Review of working methods of the CCSA

Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities SA/2014/10 Twenty-fourth session 8 September 2014 Rome, 11-12 September 2014 Item 6 of the provisional agenda Review of working methods of the CCSA Concept note by Co-Chairs in cooperation with UNECE and UNODC I. Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) 1. The CCSA was established as an inter-agency group in 2003 and held it first meeting on 3 March 2003 in New York. 2. The CCSA promotes inter-agency coordination and cooperation on statistical programmes and consistency in statistical practices and development. The CCSA fosters good practices in the statistical activities of international and supranational organisations, in accordance with the principles governing international statistical activities 1. 3. The members of the CCSA contribute actively to the development of a coordinated global statistical system producing and disseminating high-quality statistics in accordance to its terms of references (ToRs) 2. 4. CCSA is composed of international and supranational organisations, whose mandate includes the provision of statistics both from the UN family and other international organisations and the number of members has grown steadily throughout the years and has reached over 43 members. 5. The Committee meets twice a year and its members shall be represented by the top level of the statistical services of its member organisations. II. Current working methods of the CCSA 6. The CCSA elects two Co-Chairs taking into account the diversity of its membership. Normally, one Co-Chair is selected among the UN family and the other Co-Chair from the other international organisations. The Co-Chairs serve for a two-year period and are each eligible for re-election for a second two-year term. 7. The Co-Chairs main function is to decide on the agenda after consulting the CCSA Secretariat and its members and to chair the sessions, leading and directing the group and to put forward and summarising common views and positions of each agenda item. They are also responsible for the provision and finalisation of the report of CCSA meetings. The Co- Chairs represent the CCSA e.g. in World Statistics Conferences, and express common 1 2 http://unstats.un.org/unsd/accsub-public/principles_stat_activities.htm http://unstats.un.org/unsd/accsub/2008docs-12th/tors-2011.pdf 1

positions of the CCSA during meetings of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC). 8. The CCSA and its Co-Chairs are supported by the Secretariat. The Secretariat of the Committee is situated at the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), which also hosts and maintains the CCSA website 3. The Secretariat supports the CCSA Co-Chairs in developing the CCSA agendas, drafts minutes, manages, monitors and releases meeting documents to CCSA members and keeps track of CCSA deliveries according to set timetables and milestones. The Secretariat organises regular telephone conferences among the Co-Chairs and the Secretariat as part of the planning of CCSA activities and writes up corresponding action lists (aide memories). The Secretariat acts also as a central contact point between the CCSA and the UNSC. The Secretariat prepares the draft annual report to the UNSC based on the outcome of CCSA meetings. 9. The CCSA meets twice a year, of which one is a shorter meeting organised front-tofront to the UNSC meeting in New York during February/March. The 2 nd venue is a 2-3 day meeting hosted by a CCSA member during the first half of September, which may include a Special Session focussing on a specific high priority CCSA topic which requires more thorough discussions and elaborations. The CCSA is not voting; decisions are taken by consensus. 10. CCSA members vary in size in terms of full-time equivalents working on statistics. They are typically specialised on certain fields of statistics. Moreover, certain topics or themes may not be relevant for all CCSA members. It has therefore proven useful to establish CCSA Task Teams that prepare topics for the CCSA meetings. 11. The current CCSA working methods facilitated the following non-exhaustive list of achievements in recent years. They are typically published on the CCSA website: i. Best practice on micro-data dissemination; ii. Recommendations on the use of non-official statistics; iii. The communication of the principle of releasing statistics as a public good free of charge to the public; iv. CCSA in Wikipedia; v. Strengthened CCSA identity with the design of a CCSA logo; vi. CCSA Sessions led by the Co-Chairs at the ISI World Statistics Congresses in Hong Kong (2013) and Rio de Janeiro (2015), and European Conferences on Quality of Official Statistics in Athens (2012) and Vienna (2014); vii. Presentation of CCSA to the ISI in New York in March 2014; viii. Common positions at UNSC meetings; ix. Well-functioning website hosted by the UNSD; x. Membership survey on Future of CCSA ; xi. Membership survey on the implementation of the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities. 12. The current CCSA working methods have worked well, though as the aspiration of the CCSA increases and with the increasing number of members, the current working 3 http://unstats.un.org/unsd/accsub/ccsa20.htm 2

methods may well deserve a reflection within CCSA as part of enhancing the CCSA effectiveness and making CCSA fit for the future. 13. The next session recalls the main outcome of the still recent Future of CCSA survey in 2012/2013 before reflecting on key suggestions on how to further develop the working methods of CCSA. III. Future of CCSA Survey results 14. During the tenth anniversary of the CCSA at the ECB in September 2012, a special session on the future agenda of the CCSA was organised, at which several CCSA members presented the history, the achievements, suggestions for future topics and the overall functioning of the CCSA. These presentations and the related discussion led to a survey among CCSA members, the main results of which are recalled below. a) The two main obstacles preventing CCSA members from attending meetings were other commitments and insufficient financial funds. The CCSA concluded that the Committee had little to insignificant influence on other commitments and funds of its members and could only encourage senior officials to engage in future CCSA meetings. b) The CCSA members proposed to prioritise the following topics. Table 1: Summary of replies Topics Yes No Net New approaches for data collection, analyses and 37 2 35 dissemination and communication on statistics Including but not limited to: geospatial information, Virtual Statistical System Quality in international statistics Including but not limited to: common views and recommendations on quality standards; best practices, examples and benchmarks; use of alternative sources in international statistics; development and implementation of a data quality framework 37 3 34 Cooperation among international statistics bodies Including but not limited to: sharing of vacancies for international statisticians, exchanges of human capital among international statistical bodies; training; common CCSA positions for UNSC annual meeting; CCSA and inter-agency taskforces Cooperation with national statistical institutions and other reporting agents Including but not limited to: common recommendations on best practices; memoranda of understanding, common interests Standardization of data exchanges Including but not limited to: views and recommendations on the use of common statistics data exchange standards (SDMX); recommendations and best practices Statistical methodology Including but not limited to: common views and recommendations on recording and measuring new statistical concepts, aggregation, consolidations 35 1 34 34 3 31 29 1 28 28 4 24 3

Common statistics hubs for international statistics Including but not limited to: purpose and feasibility, share of experiences (such as UNdata or Principal Global Indicators) 26 5 21 Other topics 6 1 5 15. The topic with the highest score: New approaches for data collection, analyses and dissemination has been reflected in the subsequent and on-going CCSA agendas by including ½ days of special CCSA topical sessions. 16. The topic with the second highest score Quality Assurance Frameworks resulted in the CCSA session at the European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics in Vienna in June 2014. The session explained and elaborated the CCSA document Best Practices on the use of non-official sources in international statistics. This was a very valuable and policy relevant topic and obtained significant attention and debate. 17. The topic with the third highest score Cooperation among international statistics bodies was reflected in the agenda of regular CCSA meetings such as Preparations for the 45th Session of the UN Statistical Commission, Human resources, and Network of statisticians working in International Organisations. 18. The topic with the fifth highest score Standardization of data exchanges has been included within the Rome agenda as a special session related to the CCSA coordination mechanisms on the implementation of SDMX. 19. The CCSA intends to strengthen its coordination function further and acknowledged that once the Committee has more than 40 members, its working mechanisms should be reviewed and improvements should be considered. The CCSA member organisations are very diverse both in terms of size, mandates, geographical coverage and specialisation. Against this background, a brainstorming discussion between the Co-chairs, CCSA Secretariat and the UNECE and UNODC representatives took place on 23 June 2014. Elements of these reflections are outlined below for further discussion. IV. Specific proposals to enhance the CCSA working methods Strengthen the CCSA Secretariat to one experienced full-time equivalent as the CCSA aspiration increases as well as the membership; Consider establishing a CCSA Bureau of about three UN and three non-un members in addition to the Co-Chairs; the Bureau would interact via telephone/video conferences; Introduce a CCSA membership fee (similar to ISI), either in cash or in kind; the funds could be used for hiring consultants (employed by CCSA member organisations) who would work on topics, selected by CCSA; Provide CCSA Task Teams with clear guidance for drafting CCSA position papers including timetable. Appointing lead CCSA members to drive the progress of the Task Teams may help in keeping the momentum (the concept of Sherpa s); At least one or two CCSA member organisations may present their statistical work and challenges at the CCSA regular meetings. This may encourage an exchange of ideas for bilateral or multilateral cooperation among CCSA members; 4

Prioritise strategic reflections related to statistical concepts, processes and policies related to international statistics. V. Possible topics to be discussed at future CCSA meetings Review the list of topics and prioritise statistical issues of common interest (e.g. SDGs, common statistical methods, etc.) in regular intervals; Focus on releasing recommendations, guidelines, principles; Promote and enhance the cooperation between IOs and National Statistical Agencies to foster mutual and common understandings; Invite frequent users and market practitioners to CCSA special sessions (similar as done in Luxembourg, Athens and Hong Kong); Promote and explain statistical methodology and describe the international statistics to policy and frequent users; Organising side events at the UN Statistical Commission and continue arranging sessions at the ISI World Statistics Congresses and European Conferences on Quality in Official Statistics also engaging and enhancing co-operation with national reporting agents; Promote and communicate the value of international statistics and facilitate access to international statistics; Promote the CCSA as the community of international statistics and an effective interlocutor for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and place the SDG and MDG at the core of the CCSA agenda for the next 2 years; Analyse the implementation of the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities and see how the CCSA as a group can help single agencies to address the challenges; Develop a single quality framework for international statistics. VI. The CCSA is requested to discuss: possible insufficiencies in its working methods; and possible enhancements in its working methods taking into account the CCSA objectives and existing resource constraints. 5