Effective measurement of poverty is essential for understanding the scale, depth and distribution of deprivation, and for designing policies that respond to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. Accurate, timely, and comparable poverty statistics enable governments to better target interventions, monitor progress, and assess the impact of economic and social shocks. In the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 1 (No Poverty), robust poverty measurement is indispensable for ensuring that policy responses are evidence-based and effective. Consistent methodologies and measurements across countries and population groups are critical for producing reliable poverty estimates and for SDG monitoring. In this regard, the World Bank’s revision of the international poverty line in 2025, from USD 2.15 to USD 3.00 per person per day, to align with the 2021 purchasing power parities (PPP) and updated global price data represented an important development. While this update improved the relevance of the global poverty benchmark1, it introduced significant challenges for comparability, trend analysis, and the communication of results. It also requires that countries recalibrate poverty estimates and reassess historical series.
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). The SEEA CF takes a resource-based approach to measuring the supply and use of environmental resources and availability of environmental assets. The SEEA EA takes a holistic and spatially explicit approach to compiling accounts on ecosystems. The SEEA can be flexibly implemented by countries prioritizing accounts based on availability of information and policy priorities. The accounts are designed to respond to data needs for multiple policy initiatives including global initiatives on sustainable development, on mitigating and adapting to climate change and biodiversity. In addition, the Global Set of Climate Change Statistics and Indicators with its Self-Assessment Tool (CISAT) offers an opportunity to comprehensively assess data availability as well as the needs and gaps, in an effort to priorities key steps to address the data challenges
Across Asia and the Pacific, violence against women and girls is taking increasingly complex and lethal forms—from gender-related killings(femicide/feminicide) to rapidly evolving technology-facilitated abuse—yet both remain insufficiently measured due to persistent gaps in definitions, reporting, and integrated data systems.In 20241, at least 17,400 women and girls in Asia were killed by an intimate partner or family member—approximately 48 every day—according to joint United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) estimates. While this represents a decline from the previous year, it does not signal true progress. Instead, it reflects ongoing weaknesses in national data and reporting systems, including incomplete identification and classification of femicide and limited capacity to capture gender-related motives.
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Its impacts on well-being are far reaching, including impacts on health and the economy. Humans have contributed to climate change largely through economic activities which are intrinsically linked to climate change. Our supply and use of energy for example has led to increased emissions of greenhouse gases which have resulted in global warming. A better understanding of the relationship between the economy and climate change through the compilation of relevant indicators is key to mitigating and adapting to climate change. This course will focus on climate change indicators that can be compiled from environmental economic accounts. After a brief overview of climate change and, relevant polices and multilateral agreements, participants will learn how to compile various indicators that inform climate change. The focus of the course is on better understanding the relationship between climate change and economic activity. And the statistical framework that provides the concepts, definitions, and methodology for measuring this relationship is the System of Environmental Economic Accounting. Participants will learn about physical supply and use tables for energy and air emissions, and indicators that can be compiled from these accounts. Other topics to be discussed include transaction accounts which can be used to derived expenditure type indicators such those on taxes on energy and pollution. Further details on course content follow below.
In recent years, the data landscape has evolved rapidly, creating for National Statistical Offices (NSOs) both significant opportunities for innovation and important challenges in maintaining data quality and reliability. In response to these developments, the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) and the Ministry of Data And Statistics (MODS) are organizing a Regional Training on Data Science for Official Statistics, recognizing both the opportunities and the challenges associated with integrating Data Science methods and tools into NSO processes. The overall objective of the week-long training is to build the capacity of NSOs to integrate Data Science methods into the production of Official Statistics. It seeks to strengthen participants’ skills in handling, analyzing, and visualizing data sources, with a particular focus on reproducible methods and tools for monitoring and reporting Official Statistics and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators.
The training aims to strengthen the capacity of heads of National Statistics Offices to lead their own organisations and position them in the larger data ecosystem. This training session follows similar sessions run successfully by PARIS21 and SIAP in the region.
PARIS21, SIAP
Regional Training
Ankara ,
Türkiye
Pacific SIDS Energy Statistics Training Workshop
The United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in cooperation with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Unit and the Secretariat for the Pacific Community, are organizing an Energy Statistics Training Workshop for Pacific SIDS. The Workshop will be held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from 29 April – 1 May 2026. The Workshop will be an opportunity for data providers, policy makers and others to come together to accelerate the region’s renewable energy transition. The workshop will build national capacity to produce, disseminate and use high-quality energy statistics to monitor progress. The Workshop will be held in conjunction with the Pacific SIDS Regional Symposium: Transition towards 100% renewable energy. The Symposium will strengthen capacity and catalyse investment in renewable energy systems in the region through scalable pilot initiatives and SIDS-SIDS peer learning.
National statistical systems are increasingly using administrative data to compile official statistics. Such data can be utilized to better meet the increasing demands for new statistics and indicators that are highly disaggregated. Administrative data is not collected for the primary purpose of compiling official statistics, and statisticians need to ensure that the data meets certain criteria before using it to produce official statistics. This course provides an overview of administrative data, a discussion of data quality issues and institutional mechanisms to ensure that administrative data can be used in the production of official statistics. The course builds upon content developed for in-person training courses conducted by United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and to which members of the Collaborative on Administrative Data have provided valuable input.
The 2025 System of National Accounts (2025 SNA) and Balance of Payments and Integrated Investment Position Manual, 7th edition (BPM7) provide more visibility to digital activities, products and transactions in macroeconomic accounts given its tremendous impact on production, consumption, prices, trade, labour, and other aspects of the economy. Measurement issues associated with digitalization are elaborated in the 2025 SNA and BPM7, as well as in the accompanying guidance notes and manuals. Some national statistical organizations have initiated experimental estimates on capturing digital activities, while others have integrated questions on the use of digital products and services in their regular household and business surveys.This webinar series builds on outreach missions of the Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts and Advisory Expert Group members and regional commissions to increase awareness on the developments in the 2025 SNA. This collaboration between the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, through the Statistics Division and Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), and the ASEAN Secretariat contributes to advancing regional dialogue on the complexities of measurement of digitalization and better understanding of methodological approaches.
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.
