PARIS21 Newsletter

Increasing Aid
Financial commitments to statistical development for the period 2010-12 amounted to roughly US$ 2.3 billion. Although these figures are up considerably from previous PRESS rounds, as illustrated in the figure to the left, support to statistical development still represents only about one-fourth of one percent of all Official Development Assistance.

Between 2008 and 2011, the regional distribution of commitments to statistics had shifted steadily away from the largest recipient, Africa, with Asia-Pacific being the primary beneficiary of this change. However, the 2012 round saw a slight correction back toward the African continent. Africa's 2012 share rose from 41% to 46%, equivalent to US$ 1.056 billion in commitments.

2012 PRESS Round Key Findings

US$2.3bn committed to statistics over the period 2010-2012

46% of commitments go to Africa

0.28% is the share of aid to statistics relative to total Official Development Assistance

72% of total country-specific commitments went to only 25 countries

Challenges in Aid Delivery
While the increase in commitments to statistics is certainly encouraging, worrying signs of unbalanced distribution of that support persist. Commitments are in fact heavily concentrated in a small number of countries. The 2012 PRESS exercise captured support to 111 countries; however, a mere 15 combined to equal 40% of total estimated commitments (i.e., including unallocated support) and 54% of total country-specific commitments (i.e., excluding unallocated support).

Of additional concern is the plight of small island developing states (SIDS). Among the many development challenges resulting from their small population size, SIDS often face the additional burden of being "aid orphans". In fact, no SIDS countries figure among the top 15 recipients. (Dominican Republic is 24th in the list, followed by Haiti at 38th.)

The alignment of development programmes with country priorities is another area where improvements are needed, as a decreasing percentage of aid is now aligned with national statistical strategies. Forty percent of projects/programmes were confirmed as being aligned with National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS), down from 52% in the 2011 PRESS Round, yet81% of low and lower-middle income countries have an NSDS process already in place.

Going Forward
Judging by PRESS figures, can we conclude that the international community is supporting statistics appropriately? Although the overall volume of support has increased, there remains room for significant improvements in aid delivery. A small concentration of "aid darlings" dominate the scene. SIDS, in particular, could greatly benefit from providers of development co-operation diversifying the countries on the receiving end of their support. (It is interesting to note that, of the bottom 50 countries in the PRESS list of aid recipients, the PARIS21 Secretariat is working with nearly half). Furthermore, more developing countries should explicitly express their needs for support through an NSDS, and development co-operation providers can do a better job in aligning their support with those strategies.

Interview with the new PARIS21 Executive Committee Chair
"We should think of new ways to ensure that users' needs are being heard"

Ms. Frances Harper was recently appointed chair of the PARIS21 Executive Committee. In this interview, she speaks about progress in statistical development, key challenges, and the role PARIS21 can play in bringing statistical users and producers together.

Who is Frances Harper

Frances Harper is a Senior Statistics Adviser at the UK's Department for International Development (DFID). She has been with the Department for 14 years, working on a range of issues including: corporate monitoring; statistical capacity building in Southern Africa, Nepal and Bangladesh; aid effectiveness; and results. Frances spent two years on secondment to PARIS21 and is now head of DFID's Global Statistics Partnerships Team, responsible for DFID's multilateral statistics programmes including those with the World Bank, UN Statistics Division, PARIS21 and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prior to joining DFID, Frances worked for the Scottish Government and spent two years as a volunteer teacher in Zimbabwe. In September 2012, she was appointed Chair of the PARIS21 Executive Committee.

You have more than a decade of experience working for the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), specifically on statistical capacity building in developing countries. What's your assessment of the current status of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) in developing countries? What progress has been made?
NSDSs are a hugely important tool in strengthening statistical capacity. We have seen NSDS processes lead to increased country ownership, and clearer prioritisation of needs. They have also helped increase donor coordination - allowing us to align more clearly behind countries' own requirements, and made it less acceptable for us to do the kind of un-strategic and ad-hoc work that doesn't always build sustainable capacity. As we know, progress in designing NSDSs has been impressive (with now only two IDA borrower countries not having, or not planning to develop one).

And what are the main challenges facing developing countries today?
The real challenge is implementation, and we need much more progress here. I would like to see more support to produce clearly prioritised and costed implementation plans. And I would like to see all donors who are active in statistics get behind these plans. Activities outside of NSDS (particularly data collection activities) should be the exception, and countries should say no to donors who do not align with their own priorities.
Another key challenge is broadening NSDSs to cover the whole statistical system, and linking effectively across sectors. The revised NSDS guidelines PARIS21 are developing, and the Global Strategy for Agricultural Statistics (which is providing support to integrate agriculture into NSDSs) will help. But perhaps a more concerted effort is needed here to ensure all key elements of a country's statistical system are improved (including less 'high profile' areas such as national accounts, vital registration systems etc.).
And finally on this, I wonder if we could do more to enhance user engagement on NSDSs? Their input is particularly crucial in the design phase, but remains important throughout. Perhaps we - as a global statistics community - could think of new ways to ensure all user needs are being heard, and being met by NSDSs.

As the newly elected chair of the PARIS21 Executive Committee, what is your vision for the partnership at large?
Firstly, it is an honour to have been elected chair of the Executive Committee, and I look forward to getting started in the role. I believe the PARIS21 Partnership has a crucial part to play in global statistical development and in driving up the quality, availability and use of statistics. In terms of where I would like to see the Partnership.... I would like more donors involved (including key bilaterals like the US, important multilaterals like UNESCO, as well as emerging donors like the Arab countries and private foundations). I would also like to see even more engagement with users. I think we statisticians should spend less time talking to each other, and much more time talking to our users. And I mean users in the broadest sense - government policymakers, parliamentarians, researchers, media, civil society, and citizens themselves. If we can increase our understanding of their needs and get a much clearer sense of the different demands for statistics, we could more effectively deliver those needs and in turn increase that demand (that well-known idea of a virtuous circle: more demand, more funding, more use, more demand and so on).

"Statisticians should spend less time talking to each other, and much more time talking to our users "

What kind of role should the Secretariat play in implementing the Busan Action Plan for Statistics?
The Busan Action Plan for Statistics is a huge opportunity to do just that, and I think the PARIS21 Secretariat can play a crucial role in its implementation. It has already made a good start: having consulted country and donor partners on their priorities; convened a Busan Task Team; and begun to set out the way forward. It will be important to build on this work and to outline - in really concrete terms - what needs to be done under each of the five Busan objectives. To remind ourselves what we agreed at Busan, identify what is already being delivered, set out where the gaps are, and agree how we will fill those gaps. And it will be important to increase the momentum of this work. The Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness was over a year ago, so we need to up the pace and start delivering. I see the Secretariat at the center of this delivery: coordinating activities, tracking progress, and holding us all to account for what we have agreed.

What is PARIS21's competitive advantage in supporting statistical development globally and in developing countries?
For me, the key strengths of the Partnership are the fact that it brings together both developing and developed country statisticians, as well as both producers and users of statistics. It is probably the only forum designed to make this happen systematically, and that is a huge advantage we need to capitalise on. Its relative neutrality is also important.

What kind of activities would you like to see strengthened in a rapidly changing environment for data production, dissemination and analysis?

"We need to do more on user engagement, and more to get data used"

As I mentioned, I think we can do more on user engagement. I'm sure we would all like statistics and statisticians being more closely involved in policy processes, including for example the current debate on the Post 2015 framework. Some ways we could do this might be: by building wider networks (and let's be ambitious and think of high profile, influential champions for statistics); increasing our profile (including through social media perhaps); increasing our own capacity to participate in policy discussions and make statistics relevant (we should probably admit that we are not always great at communicating to non-statisticians). We could also do more to get data used. Including by making existing data more available and more accessible (and we have seen an excellent example of this through the Kenya Open Data Initiative), and by building technical skills so that data can be analysed in country, not just in donor capitals.