Knowledge Database

PARIS21's podcast series: Trusting the Numbers: From Principles to Agency explores the role of data and statistics as the foundation of evidence-based decision making. Yet, in many countries, trust in official data is fragile. Political interference, limited transparency, misinformation, and weak capacity can undermine confidence in statistics, affecting policy implementation, donor funding, and citizen engagement. This podcast series takes the ten fundamental principles of official statistics as agreed by the UN General Assembly as a starting point.
This episode explores the principle of participation, and whether it is a missing fundamental principle and features guests: Stefaan Verhulst, co-founder and Chief Research and Development Officer, the GovLab, New York University, and Roeland Beerten, Chief Statistician at the National Bank of Belgium.

This profile explores the climate change data ecosystem in Malawi, detailing the foundations for the system, main stakeholders as well as strengths and weaknesses. The profile makes recommendations on how Malawi can further improve its system.

This profile explores the climate change data ecosystem in Kenya, detailing the foundations for the system, main stakeholders as well as strengths and weaknesses. The profile makes recommendations on how Kenya can further improve its system.

This profile explores the climate change data ecosystem in Ghana, detailing the foundations for the system, main stakeholders as well as strengths and weaknesses. The profile makes recommendations on how Ghana can further improve its system.

This profile explores the climate change data ecosystem in Botswana, detailing the foundations for the system, main stakeholders as well as strengths and weaknesses. The profile makes recommendations on how Botswana can further improve its system.

L’Institut national de la Statistique et de la Démographie (INSD) et le Ministère de la Famille et de la Solidarité (MFS) ont collaboré avec le Partenariat statistique au service du développement au XXIe siècle (PARIS21) pour mener une étude consacrée à l’utilisation des données sur le genre dans l’élaboration des politiques publiques. Cette étude visait à fournir aux parties prenantes nationales une meilleure compréhension de la manière dont les statistiques sur le genre sont utilisées, ainsi que des actions à entreprendre pour surmonter les obstacles identifiés et tirer parti des opportunités existantes.

In 2023, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) partnered with the Partnership for Statistics in the 21st Century to implement a joint study on the role of gender data in policy making in Kenya.

This paper argues that the statistical community has reached a fork in the road. Incremental adjustment alone may no longer be sufficient. Countries and the international community face a strategic choice between two broad paths, each with distinct implications for legitimacy, financing, risk and equity. Rather than prescribing a single solution, the paper provides a framework to facilitate informed debate among all stakeholders of official statistics as they chart a course towards more sustainable and inclusive data systems. It is also the foundation for a forthcoming series of policy briefs that will explore specific aspects of this theme in greater depth and help sharpen policy attention to key areas.

Esta guía presenta el AI Readiness SPEEDometer, un conjunto de herramientas de autoevaluación estructurado que ha sido diseñado por el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Inteligencia Artificial para las Estadísticas Oficiales (TTAI) con el fin de ayudar a los equipos directivos y técnicos de las ONE a evaluar y reforzar su preparación para la IA de una manera pragmática y basada en datos empíricos. El conjunto de herramientas parte del marco SPEED, que evalúa cinco ámbitos de la preparación (estado, políticas, conocimientos especializados, maquinaria [datos e infraestructura] y obtención de resultados), y consta de este documento de orientación, una herramienta de puntuación en Excel y una plantilla de PowerPoint para la hoja de ruta. La autoevaluación en cinco pasos es ágil, está dirigida por la propia ONE y se completa en aproximadamente 6 a 10 semanas. El proceso no solo genera una puntuación, sino también una base de referencia clara sobre la preparación para la IA que permite entablar diálogos con base empírica con homólogos gubernamentales, asociados y financiadores.

This guide introduces the AI Readiness SPEEDometer, a structured self-assessment toolkit designed by the Task Team on AI for Official Statistics (TTAI) to help NSO leadership and technical teams gauge and strengthen their preparedness for AI in an evidence-based, pragmatic manner. Built on the SPEED framework, evaluating five domains of readiness: State, Policy, Expertise, Engine (Data and Infrastructure), and Delivery, the toolkit comprises this guidance document, an Excel scoring tool, and a PowerPoint Action Brief
template. The five-step self-assessment is lightweight, NSO-led, and completed in approximately six to ten weeks, producing not just a score but a clear baseline of AI readiness that enables evidence-based conversations with government counterparts, partners and funders.