DISSEMINATION
Overview from Bosnia and Herzegovina
The main objectives for statistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in dissemination area are:
o equal access for all to statistical results,
o professionalism and transparency of methodological solutions,
o user friendliness and especially access to statistical information on the Internet.
Following the users’ needs and proscribed procedures, almost all statistical publications are prepared in three local languages (Bosnian, Croatian ,Serbian by using Latin and Cyrillic letter) and in English.
All users are roughly divided into the following groups: governmental sector, enterprises, public sector, researchers and universities.
Important future tasks are linked with detailed division of users and organization of corresponding approaches to individual categories in accordance with new needs and demands.
Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina is planning to conduct more training for users and also measurement of their satisfaction regarding the quality of data and services.
Statistical system of B&H consists of three institutions:
a. Agency for Statistics of B&H on state level (include Branch office-Brčko)
b. Statistical Office of Federation of B&H- for entity Federation of B&H
c. Statistical Office of Republic Srpska- for entity Repulci Srpska
Each statistical office has different organization of departments for dissemination:
o Agency for Statistics has dissemination within IT department
o Statistical Office of Federation of B&H-has department for publishing (9 staff). Computer (IT) Center is antoher sector.
o Statistical Office of Republic Srpska has dissemination within IT departmnet.
LEGAL BASIS
Legal basis for dissemination of Bosnia and Herzegovina is:
1. Law on Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official gazette BiH , 26/2004 and 42704) in
Article 1.
«This law established the legislative framework for the organization, production and dissemination of statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the meaning of this Law.» This provision is also included in Article 1. of the Federal Law on Statistics (Official Gazette Fed.BiH, 63/03) and Article 2. (1) of the RS Law on Statistics (Official Gazette RS, 85/03)
According to the Law on Satatistics:
The Agency is the competent body to process and/or disseminate Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
and Agency shall:
• Collect, process and disseminate Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with internationally accepted standards based on data submitted by the Entity Institutes and/or data collected directly by the Agency ......
• disseminate the Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina to all Users including Governments, Institutions, social and economic operators and the public in general as soon as they are established in such way that access is rendered simple and impartial using appropriate media and without divulging any Confidential Data
This provision is also included in Article 8(4) and 37. of Federal Law on Statistics (Official Gazette Fed.BiH, 63/03) and Article 2.(1) and Article 9. of the RS Law on Statistics (Official Gazette RS, 85/03)
2. Multi Annual program 2005 –2008 includes:
o Production of statistical information in line with current and future needs
o Dissemination of statistical information – data and meta data – according to users' needs
o Implementation of surveys, according to specific users' needs
CURRENT WORK AND MAIN PROBLEMS:
All statistical offices are working on:
- Dissemination strategy and
- Dissemination technology
There is no enough cooperation between three institutes in this area. Plans for development are not harmonized, although the same training is delivered and received by staff in all three institutions (usually organized by external organizations or institutions). It looks that more information are issued on entities web sites than on web site of Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is so, because only harmonized statistical researches are published on state level.
Dissemination strategy is similar in all three statistical offices:
- All data available electronically and in hard copy
- Cooperation with professionals (printing ,design, marketing)
- Relationships with journalists (press policy)
- Product–on request - all users may submit their requests using one of the following ways:
· in writing (by mail)
· by fax
· by e-mail
· or personaly, in the Office where they can ask for information or use the library (Statistical Office of Federation of B&H.).
- Pricing (most services and publications for free)
- Promotion – presentation in mass media
- Release calendar
Harmonization is necessary for the following:
- Currently three web pages are existing:
www.bhas.ba
www.fzs.ba
www.rzs.rs.ba
- Release calendar is not harmonized yet. Entities' statistical offices usually publish data earlier than Agency (for state level).
Dissemination technology
The IT strategy should support electronic dissemination, and it has to be improved a lot.
The development of applications in IT should be in close connection with dissemination.
The use of offline products (CD as anex to the printed publication or CD with detailed data).
Participation in international statistical cooperation (standardized formats for transmission, Gesmes etc.)
SOFTWARE IN USE
For producing statistics
Microsoft Office Tools 2003
Microsoft SQL server 2000
Corel Draw 12, Adobe Photoshop 7 , ACDSee 8
SPSS 12.0 , STATA 8.0
For dissemination statistics
Dreamveawer MX 2004
SPSS 12, stata 8
PageMaker 7, Quark Press 5
In GIS area
Arc View 8.2
FUTURE PLANS
There are many tasks which BH statistics should realize in this area:
1. Establihing Library and Statistical Information and Documentation, Archive and Publications Department
Collecting, processing and dissemination of data to meet needs of users (private persons and legal entities), international organisations and experts .
2. Implementing of dissemination policy:
- Statistical database on the Internet
- Principles of organization
- Structure of database tables
- Software
- Required metadata
3. Dissemination of statistical metadata on the Internet
Use recommendations, internationally agreed standards and best experiences from other countries.
1. Web site
Use unique website structure and online publishing principles
Increase the number of the publications and data on website
2. Spatial data analyses and visualization of statistical data using GIS tools
Web based map applications
3. Thematic mapping
Classification methods and visualization
Data formats in different type of publications
PX-Map (maps on CD)
PX-I Map 8maps in Web
4. Regional statistics and publications
§ Using administrative resources
§ Publishing in the databases and in the publications
5. Building better relationships with users of statistical information
§ Distinguish different user groups
§ Internet interaction with users
§ Constant information to customers
§ Training external customers
6. Improvement of dissemination for international organizations
§ Better organization of collecting and sending questionnaires to international organizations: UN, UNECE, FAO, OECD, Eurostat, WTO, WHO, IMF etc.
§ Using the documents on dissemination available on website EU/UN
7. More and qualified staff in department for dissemination
8. More training for dissemination
DRAFT LIST OF NEEDS FOR ASSISTANCE IN THE AREA OF DISSEMINATION
· Dissemination policy
· Pricing policy
· Customer relationship management
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