News 2024

In today’s rapidly evolving world, driven by technological advancements, climate change, and pandemics, the demand for timely, granular, and high-quality data is surging. National statistical systems must adapt, becoming more agile and responsive to emerging demands. This seminar will delve into how statistical systems can become more agile. The main topics covered in the ninth session of the Committee on Statistics are shown below. Three thematic areas have been identified that would benefit from further discussion at the level of chief statistician, shown in the circles.

Better national, regional, and global development policies underscored the need for resilient and trusted public data systems in evidence-based policymaking. Building back better from the pandemic and other crises, many public statistical systems need to develop adequate capacities to cope with these new and rising data demands and coordinate strategically across the new data ecosystem:   

Decreasing and properly managing solid wastes are priorities for many countries. These priorities are also reflected in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which call for substantially reducing waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse, as well as for proper management of all kinds of waste. Solid wastes can have a negative impact on well-being.

The transition from paper and pencil interviewing (PAPI) to computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) has been one of the key hallmarks of national statistical offices’ (NSO) efforts to adopt efficient and cost-effective new technologies and modernize the collection and production of official statistics.

This course introduces data visualization as a tool to produce high-quality graphics for monitoring, reporting and publishing official statistics and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators.

The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires the availability of highquality, timely and reliable data to produce the relevant SDG indicators and other statistics, disaggregated as relevant. To meet this need, official statistics must modernize and incorporate new data sources, including Big Data.

The causes and consequences of informal employment and employment in informal sector and their impact on achieving sustainable development continues to gain attention in national development agendas. The evidence in developing and emerging economies shows that on average the proportions of people in informal employment ranges from close to two thirds in emerging economies to nearly 90% in low-income countries. Therefore, every national policy targeting poverty, social protection, or decent work needs to recognise the role of the informal economy in national development.

The Sub-Group on Gender Statistics Training (SGGST) was established in 2018 to support national statistics offices in the Asia-Pacific region to develop statistical capacities to effectively produce and use gender statistics for gender policy decisions, advocacy, and tracking progress of the sustainable development goals. The SGGST comprises representatives from national statistics offices, national statistical training institutes, academia, the media, and civil society. 

The collection, compilation and utilization of disaster and climate related statistics are priorities for many countries in Asia Pacific due to the significant impact of disasters on life, well-being and sustainable development. At national and sub-national levels, timely and accurate disaster related statistics are essential to support countries in all phases of the disaster risk management cycle from risk assessment to recovery and foresight.

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.

According to the World Health Organization , in 2021 more than 700 million people in Asia and the Pacific lived with some form of disability, which accounted for 16 per cent of the population. Persons with disabilities encounter social and economic barriers and bias in all aspects of life. Disability statistics enable tracking socioeconomic indicators related to persons with disabilities, therefore understanding better their needs to participate in society on an equal basis and identifying policy gaps to ensure disability-inclusive development.

Consumer price indexes (CPI) measure changes over time in the general level of prices of goods and services 
that households acquire (use or pay for) for the purpose of consumption. In many countries, they were 
originally introduced to provide a measure of the changes in the living costs faced by workers, so that wage 
increases could be related to changing levels of prices. However, over the years, CPIs have widened their 
scope and now are widely used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation, as a tool by governments and 

Quality data are vital for enabling governments, international organizations, civil society, private sector and the general public to make informed decisions and to ensure the accountability of representative bodies. Effective planning, follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development requires the collection, processing, analysis and dissemination of an unprecedented amount of data and statistics at local, national, regional and global levels and by multiple stakeholders.

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (UNSIAP), with the support of the Office of the Director-General for Policy Planning on Statistical Policy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Government of Japan, and in collaboration with the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic are organizing the Regional Workshop on Accounting Approach to Climate Change and Biodiversity for Central Asia and the Caucasus.

This regional training introduces crime statistics from a gender perspective to produce reliable indicators to monitor the relevant SDGs (SDGs 5 and 16). The training provides an opportunity for participants to learn about gender concepts and frameworks on SDG indicators relevant to crime and criminal justice statistics including gender-based SDG targets, with the overall aim of strengthening regional capacity in producing high-quality SDG indicator data and overall statistics, to inform policy decisions at national and international levels.

This training will provide NSO heads with leadership skills to improve their effectiveness through greater awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and the challenges they face both internally within their organization and externally within the larger environment they are engaging with. Often, NSO heads rarely have the opportunity to receive extensive feedback from staff and stakeholders outside. It is necessary to have to open opportunity and understanding to build a comprehensive plan for driving success within the NSO and the NSS, and by extension the data ecosystem.

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.

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues in the Pacific region. Many countries are already experiencing intensifying threats such as rising sea levels, increasing ocean acidification, and escalating extreme weather events, profoundly impacting the region's economy, society, and environment. There is a need to address the well-being of people through good evidence-based policy. Reliable statistics and indicators on the impact of climate change are vital to enable evidence-based policy, decision-making, planning and investment.

In the Pacific region, climate change is one of the most pressing policy issues given its wideranging impacts on well-being. At the Fifty-first Pacific Islands Forum in 2022, Pacific Island leaders emphasized climate change as an existential threat to the wellbeing, livelihoods, and security of the Pacific, resonating with the Boe Declaration (2018) and the Kainaki II Declaration (2019). Consequently, they declared a climate emergency.

This e-learning course aims to build capacity in national statistical systems for the development and implementation of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAPs) for Official Statistics.

What is a Reproducible Analytical Pipeline?

Simply put, reproducible analytical pipelines (RAPs) are automated statistical processes (data processing and analysis) that codify to the greatest extent possible the production of official statistics. Common tools that are used to develop RAP include software such as R or Python, and version control management tools such as Git.

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is implementing a project supporting national statistical offices in Asia and the Pacific to leverage innovative data sources, tools and methods for the streamlined production and use of better, more timely data for official statistics: “The 2030 Data Decade – Strengthening the institutional capacity of national statistical offices in Asia and the Pacific to use innovative, new and big data sources for official statistics in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which is funded through the 2030 Agenda for

The numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) have increased rapidly in recent years, with UNHCR estimating over 108.4 million forcibly displaced persons in 2022. Similarly, the issue of statelessness continues to persist in society, with 4.4 million people currently estimated to be stateless. This course introduces the “International Recommendations on Refugee Statistics” (IRRS), the “International Recommendations on IDP Statistics” (IRIS) and the “International Recommendations on Statelessness Statistics” (IROSS).

BPM7 and 2025 SNA webinars will be conducted  March 26 – 27  (Group 1-Asia) and April 3-4  (Group 2-Pacific).

Statistical Business Registers (SBRs) are often described as the backbone of economic statistics, as they provide the core infrastructure to support the collection of economic data and the production of economic statistics. They provide a coherent set of units and classifications to collect and compile data across all domains, and a consistent set of rules to maintain this set of units over time.

This webinar will provide the participants with a clear understanding of the importance of measuring digital trade, and the conceptual framework for measuring digital trade whilst focusing on the fundamental concepts and statistical definitions. A variety of examples and practical applications will be shared by country representatives. The webinar will also emphasize the importance of digital trade statistics in evidence-based policy making.

This course introduces the SEEA Central Framework, the international statistical standards for measuring the interactions between the environment and the economy. It is comprised of 5 modules. The first module introduces the SEEA. Modules 2 discusses accounting for physical flows while module 3 discusses accounting for environmental assets. The fourth module contains details on environmental activity accounts, combined presentations and indicators. The last module contains an overview of subsystems, applications and extensions.

Pacific Community (SPC) has started an initiative to explore and identify the unmet needs for statistics in the Pacific region and undertook the region-wise comprehensive needs assessment. This needs assessment work will contribute to the development of the regional Capacity Development Framework, which is aimed to identify the needs and the appropriate capacity development modalities at three levels: system, institutional/organisational, and individual - more information can be found in a working paper aimed to highlight main features of the framework.

The Statistics Department (STA) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is implementing the “Environment and Climate Change Statistics Capacity Development Program”, supported by the State Economic Cooperation (SECO). The program is oriented towards assisting beneficiary countries in the development and dissemination of indicators most relevant to their policy needs.

The United Nations System of National Accounts (2008 SNA) manual represents the flagship of international economic accounting standards across all macroeconomic statistics disciplines.  In fact, the Macroeconomic statistics are expressed in terms of a set of concepts, definitions, classifications, and accounting rules that comprise the internationally agreed-upon standard for measuring different areas of economic statistics.