Regional Statistical Strategy in the Pacific: Towards a Stronger Statistical Community

1. ASEAN Regional Workshop on Strategic Statistical Planning: Towards a Stronger ASEAN Community Statistical System 28 - 29 November, Jakarta Developing and implementing a Regional Statistical Strategy - Example from the Pacific Gerald Haberkorn Manager, Statistics for Development Programme Secretariat of the Pacific Community Noumea, New Caledonia (www.spc.int/sdp)

2. Structure of presentation • Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics • Designing a regional statistical strategy in the Pacific island region • Commitment to, and monitoring of implementing the regional statistical strategy

3. 1. Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics • Growing acceptability to talk about statistics (moving from policy-making on the run to evidence-based policy development and policy /performance monitoring • Evident from recent developments at regional, national, and international levels

4. 1. Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics Recent developments at regional level • Starting Point: Pacific Plan – regional policy framework (2006) • Commissioning of Regional Statistical Benchmarking Study (2007) • Implementation in 2008 • Recommendations endorsed at Ministerial level in 2009 • SDP/ADB commissioning study to “help strengthen the implementation of its various recommendations …” (2010) • Endorsement of Cook & Paunga report by 3rd Regional Conference of Heads of Planning and Statistics (2010) • Development of Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy and associated Pacific Statistics Action Plan by SPC and partners(2010)

5. 1. Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics Recent developments at national level (a) • Vanuatu: solid political and financial support to statistics by very committed Minister of Finance (and Statistics): annual budget allocation commensurate with activity commitments laid out in long-term statistical master plan developed through an Australian funded/ABS-assisted ISP); • Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea: • strong political support with prime ministers of Samoa and Tonga, and the National Executive Council of PNG endorsing in 2010 the development of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS), jointly undertaken by a PARIS21-SPC partnership, • Strong support by government of Vanuatu requesting to also be involved in process of developing such a long-term statistical strategy.

6. 1. Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics Recent developments at national level (b) • various types of “statistical master plans” at varying stages of development , political endorsement and implementation • Cooks Islands, Niue, Tokelau (assisted by Statistics NZ) • FSM, Guam, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau (assisted by ABS/SPC )

7. 1. Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics Recent developments at international level • Statistics becoming a politically acceptable discussion point in policy debates and aid negotiations (beyond perennial complaints about timeliness, quality, lack of accessibility) • The emergence, energy, perseverance and commitment to the cause by PARIS21.

8. 1. Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics Growing recognition at all levels (a) • Existing/growing demands for national and regional statistics cannot be met by adhering to the status quo; • most small island states NSOs are not in a position, and most likely will never be in a position to collect and compile, tabulate and analyse, report and disseminate everything required (let alone desired), and even less so – do this on their own;

9. 1. Political context – growing awareness and recognition of statistics Growing recognition at all levels (b) • need for regional solutions to address national statistical demands and priorities that do not undermine the statistical sovereignty of small island states; • regional solutions to be complemented (in most cases preceded) by national solutions • illustrated in the insufficient allocation of resources to NSOs to undertake basic statistical work, including undertaking routine statistical collections and regularly proving a regionally agreed-to standard set of statistics and indicators.

10. 2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in the Pacific island region Key messages: • The design process(“managing the process”) was critical in paving the way to secure political acceptance and financial support to start implementing the Ten Year Pacific Statistics Strategy (2011 – 2020) • Process involved careful choice (strategic) of consultants to ensure • technical/substantive content and acceptance of strategy, • Solid knowledge of political culture and management (of national government agencies) to facilitate political acceptance and implementability) • Process involved close collaboration between consultants and SPC throughout development of the strategy.

11. 2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in the Pacific island region Outcome: • Design of strategy expanded on earlier benchmarking study; • Recommendations of various strategic, thematic, operational priorities over a 10 year period, organized along 3 distinct phases. • Recommended SPC Statistics for Development Programme to coordinate implementation of the strategy, with a statistical steering committee (PSSC) providing the governance structure to guide / oversight SPC in this process; • Strategy and proposed governance arrangements adopted by Regional Conference of Heads of Planning and Statistics (7/2010)

12. 2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in the Pacific island region Pre-Strategy implementation (additional activities) • Step 1: develop Pacific Statistics Strategy Action Plan • Purpose: prioritize objectives and define associated activities; • Development team: one of the previous consultants (to provide obvious link to overall strategy development) and myself. • Step 2: develop PSSAP M & E Framework (focus on Phase 1) • Purpose: self-evident • Development team: AusAID programme officer + AusAID contracted external M & E specialist + myself (SDP manager).

13. 2. Designing a regional statistical strategy in the Pacific island region Pacific Statistics Strategy Action Plan Outlines: • six key strategic objectives guiding statistical development in the Pacific Island region over the next decade; • Specific activities to be undertaken to achieve these objectives ; • Purpose as well as the importance of each activity, and what would be missed by not implementing each activity, • Expected outcomes of each activity, • Activity costs (for Phase 1 only), and • Potential partnerships with other statistics providers and agencies with distinct comparative advantages .

14. 3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy Principal financial support: AusAID (4 funding envelopes) • Multi-year funding support to SPC to implement regional statistical strategy related activities (A$ 10 million, 2010-2013); • Multi-year funding support to the Australian Bureau of Statistics to support TYPSS-related priority activities, as jointly agreed-upon with AusAID and SPC (A$ 3 million, 2011 – 2013); • Direct support to Pacific island NSOs in pursuing national statistical developments , as part of AusAID’s bilateral Partnerships for Development policy ($ value varies between countries; current beneficiaries, PNG and Samoa) • Funding support to Paris21 to implement Pacific islands focused statistical development initiatives (A$ 750,000, 2011-2013).

15. 3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy Others funding sources • ADB provides multi-year financial support to SPC’s regional household survey programme (2012-2013: US$ 1 million); • PARIS21: joint development of NSDS with SPC, plus assistance with statistical advocacy initiatives (2011-2013) • PFTAC: IMF’s Pacific arm makes a much valued and appreciated contribution to statistical capacity building, particularly in the field of macro-economic statistics ($ value unknown); • SPC core and programme budget provides ongoing support to our statistical development activities across the region (2012: A$ 2,4 million);

16. 3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy Monitoring system • Pacific Statistics Steering Committee (PSSC) meets six-monthly to review implementation of Pacific Statistics Action Plan, Phase 1 (2011-2014); the 1st of 3 discrete operational phases supporting TYPSS implementation; • Monitors on behalf of Regional Conference of Heads of Planning and Statistics – the regional governance mechanism which reviews the work/performance of SPC Statistics for Development Programme and approves work programme for next 3 years. • Meeting every 3 years not seen suitable to effectively and efficiently monitor TYPSS implementation -> hence PSSC set-up.

17. 3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy Monitoring system (2) • PSSC comprises of 6 heads of Pacific island NSOs, 2 financial (AusAID, ADB) and 2 technical partners (UNFPA, current chair of UNDAF ME TWG; University of the South Pacific); PFTAC ex officio adviser on macro-economic statistics. • All members • committed to implementation of Phase 1, • involved in guiding/monitoring overall plan coordination by SPC, • monitor performance and impact of Pacific Statistics Action Plan activities executed by all active players: SPC, PFTAC, ABS, UNFPA, Unicef and other development partners • Mid-term review of Pacific Statistics Action Plan Phase 1 implementation planned for February – April 2013 to • Ascertain ongoing relevance of TYPSS priority objectives for Phase 1; • Evaluate relative importance of emerging priorities; • Make adjustments where deemed necessary.

18. 3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy Summary observation • Ten-year strategic outlook combined with four-year commitment by all players (including four year financial commitment by AusAID) helped develop stronger and more effective partnerships between national clients/stakeholders and SPC and other development partners. • SDP well on track in delivering against key TYPPS outcomes, as noted by a SPC-wide independent review mid-year, highlighting recognition by both • Pacific island clients/stakeholders (heads of NSOs and other key players in NSSs) who “were consistently supportive of SDP and largely enthusiastic about the level and content of support received”, and • key donors, who saw “no real alternative to the (statistical capacity building) support it (SDP) is giving to the region”.

19. 3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy Challenges • More effective coordination and communicationbetween implementing partners of TYPSS (‘good work in progress’; not experiencing anything different from others working in the reality of multi-agency and multi-agenda dynamics). • Achieving greater harmonization of statistical concepts, classifications and systems (need stronger/tangible political support at national level, and from technical/financial partners: common methodologies, including core questionnaires/core set of questions; strategies; DP systems)

20. 3. Commitment to, monitoring implementation of regional Ten-Year Pacific Statistics Strategy Opportunities • Improve management of Pacific development statistics and indicators build on progress of regional NMDI database (www.spc.int/nmdi) that provides instant/user-friendly access to comparable development statistics and indicators as requested by Pacific Leaders in 2005 • Improve NMDI thematic sectoral coverage (e.g. agriculture, forestry, energy) • Ensure regular compilation of baseline data by sectoral specialist, to maintain timeliness and provide QA function; • Expand geographic coverage to include Pacific islands territories