STATISTICAL COMMISSION And

ESCAP/SD/SGRPES/2016/TORQAF

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UNITED NATIONSESCAP/SD/SGRPES/2016/TORQAF

ECONOMIC and SOCIAL COMMISSION

FOR ASIA and the PACIFIC29 September 2016

STEERING GROUP FOR THE REGIONAL PROGRAMME ON

ECONOMIC STATISTICS IN ASIA and the PACIFIC (SGRPES)

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR A TASK FORCE ON
“Quality assurance frameworks for economic statistics”

Note prepared by Task Force Lead and the secretariat

I.BACKGROUND

1.The Steering Group for the Regional Programme on Economic Statistics discussed its organization and modalities of work, among other items, at its fifth meeting in Bangkok on 5-6 May 2016, which was a part of the first Asia-Pacific Economic Statistics Week.[1] The Group agreed on forming topic-based task forces as a way of providing substantive support to the implementation of the Regional Programme. Each Task Force would be led by one of the five co-Chairs.

2.The reports and the discussions at the fifth meeting pointed at priority areas for advancing economic statistics at the regional level and the Steering Group supported forming task forces to work on: (i) Second round of Capacity Screening; (ii) Asia-Pacific Economic Statistics Week 2017 and (iii) Statistical Business Registers. At the teleconference by the co-Chairs held on 24 June 2016, “quality assurance frameworks for improving economic statistics” was added as a fourth topic for a task force.

II.MANDATE

3.The work of the Task Force is conducted in support of the implementation of the Regional Programme on Economic Statistics. The Task Force reports to the SGRPES annually on progress of work.The Task Force will be created for a period from September 2016 to June 2017 with a possibility of extension by the Steering Group.

4.It is expected that the work of the Task Force would be useful to national statistical systems that may be applying quality assurance frameworks as well as users of economic statistics who would like to have a better understanding of how quality is measured in official economic statistics.

III.OBJECTIVE

5.The objective of the Task Force is toprovide countries with guidance and examples on how Quality Assurance Frameworks (QAF) can be used as a tool for improving economic statistics.

IV.PLANNED ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUTS

6.The Task Force will review the mainquality assurance frameworks that are used in economic statistics through a literature review. The focus of the literature review will be to compare and contrast the various frameworks that are used by international organisations and NSOs and to draw out key measures of quality that should be considered when compiling macroeconomic statistics. As a second step, an issues paper will be prepared and discussed by the Task Force in an effort to delineate the quality assurance frameworks to be studied in further depth. Finally, case studies will be solicited from various national statistical offices and/or central banks of the application of these frameworks or other good practices within National Statistical Offices (NSOs) from the ESCAP region.

7.The Task Force will document its work and findings in a paper to be presented at the next Asia Pacific Economic Statistics (APES) which will take place in 2017. This paper will be an enduring resource on quality assurance frameworks for economic statistics available to interested parties. The Task Force will also organize a session or a side event at the next APES that focusses on data quality.This will provide additional opportunities to discuss the application of QAFs in economic statistics within the region. The exact arrangements for the present Task Force’s contributions to APES 2017 will be decided upon consultation with the Task Force working on the substantive organization of APES.

V.TIMETABLE

8.The activities of the Task Force are planned for the period from September 2016 to June2017, according to the following tentative schedule:

VI.METHODS OF WORK

9.The Task Force will primarily work via email, ESCAP communities workspace and telephone conferences. Face-to-face meetings of the Task Force may be arranged in conjunction with other regionalevents.

VII.MEMBERSHIP

10.The following countries and international organizations have expressed interest in participating in the Task Force: Australia (lead), Armenia,India (Central Bank), Maldives, Philippines, Samoa and Turkey (Central Bank)and UNESCAP. UNESCAP acts as secretariat of the Task Force. Other Steering Group members will be invited to join the Task Force and/or contribute case studies. The Task Force may approach experts from various countries and organisations for their inputs, as needed.

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[1]Please see the report of the fifth meeting at