Upcoming Events
The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires the availability of high quality, timely and reliable data to produce the relevant SDG indicators and other statistics, disaggregated as relevant. In order to meet this need, official statistics must modernize and incorporate new data sources, including Big Data. At its 53rd session in 2022, the Statistical Commission underscored the importance of mainstreaming the use of big data and data science into the work programmes of national statistical offices and the necessity to include training in big data and data science into the training curricula of national statistical offices. This course is a first response to this injunction by sharing experience, and providing the pedagogical activities required for understanding the process leading to the production and dissemination of official statistics with new data sources.
With the increased and evolving demand for data from national development plans, Agenda 2030 for sustainable development goals, the current and post crisis affecting the World, including COVID-19 and climate change; National statistical offices (NSOs) continue to be at the forefront of developing and coordinating national statistical systems (NSS) as well as engaging with the larger data ecosystem. National statistical systems (NSS) in low and middle-income countries need to innovate and adapt quickly not only in terms of data production, but also in more effectively re-using, analysing, disseminating and communicating other existing sources of development data. The development of strong leadership and management skills at both senior- and mid - levels is key to ensure NSOs are positioned to drive change and operate in modern and dynamic data ecosystems. In this context, enhancing leadership skills of leaders of NSO through targeted trainings is an important strategy to position the NSO/NSS to respond to emerging data needs, strengthen institutional reputation, and build trust among citizens.
The System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) provides the agreed upon statistical framework for measuring the relationship between the environment and the economy. It is comprised of two complimentary international statistical standards: the SEEA Central Framework (SEEA CF) and the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA). Adopted in 2021, the SEEA EA constitutes an integrated and comprehensive statistical framework for organizing data about habitats and landscapes, measuring the ecosystem services, tracking changes in ecosystem assets, and linking this information to economic and other human activity.
Within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), gender equality is not only a standalone goal but also one of the crosscutting universal values that underpins the SDGs, and a necessary precondition for achieving the goals of the 2030 development agenda. Good quality, timely, comparable, and disaggregated gender data provide the evidence needed to measure progress towards achieving the gender-related SDG goals and targets. The 2022 Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report produced by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) shows that while there has been notable improvements in overall data vailability in Asia and the Pacific since the first benchmark report in 2017, there are still significant data gaps. Notably, at the subregional level, the report highlights a lack of sufficient data for Goal 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and thus presents an incomplete picture of anticipated progress towards this goal for the Pacific. Strengthening capacities to produce and use gender statistics is central to closing the gender data gap.
Historically business statistics have focused very much in measuring the economic performance and competitiveness of businesses. However, businesses play a very important role toward sustainability and wellbeing. Task team on well-being and sustainability under the UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics (UN CEBTS) identified a set of 17 reference indicators related to the measurement of the business sector’s impact on well-being and sustainability. These indicators were based on the review of the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goal indicators of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the core indicators for entity reporting on contribution towards implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in order to provide a bridge between the information available at business level with business statistics and ultimately with relevant SDG indicators. This webinar series will focus on the set of indicators related to wellbeing and sustainability and is organized to (1) provide an overview of the importance of measuring impact of businesses on wellbeing and sustainability; (2) review data sources including, for example non-financial reporting; and (3) share country experiences on challenges and opportunities in the compilation of these indicators.
Water is essential to achieve sustainable development. At a fundamental level, the availability of clean water in and of itself is necessary for our health and overall well-being. Water is also an important input to many economic activities, from the production of food and energy to the manufacturing of computers and cars. High quality and timely statistics on water are need in order to manage our water assets and track water supply and use. This course will focus on water statistics and accounts, as well as some important water aggregates and indicators (including SDGs). The water accounts are based on the System for Environmental-Economic Accounting-Water (SEEA-Water) and the International Recommendations for Water Statistics (IRWS). These two documents support analysis of the role of water within the economy, understanding of the hydrological cycle and valuation of water assets. They are consistent with the SEEA Central Framework and follow a similar accounting structure to the System of National Accounts (SNA).
Inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) is a primary source of income generation, allows for rapid and sustained increases in living standards of people, and provides technological solutions for an environmentally sound development. ISID is an integral part of the SDGs, particularly SDG 9, which focuses on industry, innovation and infrastructure. Promoting inclusive and sustainable industries and continuing to invest in physical infrastructure, innovation and research are vital to long-term economic development. Furthermore, industrialization not only contributes to economic growth and infrastructure upgrading, but can also directly and indirectly support the achievement of the SDGs’ socio-economic and environmental objectives through the creation of jobs, improvements in working conditions, innovation, and the development of new and greener production technologies. In addition to SDG 9, all other SDGs incorporate some industry-related aspects and targets.
News
The United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and Pacific (UNSIAP), together with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Statistics Korea(KOSTAT)
will organize a regional training on education data capacity building from 15 to 19 May 2023, in Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
The program will focus on understanding education indicators based on household survey data, as well as administrative sources with a focus on SDG4 and other relevant SDG targets related to education such as child labour. Most of the indicators, however, will come from MICS 6 data, which should be available for all participating countries. In addition to the training, the capacity building activity will also serve as an opportunity for participating countries to share their experiences in terms of data use, including both Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) and household data.Identifying and responding to the needs of users for data and statistics is at the heart of the mission of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and national statistical systems.
NSOs already undertake many activities interacting with different users such as preparing press releases to aid journalists and communicate with the public at large and organizing launch events/workshops to disseminate important results from surveys and censuses. In general, the NSO interacts with users towards the tail end of the statistical production process when the data is disseminated.There is an opportunity for national statistical offices to further improve their collaboration with users by engaging more systematically throughout the statistical production process. User engagement is the process of conducting a dialogue with users of official statistics to understand their needs and improve the products, services and operation of a statistical organization accordingly.