Workshop on the modernisation of statistical production and services

Annual report of the UNECE High Level Group on Modernisation of Statistical Production and Services

Pádraig Dalton

June 16, 2015

What am I going to talk about?

Environmental context

Modernisation – broad perspective

Collaboration

Modernisation activities

Modernisation challenges

Environmental context

Only constant - change

Pace of change

Increased user demand

Emergence of global user

Digital age – technology, sources, strategic alliances?

Skills: Re-profiling, outsource?

Availability of skills?

Politicisation – crisis, targets and indicators

Modernisation – Broad perspective

Common perception - Technology, Big Data, CSPA,

Visualisation – but its more than that!

“Modernisation” is a relative term

Needed to broaden our understanding of what

modernisation means

Also need to broaden our minds about what it will

take to modernise

Modernisation - Collaboration

Many active participants on modernisation front

NSI’s, UNECE, Eurostat, UNSD, OECD etc….

Individually we can develop our own strategies and

reactions to the challenges

But really to meet the challenges we must work together

At a global level one of the best examples is HLG MOS

“Collaboration of the willing”

UNECE HLG MOS

• Created by the CES bureau in 2010

• Strategic vision endorsed by CES in 2011/2012

• To oversee and coordinate international work relating to the modernisation of official statistics

• 10 heads of national and international statistical organizations (Australia, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Ireland, Eurostat, OECD, UNECE)

• Engagement goes way beyond formal membership of MOS

• Over 40 countries involved in HLG MOS activities

HLG Activities 2014: Wider involvement

HLG modernisation activities: AchievementsGeneric Activity Model for Statistical organisations

(GAMSO)Guidelines on privacy, partnership and quality issues

related to Big DataGeneric skills profile for data scientistsValuable experience and learning from sandbox

experiments8 new CSPA-compliant servicesCSPA service catalogue (hosted by Eurostat)

HLG modernisation activities: PlansSandbox: Produce and release a set of internationally

comparable statistics from one or more Big Data sourcesSustainable model for future sandbox-type shared

working environments (sprint in Cork)More CSPA servicesEnhanced catalogueSharing of investment plans: based on capability

enhancementsModernisation Maturity Model: roadmap for

modernisation

HLG modernisation activities – Sustainability

Becoming victims of our own success

This is a positive thing!!

Has implications - structures, governance and perhaps

even shared agreements

What might the future look like

Recent meetings in New York and Canberra surfaced

some thoughts

“Blue Skies” in New York (!!) and Canberra

Branding for HLG products and services to be developed

Establishing a “Statistical Modernisation Community”

Formalising “more or less” what already exists

Open to all

Collaboration of the willing

Statement of intent for subscribers

Identify expectations for those wanting to engage

Provide mechanism for deeper engagement on specific issues

through agreed “manifests” (e.g. CSPA, Big Data)

Modernisation Challenges

Existence of an appropriate institutional setting

Standards based modernisation Development for development sake

Proliferation of actors

How can we collaborate to influence modernisation relevant

standards

Modernisation Challenges

Exploitation of secondary data sources - access,

technology, skill-sets, quality, partnerships

Privacy & Data Protection

Linking secondary and primary data sources

Possibility of strategic alliances

Privacy & efficiency debate

Ensuring public trust in this new environment

Perception is the challenge

Modernisation Challenges

Behavioural – not all about technical challenges

Leadership, openness to change

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”

Influencing – but who do we need to influence

Communications - One voice

Challenges – Not all are technical

“Progress is a nice word. But change is its

motivator. And change has its enemies”

Robert Kennedy

We need to be focussed and relentless and yet see, and

address, not just the hard/technical/tangible challenges but

also the soft/behavioural/intangible challenges

Want to get involved?

All outputs on the HLG Website

4 Modernisation Committees

Conclusions

Modernisation means different things to different people

Are challenges and opportunities

Nature of the challenges are varied

Culture

Collaboration

Change

Influence

The Conference is asked to:

Approve the annual report of the High Level group

Take note of the formalisation of the “Statistical

Modernisation Community” and express your views

Express views on how we can continue to develop

coordination and collaboration