a draft statistical programme for the Region;

(ii) endorse the need to develop such a programme;

(iii) provide feedback on the suggested elements in the draft programme.

******

ATTACHMENT

Table 1: Suggested Elements of a regional statistical work programme

Programme area

Objective

Expected Outputs

Action

National Accounts-1993 SNA Implementation

National Accounts

(Continued)

· To produce and disseminate on a timely basis Statistics on National Accounts in accordance with the 1993 SNA and specifically the extended Minimum Required Data Set (MRDS) as recommended United Nations Statistical Commission & with any adjustments recommended by the CARICOM SNA Advisory Group

· Timely dissemination of:

- Annual GDP by Industry and expenditure at current and constant prices;

- Complete sequence of accounts from the production accounts through to the capital account for all institutional sectors;

- Accounts of the rest of the world;

- Gross National Income;

- Supply and use Tables;

- Cross-Classification of Industry and Sectors

- Conceptual compliance of accounts with the 1993 SNA

- Tourism indicators, national accounts estimates of visitor consumption, extension of the SUT into a Tourism Satellite Account

- As of 2005, for each year, n, the following estimates are available:

- End of September of each year n, an advanced estimate for year n+1, a provisional estimate, for year n, a revised estimate of year n-1;

- End of March of year n the provisional estimate of year n (produced in September of the previous year as n+1), a final estimate for year n-2;

- Documented methodologies which are made available to users and other producers;

· Establish or strengthen the National Accounts Unit with appropriate minimum size staff to work exclusively on these accounts;

· Seek technical assistance/ funding and actually re-structure the organization of these accounts where required s in accordance with recommendations of the MDRS & SNA Advisory Group ;

· Develop /continue regional approach for the implementation of 1993 SNA and devise methods of obtaining harmonised National Accounts estimates;

· Set up the methodological work for the compilation of the national accounts in accordance with the 1993 SNA;

· Rebase National Accounts to a more recent year and set up a process to activate regular rebasing in future years;

· Collect and promote the use of relevant statistical sources and in particular, strengthen the business registers in scope and universe, in order to improve estimates of National Accounts;

· Adopt the international family of classifications as recommended by the 1993 SNA

· Conduct Visitor Expenditure Surveys as recommended by the WTO

· Organize a planned programme of training in national accounts comprising seminars/ workshops, attachments and so forth for national accountants and staff in other agencies doing related work in National Accounts over a three-year period.

International Trade in Services and Foreign Direct Investment

· To develop capacity to and to produce statistics on services for timely dissemination to users, in accordance with the Draft Manual of International Trade in Services and regional recommendations as it relates to the monitoring, assessing the impact and providing the information needs for the establishment and functioning of the CSME and providing the CCJ;

· To increase the scope of detailed statistics provided on Foreign Direct Investment

Timely data on statistics on the following:

· Exports and Imports of services according to the BPM5 and EBOPS for selected categories;

· Exports and Imports for selected product details

· Statistics on Foreign Affiliate Trade in Services (FATS)

· Inflows and outflows of foreign direct investment by source/destination, industry, type of foreign investment;

· Availability of documented methodologies to all users and other producers

· Establish a research unit or identify dedicated staff as a sub-unit of National Accounts unit to work exclusively on International Trade in Services;

· Strengthen the collaborative process between the various agencies, particularly the statistical offices and central banks, statistical offices, immigration departments, tourism authorities and other agencies with respect to statistics on international trade in services;

· Obtain technical assistance/funding for the developmental work where this is required;

· Continue a regional approach to compile harmonised statistics on production and international trade in services

· Review the existing detailed statistics available at the worksheet/collection level on production and international trade in services;

· Compile available detailed data from worksheets;

· Compile statistics on Foreign Affiliate Trade in Services using existing data available;

· Produce a report on services statistics based on the review of existing data.

· Review the sources of information on international trade in services;

· Review the methods and instruments used to collect information to collect data on production and national trade in services;

· Conduct research on intractable service sectors;

· Interact closely with the Central Banks, Statistical Offices and Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies relative to the improvement of detailed statistics on Foreign Direct Investment;

· Review the existing level of details available on FDI;

· Review and Adjust instruments to collect the appropriate level detail on FDI

· Produce a report with the appropriate level of details available on Foreign Direct Investment

Merchandise Trade Statistics

To produce and disseminate statistics on Merchandise Trade Statistics;

· Timely production and dissemination of reliable statistics on Merchandise Trade;

· Documented guidelines and procedures on data captured;

· Data on Imports, Exports, Re-exports for each Member State giving the direction of trade, trade by SITC Sections; and HS; and so forth;

· The production of trade price and volume indices;

· Compile a regional trade database

· Strengthen the collaborative process between Customs and Statistics Department

· Produce Trade data by the end of March

· Monitor the coverage to ensure more complete information relative to coverage;

· Monitor other aspects an improvement of the quality and timeliness of the trade data;

· Update Classification systems where necessary;

· Update data processing and dissemination systems;

· Submit data to formulate a regional database;

Social/Gender Statistics which will address the following major themes:

Population, Families and Households;
Education
Health
Labour

Poverty & the Economy

· To institutionalise the collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of Social/Gender statistics among the various Member States

· To enhance the image and usefulness of Social statistics in order to foster improved socio-economic planning, policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes

· To promote more informed decision-making in the social sector by the governments and non-governmental organizations of the Region

· To assist in developing relevant databases to guide authorities in promoting the optimum investment climate for the development of the Region

· Indicators on Population, Families and Households will provide useful information to assist in population planning, population and development and will provide inputs into other indicators;

· Education indicators will provide useful inputs to monitor education planning and to assess the achievement of the major goal of ‘Education for All’ as well as the other related MDG;

· The major objectives of the Health indicators in the core set of indicators are to monitor the achievement of the overall goal of ‘Health for All’ through the provision of adequate primary health care, and essential preventative and curative health information and infrastructure

· Labour force statistics and indicators are essential in monitoring the participation of the available human resources in the productive sector. As such, these indicators are extremely useful in assessing economic activity levels

· Poverty Indicators are obviously essential in monitoring the well-being of the population and, as a consequence, in guiding policy makers to make relevant interventions to target the poor.

The annual production of a core set of social/gender indicators on a timely basis

A more developed capacity at the National level, to collect, compile and analyze social/gender statistics and indicators
A regional database comprising both the actual core indicators as well as the relevant metadata about these indicators
A website containing all the indicators and their accompanying metadata
A user-friendly manual to guide the user in more fully utilizing the indicators
A more technical manual for use mainly by the more statistically capable user

Establish Social Indicators and Millennium Development committees which will bring together all the key stakeholders, comprising both users and producers of social statistics, to work as a team in producing the indicators and in preparing reports to guide policies in the social sector
The conduct of workshops on harmonization, and subject specific areas in order to help in developing capacity at the National level
The provision of direct technical assistance to Member States to build the capacity to collect, compile and analyze social/gender statistics
The promotion and provision of support required to facilitate short term attachments of members of staff of the weaker statistical organizations in the region to the more established offices, in order to experience on-the-job training and exposure to the collection, compilation and analysis of social/gender statistics.

Environment Statistics

· To develop capacity and to produce statistics on the environment

· To establish a framework for the collection and compilation of Environment Statistics

· To establish a core set of environment statistics

· Timely production and dissemination of statistics on the environment as recommended to by the Advisory Group

· Documented guidelines and procedures for data compilation

· A priority list of environment statistics

· Review the experience of the UNSD/CARICOM project with respect to:

- The agencies/experts involved;

- The list of indicators compiled;

- Concepts, definitions and classifications;

- Sources of data;

- Gaps and deficiencies;

- the immediate next steps indicated;

- the national level reports and initiatives;

- the status of the national environment inter-agency working groups

- update the inventory previously conducted during the Project;

- current initiatives in the Region

· Convene the Advisory Group of Directors, regional and international experts to formulate a CARICOM Programme to build capacity in Environment Statistics;

· Compile and disseminate a priority list of Environment Statistics based on the Programme

Statistics on ICT

· To collect, compile and disseminate timely, reliable and comparable statistics in relation to ICT

· Core set of statistics on ICT in areas which include:

- ICT Satellite Account through the assembly of statistics in the National Accounts;

- International Trade in Services as it relates to ICT;

- Basic Statistics on ICT

- Selected tracer studies of content and impact of programmes at the national level

· Review current developmental work in a selected Member State;

· Establish a list of priority basic indicators;

· Prepare a framework for the collection of the basic statistics;

· Prepare guidelines for the satellite approach to estimating production of ICT;

· Prepare guidelines for the approach in Trade in Services to estimate exports and imports of ICT;

· Prepare guidelines for estimating the content and impact of ICT at the national level.

· Compile basic Statistics on ICT

· Compile in one selected Member State Satellite ICT Account to be used as a model in other Member States

Other Statistics including:

- Agricultural Statistics

- Financial Statistics, and

- Other short term statistics and indicators not elsewhere included

· To design and set up an Agricultural information system that takes into account the regional and national programme in Agriculture and the needs of users;

· To collaborate with other agencies in the establishment of a regional financial information system;

· To develop the capacity to produce and disseminate statistical information on short-term developments

· A system of core agricultural, livestock, forestry and fishing information is established;

· A national and regional database on agricultural and related statistics;

· A coordinated approach for agricultural statistics is formalised;

· Internally harmonised methodologies and classifications at the national level in agricultural and related statistics

· The creation of a financial information system for the Region;

· The availability of timely financial statistics in priority areas to be determined;

· Internally consistent financial statistics at the national level that is also regionally and internationally comparable;

· An information system of short-term statistics made available on a quarterly basis

Data dissemination strategy

· To disseminate as widely as possible timely and reliable statistics that is regionally and internationally comparable that corresponds to user needs;

· To set up a regional central database for all statistics;

· Compile wherever possible with the quality aspects of the GDDS.

Statistical Coordination

· To enable the implementation of the coordination of the national statistics system as contained in the statistical legislations of Member States and/or to update the legislations and establish or improve instruments, systems and procedures to promote statistical coordination;

· To continue the thrust in the setting up and functioning of regional technical advisory/working groups;

· To continue to promote and to reinforce the promotion of regional statistical coordination through the SCCS and advisory groups to the SCCS.

· Regulatory test allowing for statistical coordination prepared and adopted;

· Harmonised, tools-instruments for data collection, classifications, products and so forth are available;

· A Statistical Council or similar body/ coordinating committees at the national level;

· Technical Advisory/Working Groups established and functioning;

· A reinforces SCCS with sub-groups operating in specific areas

Statistical training programme

· To establish a statistical training programme suited to the needs of statistical development in the Region taking into consideration the existing programmes of training;

· A comprehensive, coordinated and relevant training programme;

· Trained statistical personnel at all levels;

· A planned schedule over the Medium Term for the continuous conduct of workshops, attachments, exchange visits, study tours

Programme Area

Action

Detailed Activites

Stakeholders

1. National Accounts

1.1 Establish or strengthen the National Accounts Unit with appropriate minimum numbers of staff members to work exclusively on these accounts

· Identify from the present staff structure those individuals who can be deployed to the National Accounts Unit;

· Assign staff to strengthen National Accounts Unit;

· Identify the additional staff and other resources required to establish or strengthen this unit;

· Activate process at national level to obtain additional resources such as staffing, travel costs, equipment, materials and other supplies;

NSO

1.2 Seek technical assistance/ funding and actually re-structure the organization of these accounts where required in accordance with recommendations of the MDRS & SNA Advisory Group

· Identify sources of technical assistance and funding;

· Assist Member States in identifying or procuring technical assistance/ funding;

· Activate technical assistance missions as required.

NSO

NSO, CCS, ECCB, ECLAC, CARTAC, UNSD, EU, SIDA, Other (Specify)

NSO, CCS, ECCB, ECLAC, CARTAC, NSO, UNSD, EU, SIDA Other (Specify)

· 1.3 Develop /continue regional harmonisation for the implementation of 1993 SNA and devise methods of obtaining harmonised National Accounts estimates;

;

· Activate the process of regional harmonisation through the SNA Advisory Group as organised by the CCS;

· Organize national accounts seminars/workshops, attachments and so forth for national accountants and staff in other agencies doing related work in National Accounts as well as user/ producer/supplier seminars

· Formulate methods to obtained harmonised National Accounts estimates to enable the compilation of a regional database of comparable data and the appropriate analysis and dissemination [in accordance with 1993 SNA ];

CCS, NSO, ECB, UNSD, EU, CARTAC Other (Specify)

CCS, NSO, ECCB, UNSD, EU, CARTAC Other (Specify)

CCS, NSO, UNSD, EU, CARTAC Other (Specify)

CCS, NSO, UNSD, EU, CARTAC, Private sector, Central Banks and other Stakeholders (Specify)

1.4 Set up the methodological work for the compilation of the national accounts in accordance with 1993 SNA;

· Synchronise national priorities and regional recommendations for 1993 SNA implementation;

· Execute assessment of data needs, questionnaire, sources of data, available, etc.;

· Establish the methodological approach for implementation based on missions/technical assistance;

· Implement the methodologies as appropriate;

1.5 Rebase of National Accounts to a more recent year and set up a process to activate regular rebasing in future years;

· Set up methodology for rebasing of National Accounts;

· Collect relevant price/volume measures;

· Prepare first draft of rebased estimates with detailed methodology;

· Convene a user-producer seminar to discuss methodology;

· Revise and disseminate.

1.6 Collect and promote the use of relevant statistical sources and in particular, strengthen the business registers in scope and universe, in order to improve estimates of national accounts;

· Draft a regional reference manual of sources at the national level and their uses in the compilation of National Accounts

1.7. Adopt the international family of classifications as recommended by the 1993 SNA

· Enable the use of family of classifications as recommended by the 1993 SNA

1.8. Conduct Visitor Expenditure Survey as recommended by the WTO

· Review existing surveys of visitor expenditure and adapt as required;

· Implement visitor expenditure survey in accordance with WTO recommendations

1.9. Organize and implement a planned programme of training in national accounts comprising seminars/ workshops, attachments and so forth for national accountants and staff in other agencies doing related work in National Accounts over a three-year period.

· Establish at the national level a training programme which includes the area of National Accounts over a three year period;

· Identify sources of funding for this training programme;

· Make preparations to implement national level training programme;

· Organise regional level seminars/workshops;

· Arrange/assist Member States in arranging attachment, exchange visits among statistical offices

Programme Areas: National Accounts 1993 SNA Implementation

Detailed activities

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

1.1 Establish or strengthen the National Accounts Unit with appropriate minimum numbers of staff members to work exclusively on these accounts

Identify staff from existing structure that can be redeployed to National Accounts Unit

Re-assign staff to strengthen National Accounts Unit;

Identify the additional staff and other resources required to establish or strengthen this unit;

Activate process at national level to obtain additional resources, etc.;

Obtain additional staff and resources required to strengthen unit

Programme Area

Detailed Activities	Cost Year 1	Cost Year 2	Cost year 3