FORUM SUMMARY | Agenda 2030 and the SIDS: Strengthening Statistical Capacity and Readiness | Paris 21

31.05.2016

Cross Regional Forum:

Agenda 2030 and the SIDS: Strengthening statistical capacity and readiness

18-19 May 2016

Paris, France

Heads of statistical offices from small island developing states (SIDS) countries, including a number of regional organisations in the Pacific, Caribbean and AIMS regions, bilateral and multilateral donors, and UN agencies met in Paris, France on 19-20 May 2016 to participate in the cross-regional forum on strengthening statistical capacity and readiness of SIDS statistical systems.

Review

The event, organised by the PARIS21 Secretariat, was setup to evaluate the current statistical capacities, readiness levels, experiences and good practices, and common tools and systems in SIDS to address existing and anticipated data demands arising from the Sustainable Development Agenda and SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway; identify bottlenecks and challenges facing their statistical systems; and recommend SIDS-specific solutions to improve capacity to respond to data requirements arising from the global development agendas.

Current Challenges

Statistical systems in SIDS face significant challenges in responding to data requirements arising from global development agendas as clearly put forward by the participants during the 2-day forum. These challenges, amongst others, include:

small statistical systems and statistical offices restrict them from undertaking the broad range of statistical activities required to generate statistics on national, regional and global development agendas
divergence between a global view of what statistics to collect and how it should be used for policy versus a national view of what relevant statistics to collect to inform existing national concerns
weak links between statistics use and policy
under-resourced statistical systems (financial, human and infrastructure) due to limited government resources and competing priorities
lack of predictability and sustainability of funding for statistical activities
statistical legislations in most SIDS countries are outdated, hindering statistical institutions to take appropriate action and interventions
shifting boundary towards generating subnational statistics
SIDS development are often driven by external agendas and efficiency concerns

Significant developments

While SIDS face similar statistical challenges, they have differentiated approaches in building their capacities to address data concerns, which was evident in a number of developments in their statistical systems. These developments include:

strengthening of national and regional statistical leadership
advancements in data production and dissemination
availability of core data/indicators for the Millennium Development Goals
formulation and implementation of national strategic statistical plans (NSDS)
updating of statistical legislation
adoption of common frameworks on census and surveys
use of common tools and methodologies
comparability and harmonised data on key areas
use of administrative data sources (i.e., civil registration and vital statistics, health and education management information system)
application of new innovations in statistics

Recommendations

Recommendations were put forward by the workshop participants in preparation for a SIDS statistics action plan that would lay out the approach their statistical systems would take on to improve their capacity and readiness to respond to the data demands resulting from the SDGs and SAMOA Pathway. The proposed elements in the statistics action plan include statistics in overall governance (national and regional); priority-setting on key areas, indicators, capacity to focus and build on; resourcing of statistical systems; systems, methodologies, tools and technology to sustain and further improve on; partnerships, engagement, south-south collaboration; advocacy; and co-ordination, monitoring and evaluation.

Opening | Setting the stage