E/ESCAP/STAT.11/4
11 November 1998
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Committee on Statistics
Eleventh session
24-26 November 1998
Bangkok

Introduction

1. STATISTICAL INFORMATION SERVICES
   1. Data collection and dissemination
   2. Readership surveys: recurrent publications
2. STATISTICAL DEVELOPMENT
   1. Regional advisory and expert services
   2. Technical meetings and other group activities
   3. Profiles and other technical publications
   4. Public sector computerization
3. RESOURCE SITUATION

Annex. Meetings of other organizations attended by staff of the Statistics Division, July 1996-August 1998

List of tables

1. Table1: Number of respondents to the readership survey, by category 
2. Table2: Assessment of the three publications surveyed (percentage of respondents) 
3. Table3: Advisory missions and technical consultations by country or area, July 1996-June 1998 
4. Table4: Advisory missions and technical consultations by broad area of technical assistance, 1991-1992 to 1997-1998
5. Table5: Professional work-months utilized by broad function of output activities
6. Table6: Utilization of Professional work-month resources by main work programme categories, July 1996-June 1998

INTRODUCTION

1. The present document is intended to summarize secretariat activities in the field of statistics since the tenth session of the Committee on Statistics. Over the past years, the programme structure of ESCAP has undergone changes and is again due to be modified for the next biennium beginning in the year 2000 but, in all its reformulations, statistics has been retained as a distinct subprogramme. For the biennium 1998-1999, the programme structure of ESCAP is as follows: 15.1 Regional economic cooperation: trade and investment

15.2 Regional economic cooperation: research and policy analysis
15.3 Regional economic cooperation: industry and technology
15.4 Environment and sustainable development
15.5 Poverty alleviation: social development
15.6 Poverty alleviation: rural and urban development
15.7 Poverty alleviation: population and development
15.8 Transport and communications
15.9 Statistics
15.10  Least developed, landlocked and island developing countries

2. Currently, the Statistics Division is one of the eight substantive divisions in the secretariat. It coordinates activities under the Statistics subprogramme and contributes to and provides support for other subprogrammes and for the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP). The overall thrust of the secretariat activities in statistics addresses the following mandates of the Commission, as stated in its terms of reference, to: "(c) Undertake or sponsor the collection, evaluation and dissemination of such economic, technological and statistical information as the Commission deems appropriate;

"(d) Perform such advisory services, within the available resources of its secretariat, as the countries of the region may desire, provided that such services do not overlap with those rendered by the specialized agencies or the relevant United Nations bodies."¹

3. In 1997-1998, the activities under the Statistics subprogramme comprised four main components: statistical information services, statistical development, coordination, and public sector computerization. The first two chapters of the present paper cover statistical information services and statistical development, and a summary of resources available to the Statistics Division and their utilization is presented in the final chapter.

4. In addition to the statistical information and operational activities, a considerable portion of the available resources was devoted to the promotion and coordination of statistical development activities in the region. The tenth session of the Working Group of Statistical Experts was organized in November 1997. The report of that session is available to the Committee as document E/ESCAP/STAT.11/3. The secretariat also serviced the Meeting of the Bureau of the Committee held prior to the tenth session of the Working Group. The organization of the sessions of the Committee on Statistics is a major effort of the secretariat towards promoting regional cooperation and coordination of statistical activities. The nature of this important activity and its outputs have changed over time, since the adoption of the bureau approach. Since the ninth session of the Committee, the secretariat has also been organizing an exhibition in collaboration with the national and international statistical organizations. The secretariat collaborates with SIAP on, among other things, the organization of the sessions of its Governing Board, and its training programme.

5. In 1997-1998, the secretariat was able to strengthen its collaboration with other organizations by attending their meetings and by providing technical inputs through documents and comments. Attempts were also made to be represented in the meetings of the "city groups", although this was with limited success owing to resource constraints. Coordination with regional and international statistical agencies was actively maintained in such areas as the 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA), the International Comparison Programme (ICP), statistics related to trade in services, gender issues, environment statistics and environmental accounting, statistical training, and statistical development in the Pacific subregion. A close working relationship has been maintained with the United Nations Statistics Division on technical and promotional matters. The secretariat was represented at a number of meetings organized by other agencies, including the sessions, held in 1997-1998, of the United Nations Statistical Commission, the Subcommittee on Statistical Activities of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), the Conference of European Statisticians, the regional meeting of the heads of statistics of the Pacific Community, and the International Statistical Institute. A list of meetings that the secretariat attended is presented in the annex to the present note.

I. STATISTICAL INFORMATION SERVICES

A. Data collection and dissemination

6. Recurrent publications still comprise the primary mode of dissemination of statistical information by the ESCAP secretariat. For that purpose, the secretariat compiles information obtained from various sources, including copies of questionnaires completed by countries for the United Nations Statistics Division, publications sent by the national statistical organizations and the statistical outputs of other international agencies. The regular statistical information publications of the secretariat are the Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific (annual), Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific (quarterly), Foreign Trade Statistics of Asia and the Pacific (annual) and Asia-Pacific in Figures (annual).

7. The Statistical Information Services Section remained under severe personnel constraints (see para. 32). Despite that situation, it has been possible to produce the core publications on a regular basis, except for one issue of Foreign Trade Statistics of Asia and the Pacific which has had to be combined with the following issue. However, this is being done in such a manner that the time series will not be broken. Once the resource situation improves, it is planned to introduce enhancements to these publications based on the recommendations of the Committee and the Commission, as well as the feedback received through readership surveys. It will also be possible to give due attention to electronic dissemination.

8. In that connection, at its tenth session, the Committee stressed the importance of making the ESCAP Statistical Information System (ESIS) operational as soon as possible, and urged the secretariat to strengthen its resource base in that regard. Unfortunately, the situation is little changed as the secretariat has managed to fill two Professional staff vacancies in the Statistical Information Services Section only recently. Moreover, the key post, that of Statistician/Database Administrator, remains vacant, although it has been advertised twice. The technical work that the secretariat has managed to do (in testing, bug-fixing and improving the data upload programs) has been accomplished with the help of consultants and by diverting staff resources from public sector computerization; this is reported in paragraphs 5, 15 and 23 of document E/ESCAP/STAT.11/1.

9. As in the past, the Statistics Division continued to supply ad hoc information and special tabulations to various divisions and units within the secretariat, and to requesting organizations and individual research workers, including those from the private sector. However, owing to resource constraints, low priority had to be assigned to those requests which demanded a considerable amount of human resources. The Statistics Division continued to provide inputs to the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, a major publication prepared by the secretariat and presented to the Commission at its annual session. Under a cooperation arrangement with the Overseas Development Administration of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the division has been distributing the population projection software packages People and Workers, which remain in demand both within and outside the region.

10. In line with the high priority placed on the Statistical Newsletter by the Working Group of Statistical Experts, greater attempts were made to produce the Newsletter on a regular basis, although some issues were delayed and restricted in topic coverage owing to resource constraints. The secretariat is grateful to those organizations that provide input for the Newsletter. The Committee may wish to encourage other organizations, as well as countries, to contribute. The homepage of the Statistics Division on the World Wide Web of the Internet now includes recent and past issues of the Newsletter, along with the documents of the Committee on Statistics and recent technical meetings.

B. Readership surveys: recurrent publications

11. As the previous readership survey was carried out in 1994, and in line also with a secretariat-wide review of publications, a readership survey was recently carried out for three out of the four regular statistical publications, as follows:

12. The questionnaires were inserted into the publications rather than mailed separately. The cut-off date for the analysis was 15 September 1998, which resulted in 138 questionnaires being processed. Additional questionnaires continue to be returned, although no subsequent analysis is planned at the moment. The same questionnaire was used for the three publications.

13. The responses to the questionnaires were entered in a database and an analysis was undertaken. Several tables reporting detailed answers to multiple-response questions were generated. However, the small number of respondents to date does not make the tabulation of results very meaningful at the detailed level. A summary report therefore follows, and the guidance of the Committee is sought on further action to be taken by the secretariat.

14. Of the 138 questionnaires analysed, 54 returns relate to the Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific, 45 to Asia-Pacific in Figures, and 39 to the Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific. Results are given in tables 1 and 2 and more specific comments on the individual publications follow.

15. As is frequently the case with such surveys, the number of completed questionnaires received was very small (on average, about 4 per cent of the print run and around 12 per cent of those on the division's complimentary mailing list). Moreover, most returns came from those receiving copies on a complimentary basis. Nevertheless, the secretariat considers that the responses do provide useful feedback for meeting users needs in future. Questionnaire respondents share some common characteristics:

• they are mainly intermediate users (around 70-75 per cent)
• almost 90 per cent receive the publication on a complimentary basis from ESCAP
• they use the publication for many purposes, mainly for reference but also for research, cross-country comparisons and as a data source
• the publication in hardcopy form remains the preferred means of dissemination; among other means of dissemination, the Internet and CD-ROMs or diskettes received the highest preferences.

Table 1. Number of respondents to the readership survey, by category

Table 2. Assessment of the three publications surveyed (percentage of respondents)

Asia-Pacific in Figures

16. Respondents indicated that improvements in references to sources of data and footnotes, timeliness, and coverage of time series would be welcome. Of subjects currently covered, national accounts and trade coverage were emphasized. A few users supported changes in the physical size of the publication, but others preferred a reduction in the size.

17. The secretariat notes that Asia-Pacific in Figures, with its 11 by 21 cm format, is designed to be a pocketbook. The number of data items that can be included is constrained by the page size and the font. Thus, only those items found to be most useful or which together provide a snapshot of the economy, and which are available for a reasonable number of countries, can be included. Existing data items might be replaced with new ones, as there is clearly a limit to adding new items. The importance of footnotes on data sources is noted, but should be considered with due regard to the physical constraints of this pocketbook publication. Users seeking more comprehensive information may wish to consult other publications issued by the secretariat.

Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific

18. Readers of Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific suggested possible improvements on population and trade data. Favoured additions were on poverty, environment and gender issues, although the secretariat notes that there is very little information available on these topics on a quarterly basis. There were also suggestions to extend the geographical coverage, which the secretariat has in fact been steadily pursuing. Including countries additional to the 28 currently covered in the publication again depends mainly on the availability of a reasonable amount of quarterly data.

Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific

19. Readers gave this publication a high rating in terms of overall usefulness and quality, but it scored poorly on timeliness. This is partly to be expected because of the scope and coverage of the publication. The secretariat notes that many countries in the region are able to provide official data for the reference year only during the second half of the following year. Other aspects worthy of note were length of time series, sources/footnotes and coverage of subjects. Suggestions for improvement on existing subjects showed no clear pattern. The new topic most frequently mentioned for inclusion was environment statistics, followed by gender and poverty issues.

II. STATISTICAL DEVELOPMENT

20. The Statistics subprogramme continued to focus on promoting the improvement of national statistical capabilities to produce the data required by planners and users in the public and private sectors. The recent financial crisis in Asia has underscored the importance of statistical development and improvement of the timely availability of relevant statistics and indicators. To assist countries in statistical development, the secretariat has been providing technical assistance through such modalities as advisory services, technical and expert group meetings, and training courses and workshops. The fields of statistics covered include national accounts, price statistics, population.

censuses and surveys, data processing, application of modern technology, statistics on gender issues and the informal sector, and environment statistics. These and other activities promote the exchange of technical information and country experiences, contribute to skills development, facilitate the evolution of regional norms and standards, and help to incorporate regional concerns into global standards. These activities also contribute to the promotion of international statistical standards. Collaboration and liaison with international and national statistical agencies are other important elements in the statistical development activities of the secretariat, enhancing the effectiveness and coordination of technical assistance to the countries. The secretariat is grateful to donors who have provided financial and other support for the Statistics subprogramme; without that support it would not have been possible to implement operational activities in statistics.

A. Regional advisory and expert services

21. In 1997-1998, the regional advisory services rendered directly from the secretariat remained mainly in the field of national accounts; these services are funded from the United Nations regular programme of technical cooperation. The ESCAP advisers in the field of population statistics, attached to the United Nations Population Fund's country support teams located in Bangkok, Kathmandu and Suva, continued to provide advisory services, mainly by backstopping the country projects. The adviser on population statistics attached to the Suva team is due to retire by the end of 1998, and the recruitment of a new adviser depends on the decisions of the donor and the concerned inter-agency task force. There are indications that the focus of the advisory services rendered by this post might be shifted, whereby population censuses and surveys would be among several other subjects to be handled.

22. Table 3 provides information on advisory missions undertaken by country/area, whiletable 4 gives comparative data for statistical fields covered since 1991. The delivery of advisory assistance is a function of demand and supply. Since 1993, the Statistics subprogramme has had available the services of advisers only in the fields of national accounts and population statistics. Since the advisory services in the area of population statistics are available under the UNFPA country support team system, a considerable amount of time is devoted by the advisers to review and other types of missions, and attachment activities.

Table 3. Advisory missions and technical consultations by country or area, July 1996-June 1998

Table 4. Advisory missions and technical consultations by broad area of technical assistance, 1991-1992 to 1997-1998

a/January 1997-June 1998.

B. Technical meetings and other group activities

23. Since the tenth session of the Committee on Statistics, the secretariat has organized the following group activities in statistics:

24. The secretariat also provided administrative and other support in the organization of the courses of SIAP as follows:

C. Profiles and other technical publications

25. A number of technical publications were produced as part of multi-year and other projects in statistics implemented by the Statistics Division:

The printing of the Operational Handbook on Environmental Statistics, which was delayed because of staff resource constraints, is expected to proceed shortly.

D. Public sector computerization

26. Public sector computerization is a modest activity of the ESCAP secretariat designed to promote the use of modern information technology in member and associate member governments. For historical and organizational reasons, public sector computerization activities are reported to the ESCAP Committee on Statistics. The secretariat has available for the programme planning, implementation and coordination of these activities the resources of a P-3 officer and a secretary. However, in practice, both are contributing also in the statistical area. In line with the recommendation of the tenth session of the Committee on Statistics, the Programme Officer has supported secretariat activities in statistical information technology (IT) development, the most significant being support for the development of ESIS, support for the UNFPA-funded project on the application of IT to population data and its Working Party, the organization of the forthcoming seminar on the application of IT in national statistical offices, to be held from 15 to 18 December in Taejon, Republic of Korea, and the maintenance of the Statistics Division's Web site. Straddling the fields of statistics and public sector computerization have been the secretariat=s activities in creating awareness about the year 2000 (Y2K) problem (see E/ESCAP/STAT.11/14 for details).

27. The Government Computerization Newsletter is published twice a year. A section was opened in the Statistics Web site in March 1998 on public sector computerization. Its current substantive contents are the Newsletter, links to Web sites on IT as well as IT policies in the region and beyond, and the secretariats Y2K activities. For 1999, the secretariat has secured funding for a seminar on IT management for senior decision-makers, with the whole government sector as a target group.

III. RESOURCE SITUATION

28. The allocation of established regular budget posts for the Statistics subprogramme has changed since the tenth session of the Committee. The division gained an additional Professional post within the secretariat, but lost one support (General Service) post through redeployment and another through post reduction. The comparative position is as follows:

^a/Two posts as of July 1998.

29. When extrabudgetary staff are also taken into account, the Professional and General Service resources within the Statistics Division as of September 1998 were organized as follows:

^a/ Country support team advisers and regional adviser on national accounts.

30. In monetary terms, the extrabudgetary funding allocations for 1993 to 1998 are detailed below (in United States dollars):

After being stable for the previous three years, extrabudgetary funds fell in 1998 owing to a reduction in allocations from bilateral sources. In part, this was a result of the winding down of two large multi-year projects, but it also resulted from a deliberate decision by the secretariat to curtail requests for funding in view of the shortage of staff to implement extrabudgetary projects.

31. The personnel resource situation in the Statistics Division remained serious over the period since the Committee last met. Although the freeze on recruitment in the United Nations was lifted and two posts were filled (one through internal promotion), the regular budget Professional vacancy rate never fell below 25 per cent and averaged 33.7 per cent for the two years ended September 1998, well above the figure for ESCAP as a whole. To compound matters, the post of regional adviser on national accounts was also vacant for several months during 1997. The fall in human resources actually deployed on the Statistics subprogramme can be clearly seen from the bottom line oftable 5, the total work-months delivered falling from 157.50 in 1995 to under 100 in 1997; 1998 should show a slight improvement.

32. The shortfall in human resources has inevitably taken its toll on work programme delivery. The bulk of the vacancies have been in the statistical information services area, as can be seen from the dramatic fall in work-months since 1995 in this field (table 5). Information services output in quantitative terms has been for the most part sustained through additional efforts from staff in other areas and a greater reliance on support personnel. However, there has been an unavoidable adverse effect on statistics development work as well as on intended enhancements in the statistical information area, including ESIS development.

33. As for the extrabudgetary resource base in human terms, the regional adviser on national accounts is expected to be available throughout the biennium. There have been no non-reimbursable loan experts available to the secretariat since the last Committee session. Of the UNFPA-funded advisers with the subregional country support teams, two are expected to be available during the next biennium, although the composition of the teams is reviewed periodically. As reported elsewhere, it appears that the third UNFPA-funded advisory post, in the Suva country support team, will only be partly devoted to population statistics from January 1999 onwards.

34. In prospect, therefore, the overall resource position for the Statistics subprogramme presents a mixed picture. On the one hand, the regular budget Professional staff will shortly be strengthened, which is particularly encouraging at a time when the total staff strength of ESCAP is static, at best. On the other hand, the extrabudgetary human resource base in the form of advisory services is coming under greater pressure; the current situation is a far cry from the 1980s, when ESCAP was regularly able to field five or six regional advisers at any one time. It is interesting to note that, in a number of studies and surveys which have been conducted over the past two years, statistics has been ranked by member States at or near the top of the fields where ESCAP is seen to have a comparative advantage, and as an area to which more resources should be devoted; indeed, this was a major factor in the division's acquisition of an additional post. At the same time, the surveys indicate that member States see operational activities (technical cooperation in the form of advisory services and other means) as the single most valuable function being performed by ESCAP. Over the next few months, the secretariat will be evaluating how best to deploy and utilize its resources in order to meet the needs and aspirations of its members and associate members, and in this regard the advice and guidance of the Committee will be fundamental.

Table 5. Professional work-months utilized by broad function of output activities (RB + XB work-months)

^a/January-June 1998.

Resource utilization

35. For the sake of simplicity, information on resource utilization is presented in terms of Professional staff resources only. Table 5 provides time series data by broad functions for regular budget and extrabudgetary Professional work-months combined. Table 6 presents resource utilization data in the current work programme format; time-use data are not available in that format prior to 1996. Given the nature of the information and changes in the work programme reporting format, these time-use data should be treated with caution. In addition, the figures in tables 5 and 6are not entirely comparable as the former treat "general supporting activities" as a separate item.

Table 6. Utilization of Professional work-month resources by main work programme categories, July 1996-June 1998

^a/Includes work-months for the regional adviser on national accounts.

36. Over the years, taking regular and extrabudgetary work-months together, the largest proportion of resources under statistics has been devoted to advisory services. Although representing an increasing proportion of the total, the actual work-months delivered have been steady since 1996. Except for 1997, the second biggest resource-consuming group of activities has been technical and expert meetings. The resources devoted to meetings are mainly influenced by the availability of extrabudgetary funds and the nature of the projects. The personnel resources that are devoted to technical meetings mostly come from regular budget sources; the extrabudgetary sources usually provide funding for developing country participants and the services of consultants. In 1997, in particular, significant resources were also devoted to methodological publications, especially the series of statistical profiles on women.

37. In the area of statistical information, the resources devoted in 1996 and thereafter to regular statistical publications show the dramatic effect of the vacancy situation. Since 1994, attempts have been made to provide a higher level of resources to database development, with varying success owing to vacancies and commitments in other areas of work. Even those resources committed were seriously inadequate for the development of ESIS, which has also consumed a considerable amount of financial resources.

Annex

MEETINGS OF OTHER ORGANIZATIONS ATTENDED BY STAFF OF THE STATISTICS DIVISION, JULY 1996-AUGUST 1998

1. Meeting of the Expert Group on the 2000 World Pop ulation and Housing Census Programme, New York, 9-13 September 1996
2. Sixteenth session of the Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics, Tokyo, 28 October-1 November 1996
3. Seventeenth Population Census Conference of the East-West Center, Jakarta, 4-7 November 1996; Eighteenth Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, 26-29 August 1998
4. Second session of the SIAP Governing Board, Bangkok, 20-22 November 1996; third session, Tokyo, 15-17 October 1997
5. Asian Development Bank subregional workshops on environment statistics, Pokhara, 2-4 December 1996; Jakarta, 2-7 March 1997
6. Statistical Commission, twenty-ninth session, New York, 11-14 February 1997
7. Task Force on International Trade Statistics, Paris, 19 and 20 March 1997
8. Symposium on Strengthening Population Information Systems in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, Bishkek, 17-22 March 1997
9. Seminar on Poverty Statistics and Expert Group on Poverty Statistics, Santiago, 7-9 May 1997
10. Expert Group Meeting on Applying New Methods and Technologies in International Statistical Databases, New York, 12-15 May 1997
11. First meeting of the Expert Group on Informal Sector Statistics (Delhi Group), New Delhi, 20-22 May 1997; second meeting, Ankara, 28-30 April 1998
12. Eighth Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical Offices of East Asian Countries, Tokyo, 20-23 May 1997
13. Workshop on Integrating Paid and Unpaid Work into National Policies, Seoul, 28-30 May 1997
14. Fifty-first session of the International Statistical Institute, Istanbul, 18-26 August 1997
15. Eleventh Regional Meeting of Heads of Statistics (South Pacific Commission), Noumea, 1-5 September 1997
16. ACC Subcommittee on Statistical Activities, thirty-first session, Geneva, 16-18 September 1997; thirty-second session, New York, 16-18 June 1998
17. Expert Group Meeting in Preparation for the Second Ministerial Conference on Urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, Chiang Rai, 28-31 October 1997
18. Third meeting of the Expert Group on International Economic and Social Classifications, New York, 1-3 December 1997
19. Seminar on Strategies for the 2000 Round of Censuses in the Pacific, Nadi, 8-12 December 1997
20. Statistical Commission's Working Group on International Statistical Programmes and Coordination, nineteenth session, New York, 10-13 February 1998
21. Meeting of the Expert Group on Poverty Statistics (the Rio Group), Rio de Janeiro, 13-15 May 1998
22. Conference of European Statisticians, forty-sixth session, Paris, 18-20 May 1998
23. Concluding Workshop of the Asian Development Bank on Institutional Strengthening and Collection of Environmet Statistics in Selected Developing Member Countries, Manila, 25-27 May 1998