'Why statistics' provides resource material to support advocacy for official statistics and the agencies that collect, process and disseminate them, It provides access to good practice material within almost all of PARIS21’s main areas of activity. The material will be disseminated through the PARIS21 website and also on CD-ROM. The content includes specially prepared material as well as links to reference material and good practice from national statistical agencies, international organizations and research organizations.

How to use this Guide
Why governments need good statistics: a pamphlet
Why statistics are crucial: a poster
Credits
Send us your comments

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

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'Why statistics' provides resource material to support advocacy for official statistics and the agencies that collect, process and disseminate them, It provides access to good practice material within almost all of PARIS21’s main areas of activity. The material will be disseminated through the PARIS21 website and also on CD-ROM.  The content includes specially prepared material as well as links to reference material and good practice from national statistical agencies, international organizations and research organizations.

More specific information on best practice in official statistics can be found on other websites of international organizations (see, for example, the UN website esa.un.org/unsd/goodprac/).

These materials are a work in progress. This means:

• it does not contain any graphics
• new links have still to be added
• the text will be subject to review and editing
• more examples need to be added, especially from developing countries

Statisticians and other experts are invited to send their comments and to provide new material through the PARIS21 Secretariat.

The copyright of this material belongs to PARIS21. The links are to material with different copyrights, but if there any limitations on using or reproducing the material they will be addressed before it is made available.

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General contents

From the home page links are provided to the different sections.

1) Statistics for development: why governments, enterprises and citizens in all countries need good statistical systems.

2) Official statistics and quality standards: good and bad practice and the importance of maintaining the quality of official statistics.

3) Statistical system components:  what statistical systems do and hoe the different elements work together.

4) Dissemination, service and data delivery: how official statistics are disseminated and the increasing importance of the Internet.

5) The cost of statistics: what official statistics cost, the need for adequate resources and how statistics can be paid for.

6) International support: how national statistical systems can get support.

7) Opportunities for Statistics: how statisticians can take advantage of opportunities for statistics, new demands for data

Besides the general introductory pages, there are links to:

• Studies, reports and speeches that could be useful for statistical advocacy.
• Information on best practice, offered on the basis that ‘how others do it’ can make it easier for countries just setting up a statistical system to establish such practice.
• Pdf material that can be used to produce pamphlets and posters.
• Audio and video material (to be added in due course).

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Understanding the targets to be reached

To use the materials effectively, it will be important to analyze the targets to be reached:

• An advocacy campaign targeted at government, parliament or senior civil servants will probably be undertaken best by speeches, reports or material produced for specific occasions (for example, a parliamentary hearing of the chief statistician). This can use information and examples from other countries and their official statisticians.
• Dealing with the news media requires some general ‘rules of the game’ on dissemination, such as how to present news releases, organize a news conference etc.
• Leaders of public opinion, regional organizations, pressure groups, academic and research society can be targeted via publications that periodically give a summary of the statistical office’s work. With the spread of the Internet, on line dissemination will become more and more important and an integrated approach (for example, a newsletter on paper detailing material to be found on the Internet) can be effective in managing the transition.
• Any important data acquisition (for instance a census or general health survey) requires a campaign of information to respondents, targeted at either specific local communities or the whole spread of public opinion; this can involve costly methods such as advertising or TV campaigns.
• International organizations can be informed of a country’s statistical progress in complying with international standards through effective use of the Internet.
• A country’s business community is particularly aware of the importance of statistics and their timeliness and sectoral and local disaggregations, and needs to be reassured about such things as the burden imposed by statistical response and privacy issues. Special mailings or briefings with appropriate material can be an effective means of addressing such needs.

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Using the materials

From this material, it should be possible to produce briefs, articles and pamphlets, and also posters and radio and television information – all adapted to national needs. It can be used to improve the style of your press releases and other methods of dissemination.

The materials can also be useful in training staff: to provide them with effective arguments to explain the nature of a good statistical system and why it is necessary.

In preparing an annual dissemination plan, the materials could be used to check all the different fields of action and the improvements required.

It can be used to benchmark a particular statistical organization against good practice elsewhere.

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Future developments

In building an effective website from this draft, and in the continuous updating by PARIS21, attention will be given to finding examples from developing countries and to linking material that can be downloaded effectively, for example, as audio or video.

The material will also be translated into French and Spanish initially and later, as and when resources permit, into other languages such as Arabic, Russian, etc.

In addition, the PARIS21 web-site will also host a forum for exchange of views by statisticians and others, to share information and to identify additional requests for help and information.

Credits

PARIS21

TASK TEAM CONVENOR: Graham Eele (World Bank)COORDINATOR: Makiko HarrisonSECRETARIAT: Mary Strode, Matthew Sudders

PRODUCTION OF ADVOCACY MATERIAL: Odysseus srl

The Odysseus team that produced the hypertext was led by Donato Speroni, assisted by John Wright in Oxford, who had final responsibility for editing the English material. The web-site section on poverty was written by Ben Kiregyera, First Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ugandan Bureau of Statistics. Additional material and comments were provided by: Petra Kuncová, Director of the Electronic Dissemination Department, Czech Statistical Office; Audrone Miskiniene, responsible for reorganisation and development of information management strategy, Statistics Lithuania; and Tuulikki Sillajoe, Head of the Marketing and Dissemination Division, Statistical Office of Estonia. In Rome, Sheila Chapman and Cristiana Conti prepared some of the pages, while Roberta Roncati assisted in revising and editing the texts, providing new links. Sheila Chapman is an economist, while Cristiana Conti and Roberta Roncati are communication experts working for the Italian National Statistical Institute (Istat). Rosalba Colasanto undertook the web-mastering of ‘Why Statistics?’ on the Odysseus web-site. In America, La Verne Vines Collins, from the US Census Bureau, Daniel Scott, from Statistics Canada, Sandra Smith, from the US National Center for Health Statistics, and Martin Vaessens, from Macro International, gave assistance and/or organised useful contacts in their organisations. Odysseus is grateful to them and their colleagues for the time spent in interviews with our team.

Finally, special thanks must go to everybody who, through the Paris21 web-site, gave advice on improving the ‘Why statistics?’ hypertext.