Reproductions of this material, or any parts of it, should refer to the IMF Statistics Department as the source.

IMF Statistics Department

Louis Marc Ducharme

September 11, 2014

Improving Collaboration through Data Sharing - SDMX as an Enabler

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Agenda

Landscape Approach SDMX : A common language Implementation & international experiences• Data Structure Definitions for global use• AfDB – Open Data Platform• IAG International Data Cooperation• Coordinated CPI collection

Conclusions

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The Landscape

Increasing reporting burden for countries due to increased inter-connectiveness

Several IOs collect similar data due to overlapping mandates

Reporting agencies and IOs are under pressure to increase efficiency

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1. Approach

One data domain – one report form – let’s standardize

Let data sharing agreements between IOs become the rule, not the exception

Enablers:• Common taxonomies• Standard formats for electronic exchange• Easier access to the technology

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2. SDMX: A common language for data

A standard for describing data and for establishing the data sharing and exchange infrastructure

SDMX promotes standardization and cost reduction with• A common data model: use for standardizing data exchange,

could be used to standardize production process• A standard for machine to machine communication: The

How is part of SDMX standards; Let us focus on the What

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Benefits provided through SDMX

Lingua franca - a common language for working more efficiently

Standards for organizing data, with guidelines on how to shape the data

ISO standard for developing standard software Comprehensive framework supporting the creation of

automated tools that operate on the data, populate websites or exchange and visualize data

Mobile solutions could be built quickly based on standard SDMX web services to interact with a dissemination environment

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3. Implementation and international experiences Implementations: Rapid successes when focus on data

and metadata exchange—adopting the SDMX model in production processes is more complex

Works well for Reporting (Push) and Sharing (pull) data Availability of Tools is increasing – Barrier-to-entry is

being lowered Most important: the availability of reporting taxonomies

(data structures and coding) commonly agreed and governed – An area where more work is needed

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SDMX DSDs for global use

SDMX Sponsors led the work on SDMX taxonomies for the revised statistical manuals for BoP/IIP (BPM6), SNA (2008 SNA) and GFS (GFSM 2014)

Objective of DSDs: Common codification of the data that could be used around the globe

Other Aspects of the work:• Addressed governance of these codification• Promote the developments of additional DSDs for global use

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SDMX in Practice:AfDB Open Data Platform

IMF

AfDB

Other…

Data Available to partners and Int. Organizations

Data mapping to International Standardsin OpenData platform

Country data

Data Sharing Process using ODP• Data mapped to international standards and loaded in the ODP• Data consuming organizations collect (pull) from the ODP• Common standards across organizations adopting the ODP

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AfDB Open Data Platform (contd.): Replacing Data Collection by Data Sharing• Separate ODPs available to the

Central Bank, MoF, NSOs of 54 African Countries• Joint IMF-AfDB TA missions

implemented ODP in 14 countries• Data available in common DSD

for all Economic and Financial Data collected by IMF and AfDB• Data Available to other IOs via

ODP’s SDMX web service (pull)

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SDMX in Practice: IAG Approach to Data Sharing IAG—Chaired by IMF—has established a TF to study and

establish data exchange across participating IOs Objectives: reduced reporting burden to member

countries, faster access to data by IOs Approach: • single data submission by member countries based of

standardized reporting templates• Electronic exchange of validated data and metadata between

participating IOs based on SDMX• Pilots: SNA main aggregates and sectoral accounts

Status:• Study of technical feasibility has been performed; technical

issues identified are being addressed• Production launch envisaged for early 2015

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IMF/ILO/FAO: Common CPI collection

Objective: reduce reporting burden to member countries and explore synergies between IOs’ work

Evolved from bilateral discussions Agreement: • IMF will enhance its CPI data collection to include breakdowns

previously collected by ILO and FAO• ILO and FAO will stop their CPI data collections• IMF will make CPI data and metadata available to ILO and FAO

in electronic format (SDMX) Status:• IMF is amending its internal databases and reporting forms

Next Step:• Inform countries about the agreement and start collection

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Common CPI collection - model

Country 1Country

1Country 1NSO

OECD

Country 1Country

1Country 1NSO

Country 1Country

1Country 1NSO

Eurostat

IMF

ILO FAO UNSD …

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Conclusions

We should strengthen our efforts to improve the access to data by focusing on data sharing

SDMX provides the standards and common language to support a fully automated data exchange solution—the issue of the HOW has been addressed

IOs collaboration should focus on • What Data are needed for fulfilling our respective mandates –

identifying and eliminating overlaps in collection• Who can most effectively Collect this data for sharing with

others The Statistics Community, whether producers or users,

will be the bigger beneficiary of our future successes

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Thank You

René Pichérpiche@imf.org+1 (202) 623 8192SDMX