EUROSTAT
Directorate A: Cooperation in the European Statistical System; International cooperation; Resources
Unit A-3: Statistical cooperation
Doc. PGSC/2015/11
Meeting of the
Policy Group on Statistical Cooperation
15 - 16 October 2015
Herceg Novi, Montenegro
Report on progress in implementing the recommendations from AGAs and LPRs
Follow-up report of the improvement recommendations from previously implemented AGA/LPR of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[*], the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
Point 5 of the Agenda
Table of Contents
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. SUMMARY OF PROGRESS ON RECOMENDATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EUROPEAN STATISTICS CODE OF PRACTICE
2.1. Comments on the number of recommendations by principle and answers received
2.2. Overall findings
2.3. Principle 1. Professional independence
2.4. Principle 2. Mandate for data collection
2.5. Principle 3. Adequacy of resources
2.6. Principle 4. Commitment to quality
2.7. Principle 5. Statistical confidentiality
2.8. Principle 6. Impartiality and objectivity
2.9. Principle 7. Sound methodology
2.10. Principle 8. Appropriate statistical procedures
2.11. Principle 9. Non-excessive burden on respondents
2.12. Principle 10. Cost effectiveness
2.13. Principle 11. Relevance
2.14. Principle 12. Accuracy and reliability
2.15. Principle 13. Timeliness and punctuality
2.16. Principle 14. Coherence and comparability
2.17. Principle 15. Accessibility and clarity
2.18. Coordination of the national statistical Systems
2.19. Organization of national statistical offices
2.20. Relationship with main users
2.21. Statistical cooperation
3. SUMMARY OF PROGRESS ON RECOMMENDATIONS IN DOMAIN-SPECIFIC STATISTICS
3.1. Comments on the information received
3.2. Overall findings
3.3. Demographic and social statistics
3.4. Macro- economic statistics
3.5. Economic statistics
3.6. Methodology of data collection, processing, dissemination and analysis
ANNEXES
Glossary of Acronyms
Glossary of Acronyms
AGA / Adapted Global AssessmentCAI / Computer AssistedInterviewing
BoP / Balance of Payments
BR / Business Register
BS / Business Statistics
CAPI / Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing
CATI / Computer AssistedTelephoneInterview
CB / Central Bank
CPA / Classification of Products byActivity
CPI / Consumer Price Index
EDP / Excessive Deficit Procedure
EFQM / European Foundation for Quality Management
ENP / European Neighborhood Policy
ESCoP/CoP / European Statistics Code of Practice
ESMS / Euro SDMX MetadataStructure
EU / European Union
FATS / Foreign Affiliates Statistics
GAC / General Agricultural Census
GDP / Gross Domestic Product
GFS / Government Finance Statistics
GPS / Global Positioning System
GSBPM / Generic Statistical Business Process Model
HBS / HouseholdBudgetSurvey
HCPI / Harmonised Consumer PriceIndex
IPA / Pre-AccessionAssistance
ICD / International Classification of Diseases
ICT / InformationCommunication Technology
ILO / International Labour Organization
IMF / International MonetaryFund
IT / Information Technology
ISTAT / ItalianNationalInstitute of Statistics
LFS / Labor Force Survey
LPR / Light Peer Review
MB / Multi-Beneficiary
MoU / Memorandum of Understanding
NA / National Accounts
NACE / Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community
NSI / National Statistical Institute
NSO / National Statistical Office
NSS / National Statistical System
PPIC / Producer Price Index in Construction
PRODCOM / Classification on Community Production
Q / Quarter
SBR / Statistical Business Register
SBS / Structural Business Statistics
SDDS / Special Data Dissemination Standards
SDMX / Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange
SBS / Structural Business Statistics
SIDA / Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
SILC / Statistics on Income and Living Conditions
SO / Statistical Office
SPPI / Services Producer Price Index
SQL / Structured Query Language
STS / Short-Term Statistics
SUT / SupplyandUseTable
TA / Technical Assistance
UNOPS / United Nations Office for Project Services
WG / Working Group
ISo alpha 2 country codes
AL / AlbaniaBA / Bosnia and Herzegovina
XK / Kosovo (Designation without prejudice to positions on status, and in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence
MK / The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
ME / Montenegro
RS / Serbia
TR / Turkey
Glossary of Acronyms
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 / Professional independence, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 9Table 2 / Mandate for data collection, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 10
Table 3 / Adequacy of resources, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 11
Table 4 / Commitment to quality, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 12
Table 5 / Statistical confidentiality, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 13
Table 6 / Impartiality and objectivity, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 14
Table 7 / Sound methodology, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 14
Table 8 / Appropriate statistical procedures, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 15
Table 9 / Non excessive burden on respondents, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 16
Table 10 / Cost effectiveness, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 16
Table 11 / Relevance, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 17
Table 12 / Accuracy and reliability, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 18
Table 13 / Timeliness and punctuality, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 18
Table 14 / Coherence and comparability, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 19
Table 15 / Accessibility and clarity, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 20
Table 16 / Needs for support for the ESCoP principles implementation, by country / 23
Table 17 / Needs for support for the development of the statistical domains, by country / 25
Table 18 / Demography and social statistics, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 29
Table 19 / Macro-economic statistics, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 30
Table 20 / Economic statistics, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 31
Table 21 / Methodology of data collection, processing, dissemination and analysis, Implementation status of recommendations/ actions in progress, by countries / 32
Glossary of Acronyms
ANNEXES
Annex 1 / Overview of recommendations, by ESCoP principle and by country / 34Annex 2 / Overview of the remaining recommendations, by ESCoP principle and by country / 35
Annex 3 / Overview of AGA recommendations, by statistical domain and by country / 36
Annex 4 / Overview of the remaining recommendations, by statistical domain and by country / 37
Summaryandrecommendations
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This report was prepared by DevstatStatistical Consulting Services S.L.
This report gives an overview of how the recommendations from the Light Peer Reviews (LPRs) and Adapted Global Assessments (AGAs) were implemented by the candidate countries and potential candidates.
This report is based on responses to self-assessment questionnaires sent by Eurostat to the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs). Responses were available in time from all enlargement countries, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. The reports span the interval between 2010 and 2013.
The purpose of this report is to provide a progress summary with the respect to the AGAs and LPRs recommendations. The report is structured in two parts. The first part (Chapter 2) presents a summary of the progress made on the 234 recommendations associated with the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice (ESCoP) and on the cross-cutting issues. The second part presents the progress registered by 3 countries only (AL, BA and XK) on the 100 recommendations related to broad statistical domains (Chapter 3).
The most relevant conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis of countries’ responses to the questionnaires is the fact that, in principle, all countries accepted the recommendations and are keenly committed to following them. In spite of the validity of this general conclusion, one still needs to take into account that it is not straightforward to quantitatively assess the level of commitment. Only the number of recommendations completed, in progress and delayed can be counted.
The degree of implementation of therecommendationsvariesfrom 0% to 50%, withmoreachievements in relationtoprinciplesreferringtotechnicalissues (sound methodologyandappropriatestatisticalprocedures) as wellas to cost effectiveness, whilelessprogressisachieved in theimplementation of thoseprinciplesreferringtoinstitutionalissues (mandate for data collection, professionalindependence.
Principle / Completed, % of total / In progress,% of total / Delayed,
% of total / Other, not specified,
% of total
7. Sound methodology / 50,0% / 25,0% / 0,0% / 25,0%
8. Appropriate statistical procedures / 50,0% / 30,0% / 0,0% / 20,0%
10. Cost effectiveness / 50,0% / 25,0% / 12,5% / 12,5%
15. Accessibility and clarity / 41,3% / 28,3% / 4,3% / 26,1%
13. Timeliness and punctuality / 40,0% / 0,0% / 20,0% / 40,0%
9. Non-excessive burden of respondents / 33,3% / 50,0% / 16,7% / 0,0%
3. Adequacy of resources / 31,8% / 31,8% / 31,8% / 4,5%
11. Relevance / 28,6% / 14,3% / 14,3% / 42,9%
12. Accuracy and reliability / 28,6% / 57,1% / 0,0% / 14,3%
5. Statistical confidentiality / 25,0% / 40,0% / 15,0% / 20,0%
2. Mandate for data collection / 21,7% / 30,4% / 39,1% / 8,7%
1. Professional independence / 20,0% / 50,0% / 20,0% / 10,0%
6. Impartiality and objectivity / 16,7% / 8,3% / 0,0% / 75,0%
4. Commitment to quality / 8,1% / 48,6% / 13,5% / 29,7%
14. Coherence and comparability / 0,0% / 100,0% / 0,0% / 0,0%
The review of the progress has to take into account the following remarks:
Overall there has been progress for all the recommendations (30% of them having been implemented); differences between NSIs in term of scope and speed can be allocated to the specific country circumstances;
The main aspects (professional independence, statistical governance, the role of the National Institute of Statistics as co-ordinator of the National Statistical System, the use of administrative sources, statistical confidentiality, and others similar) are directly determined by the legal framework that needs to be improved in the light of the developments at international, European and national level;
The methodological and technical improvement of the areas covered by the statistical process with its phases (collection, processing, analysis and dissemination) is a key concern of countries due to the need to keep up with statistical developments in general and, particularly, to meet the requirements of data users. The technical assistance in this field of activity is directly and fully oriented towards the transfer of know-how through pilot actions and actions that aim at ensuring the sustainability of methodological and technical undertakings.
With regard to the cross-cutting objectives that, more or less, cover all countries, the recommendations would be:
The improvement of the national legal statistical framework by providing assistance to assimilate the recent developments consisting of the amendments made to (EC) Regulation 223/2009 as well as the developments that would obviously result from meeting and/or anticipating the needs of internal users;
To identify the methods, mechanisms and actions to be used in order to implement the amendments made to the legal framework.
To continue to consider quality of statistical processes and outputs a top priority;
Scarcity of resources highlights the need for priority setting and for rationalising the use of resources;
To revise the delineation of the National Statistical System, mainly in terms of defining “other producers of official statistics”. This could be done at the level of public administration authorities and agencies, by assessing the capacities and abilities of the current data providers that would make them eligible to be considered “other producers of official statistics”. According to their current status, they are defined as providers of statistical data to the National Institutes of Statistics;
To address the issues related to the mandate for the collection of data, particularly the data that have a practical impact on all statistical areas. For example, in many cases the countries mention the Population and Housing Census issues (not so much to General Agricultural Census issues), pointing out, on one hand, some methodological inconsistencies adopted at international level which create difficulties and, on the other hand, the high amount of expenses and the relatively large time gap between the finalisation of data collection and the publication of results. In the same context, the problems related to obtaining data on migration in the framework of the “population by usual residence” concept (place of residence outside the locality/country for up to 12 months and for more than 12 months) are also pointed out.
With respect to the information provided by the countries, it is important to improve the collection to be able to report on concrete initiatives that illustrate progress in implementation of the recommendations. This would allow Eurostat in assessing the countries’ progresses in alignment to the ESCoP principles, and constitute as well a “catalogue of good practices” to assist candidate countries, potential candidates and also the European Neighbourhood Policy countries in identifying concrete improvement actions for the implementation of the ESCoP.
Follow-up report on theimplementation of recommendationsfromthe AGA/LPR1
Summaryandrecommendations
1. INTRODUCTION
This report is based on responses to questionnaires sent by Eurostat to the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) of the following countries:
Country / AGA / LPRAlbania (AL) / 2010 / 2013
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA) / 2011
Kosovo (XK) / 2011
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MK) / 2010
Montenegro (ME) / 2012
Serbia (RS) / 2011
Turkey (TR) / 2011
The aim of this report is to summarize the responses to self-assessment questionnaires in order to provide an overview of the seven countries’ progress with respect to the AGA of 2010-2011 (AL, BA and XK) and the LPR 2010-2013 recommendations (for AL, MK, ME, RS and TR).
The document consists of two parts: Chapter 2offers a summary on recommendations associated with principles of the ESCoP and on the related cross cutting issues of the coordination of national Statistical System (NSS), relation with the main stakeholders and statistical cooperation and Chapter 3 presents the progress on recommendations for various broad statistical domains.
When reading the report, a number of limiting factors should be taken into account:
-Filling in the information on the status of implementation of the recommendations was done in a very detailed way by some countries, and in a more general way by others, preferring for example, to declare an “action finished” without any further comments;
-The feedback provided is not always consistent and in some cases interpreting and assessing progress is difficult, e.g. when actions are delayed, their status may be formulated in such a way that they seem to be progressing as planned;
-The interpretation of the instructions of filling in the questionnaires was quite different from country to country and even in a country from a statistical domain to another; the high number of non-responses turned out to be a problem when going into detail in the description of progresses made;
-LPRs focus on principles 1 (professional independence), 2 (mandate for data collection), 3 (adequacy of resources), 4 (commitment to quality), 5 (statistical confidentiality), 6 (impartiality and objectivity), and 15 (accessibility and clarity) but include also improvement actions for the other principles, while AGAs focus on the entire statistical System including the principles and the statistical domains, which means that aggregating the number of recommendations across LPRs and AGAs may not well reflect the overall scope of recommendations.
Follow-up report on theimplementation of recommendationsfromthe AGA/LPR1
Chapter 2.
2. SUMMARY OF PROGRESS ON RECOMENDATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EUROPEAN STATISTICS CODE OF PRACTICE
This chapter presents a summary on the progress made on the recommendations associated with the principles of the ESCoP and on cross-cutting issues.
2.1. Comments on the number of recommendations by principle and answers received
Annex 1 provides a numerical view of the recommendations referred to the ESCoP principles, by each principle and by country. 234 recommendations were given in total, with significant differences among countries. For example, 51 recommendations are addressing AL, while only 20 refer to XK.
The possible explanation of these differences is the fact that the exercise of formulating recommendations depended both on the level of development of official statistics attained by countries and on the different aspects taken into account by the peer reviewers.
Given that LPRs only focus on a subset of ESCoP principles (1 to 6 and 15), the aggregate number of recommendations is higher for these principles. In addition, it is worthwhile mentioning that, to a certain extent, similar issues were treated under different principles in various countries, that is why, when analyzing the findings the tendency should be considered rather than the formal distribution of the recommendations by principles.
Cross-cutting issues were treated in separate sections, due to the fact that information was only available for BA, ME and XK in the case of “coordination of the NSS”, for BA in the case of “relationship with main users” and XK for “statistical cooperation”. No information was available for the ”organization of NSO”. As the topic of “statistical cooperation” is focused on modalities of support with technical and financial assistance either the actions foreseen to implement in practice the ESCoP principles or the development of the statistical production, tables 16 and 17 of this chapter show current and future needs for support, identifying them by countries.
2.2. Overall findings
Out of 234 recommendations given in total, about 30% were declared as accomplished in total, with a range in 0 to 50% depending on principles (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Percentage of implemented recommendations by principle (all countries aggregated).
It is interesting to observe that recommendations referring to the statistical processes are implemented to a higher degree compared to other recommendations. In general, it is of the exclusive competency of NSIs to decide on the production procedures, and therefore, it is easier for them to make the necessary improvements[1]. The same happens with the improvements in dissemination (increased accessibility and clarity). However, the recommendations related to issues generally ensured by the Statistical Law (Mandate for data collection, professional independence, impartiality and objectivity) are more difficult to implement, since they require agreement by higher political (government, parliament) authorities when a modification of the legal status is envisaged.
Annex 2 offers a general view as far as the ”status of completion of the recommendations” is concerned (see figure 2).
Figure 2. Status of implementation of the recommendations not yet completed, by principle (all countries aggregated).
For the 168 remaining recommendations, the work is either in progress and not yet finished/ going on with no specific deadline for about 48%, or delayed but with new deadline established/ included in a new action plan (20%). It is worth noting that principles for which a higher percentage of recommendations correspond to actions in progress are related to the quality of data, but the number of recommendations given is small (coherence and comparability – 3 in progress out of 3 given- and accuracy and reliability – 4 out of 5).
The possible explanation of the above distribution is the fact that the exercise of addressing the recommendations depends on the level of development of official statistics attained by countries, on the capacities and capabilities of each country, but also on the priority-setting decided by countries and resources that could be allotted to adequately solve identified problems.