E/ESCAP/STAT.11/7
25 September 1998
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Committee on Statistics
Eleventh session
24-26 November 1998
Bangkok

Introduction

1. The present document is the report on the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) for the two-year period spanning the tenth and eleventh sessions of the Committee on Statistics. The Committee on Statistics is requested to deliberate upon the major issues contained in the report. The Committee may wish to provide guidance and advice on those aspects that it considers relevant and important in the implementation of the SIAP work programme.

I. SIAP WORK PROGRAMME SINCE THE TENTH SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON STATISTICS

2. A brief overview is given of the activities of SIAP since the last session of the Committee on Statistics, held in November 1996. The Institute's activities have been categorized into three types, namely, Tokyo-based courses, outreach programme, and other programmes.

3. During the period from November 1996 to October 1998, several SIAP training programmes were completed and these are indicated below.

A.SIIAP courses in Tokyo

4. The following courses, which absorbed the major share of the resources of SIAP, were conducted in Tokyo and, unless otherwise stated, fellowships were offered by the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency:

1. The seventh and eighth group training courses in practical statistics were completed on 21 March 1997 and 20 March 1998 respectively. The courses, each of approximately six months duration, covered a broad range of topics targeted at official statisticians with about five years' work experience. The course curriculum consisted of methodological aspects of statistics such as data collection methods, summarization and presentation of data, and interpretation, analysis and dissemination of statistics, as well as subject areas such as demography and social statistics, the 1993 System of National Accounts, economic statistics and applied analysis, survey methodology, and use of computers for statistical purposes;
2. The first and second group training courses in analysis and interpretation of statistics were completed on 19 September 1997 and 18 September 1998 respectively. These courses were each of about two months duration, and participants were middle-level statisticians from the national statistical offices. The course aims at assisting countries in strengthening their statistical capabilities in regard to analysis and interpretation of statistics in a specific field, including report writing and presentation techniques. A core topic is designated for each year: population and demography, and macroeconomic statistics were chosen for 1997 and 1998 respectively. Four of the participants from Viet Nam for the 1998 course were funded by the country office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Viet Nam;
3. The third and fourth group training courses in automatic data processing for trainers were completed on 11 July 1997 and 12 July 1998 respectively. The course, also of about two months duration, was designed for practising statisticians who have some background in computing and are likely to become trainers or involved in the training of others in the use of computer software packages for data processing and statistical computing. The course aims at increasing the knowledge of participants in statistical software packages as well as developing their training skills in terms of presentation and producing course plans that they can use upon return to their respective countries. A notable feature introduced in the curriculum in 1998 was training in the use of the integrated microcomputer processing system (IMPS), and the objective behind this is explained in greater detail in chapter II;
4. The third course/workshop on sample design for household and establishment surveys was completed on 22 August 1997. The course, funded by the institutional budget of SIAP, was of two months duration, and the objective was to enhance national capabilities and expertise in survey sampling, particularly in sample designs and their evaluation with a view to improving them. It also caters to the need for sample survey statisticians to keep abreast of the more recent developments in sampling techniques which have a bearing upon their work.

B. Outreach programme

5. The outreach programme of training by SIAP depends on the availability of funds. Until the end of 1997, it was mainly funded by UNDP, with the collaboration of international organizations and government agencies of the countries concerned. In the period under consideration, the following activities were implemented:

1. A training mission to Phnom Penh to assist the National Institute of Statistics, Cambodia, to design and train statisticians in sample selection for the Cambodia socio-economic survey 1997 under the sponsorship of UNDP (March 1997);
2. A training mission to Bandar Seri Bagawan, Brunei Darussalam, to assist and train statisticians in developing a sample design for the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 1997 as well as to provide training on the procedures and the main concepts of the Survey and the methodology of the construction of the consumer price index and price collection procedures (April 1997);
3. A country course in sample design for household and establishment surveys conducted at the Xi'an Institute of Statistics with the collaboration of the State Statistical Bureau of China (May 1997). The course curriculum included special sessions on the development of the survey framework for household economic activities which embraces the informal sector; (d) A country course on basic statistics conducted in Male, Maldives, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Planning, Human Resources and Environment, for officials who had relatively little experience in statistical work (September 1997). The course focused on the teaching of basic statistical measures as well as the procedures in the collection and compilation of statistical data;
4. A subregional course in sample design for household and establishment surveys for the Pacific island countries conducted in Suva in collaboration with the Bureau of Statistics, Fiji (November 1997). The course focused on the sample design and techniques that are suited to the special characteristics of the Pacific island countries;
5. A training course in sample design for household and establishment surveys for countries with economies in transition, conducted in Bangkok in collaboration with the National Statistical Office, Thailand (December 1997). The course focused on sample design and techniques that are well suited to countries with economies in transition, but which have not been applied under the collectivized economy;
6. A follow-up training mission to Bandar Seri Bagawan, Brunei Darussalam, in December 1997, to review the progress of the Household Expenditure Survey 1997/98 and to evaluate the sample selection plan and discuss other technical matters on the survey;
7. A training course on review and presentation of different measurements of poverty with specific reference to the South-East Asian (or ASEAN) region, in Vientiane (March/April 1998), in collaboration with UNDP. Neighbouring countries with similar conditions to those in the Lao People's Democratic Republic participated with their travel funded under ESCAP technical cooperation among developing countries funds, and the course focused on the estimation of poverty in the least developed countries and economies in transition;
8. A training course in survey sampling methods and applications for Cambodia, in Phnom Penh (June 1998), in collaboration with the World Bank under the sponsorship of UNDP. The course focused on sampling methods and their application in developing countries with limited resources such as Cambodia.

C. Other programmes

6. The fourth course/workshop on sample design for household and establishment surveys was conducted at Macau in collaboration with the Census and Statistics Department of Macau. The course, completed on 22 May 1998, was of four weeks duration and is included in the work programme as one of the main courses of SIAP. The course is conducted annually and, for reasons of cost-effectiveness in the utilization of the institutional budget of SIAP, has been shifted to a lower cost venue from 1998 onwards.

7. The Institute also facilitated special training programmes in Tokyo at the request of member countries. The following programmes were organized:

1. An individual training programme in national accounts for an official from the Census and Statistics Department of Macau (completed in December 1996);
2. Three one-month country-focused group training courses in practical statistics for officials of Cambodia (November 1996 and June/July 1997 and 1998);
3. One six-week special training programme in national accounts for officials of Viet Nam under the sponsorship of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), completed in May 1997.

8. SIAP, in collaboration with the Statistics Division of ESCAP, organized a two-day workshop on the year 2000 (Y2K) problem in computers and strategic issues for national statistical offices in Bangkok in June 1998 utilizing its institutional funds. The Committee may note that the workshop was organized pursuant to the recommendations of the tenth session of the Working Group of Statistical Experts. In view of the importance of the subject, the papers and proceedings of the workshop are being published and will be disseminated.

9. A list of SIAP courses completed during the period November 1996 to October 1998, including the number of participants in SIAP training programmes during this period, is given in the annex to the present report.

II. STRATEGIC ISSUES IN THE SIAP WORK PROGRAMME

10. The two-year period since the tenth session of the Committee has witnessed a strategic shift in the approach to statistical training by the Institute. Several elements of the new initiatives being implemented by SIAP should be brought to the attention of the Committee. First, given the several emerging areas of importance in official statistics, the training programme had to be expanded in order that the Institute's efforts remained relevant to the requirements of national statistical offices. In order to induce cost-effectiveness in the utilization of funds to incorporate additional activities, the option was to organize courses in lower cost venues than in Japan, and this is being practised. Second, resources available to SIAP had to be increased, and this has been achieved by making the national statistical offices contribute indirectly to the Institute through their collaboration with SIAP in the conduct of courses for a number of countries. This approach makes use of the existing training facilities at the national statistical offices and has the added advantage of exposing the participants to the statistical systems of other countries. Third, by enriching the subject matter of the course by introducing new topics, regional expertise is preferred whenever external assistance is required for providing instruction to participants in specific topics. In this regard, it is also important to note that each course curriculum is moulded to make it relevant to the needs of the participating group of countries; therefore, outside of the regular regional courses, to the extent possible, homogeneity is an important consideration in selecting the participating countries. Fourth, in order to disperse more widely the benefit of the Institute's efforts in a cost-effective manner, neighbouring countries are invited to participate in country courses wherever feasible.

11. In regard to strategic issues in the SIAP work programme, it is important to note that the new initiatives still accord priority attention to the specific needs of the least developed and landlocked countries, the Pacific island developing countries and the disadvantaged economies in transition. In addition, the attention of the Committee is drawn to three major outcomes of the above new initiatives that are now readily discernible from the implementation of the Institute's work during the second half of the reference period of this report.

12. First, while pursuing vigorously its main business of providing training of national statistical personnel with a view to capability-building for developing and maintaining a system of regular, reliable and timely statistics and indicators, SIAP has gradually restructured its Tokyo-based courses with emphasis on flexibility to respond to the changing demands and needs of the region. While changing demands have been mainly on account of global developments in statistical methodology and emerging areas of importance for data collection and dissemination, SIAP is aware that the needs of the region's developing economies are also changing rapidly as a result of the development process within their respective economies. Consequently, several new subject areas that have surfaced in recent years and require more focused attention by the Institute are being gradually incorporated into its courses.

13. Second, in regard to its outreach programmes, complementarity with the Tokyo-based courses is being forged in terms of organizing short-duration focused activities on specialized and emerging topics in statistics for specific groups of countries for whom such training is relevant and useful. Thus, a workshop on the year 2000 problem in computers was organized in June 1998, and a week-long training course on the system of economic accounts for agriculture is programmed for November-December 1998. In the next two-year period until the twelfth session of the Committee, SIAP expects to expand its statistical training activities into a much wider range of subjects. For this component of its work programme, SIAP has established and will continue to seek collaborative and partnership arrangements with relevant international organizations/agencies and the national statistical offices for implementation.

14. Lastly, given the mandate by the Governing Board, the Director of SIAP held consultative sessions with the Government of Japan and several national statistical offices of member and associate member countries of ESCAP, as well as with UNDP and other relevant organizations. While discussions with donor agencies were targeted at the extension of collaborative arrangements, those with national statistical offices focused on cooperation possibilities and views on the content and structure of SIAP training courses in order that these should meet the training needs of the participants accurately. The consultations resulted in positive outcomes, both in identifying areas of potential collaboration and in providing suggestions on the restructuring of courses.

15. The specific details of the new elements in SIAP's training programmes are provided below.

A. Tokyo-based courses

16. With regard to the Tokyo-based courses, major modifications to the curricula of two of the courses, namely, the six-month course in practical statistics and the two-month course in analysis and interpretation of statistics, were made. These changes are within the framework of the programme of work (1995-2000) laid down by the Governing Board at its first session in March 1996. The curriculum of the two-month course in automatic data processing for trainers was also revised to devote special attention to a specific topic of interest to the national statistical offices.

17. In the six-month eighth group training course in practical statistics, the curriculum was streamlined and new topics, including those suggested by the Committee on Statistics and those that had been raised at the recent rounds of global summit conferences were incorporated. These included statistics on the environment, the informal sector, gender issues, disability, income distribution and poverty, and short-term economic indicators. The course participants were also required to attend all the sessions on the topics covered in the curriculum. This differed from the approach in the previous courses where participants needed only to attend sessions on topics chosen for a field of specialization in the second semester. The rationale underlying this move is that the course is designed for relatively new statisticians and they should be exposed to a wide range of official statistics. Furthermore, the course content of each topic is now more focused as a result of rationalization and restructuring of the course curriculum. In addition, several topics included in the past which are not very useful for government statisticians have been omitted. In this course, several United Nations bodies and agencies, national governments and international organizations, namely, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the National Statistical Office of New Zealand, cooperated by kindly providing specialists and experienced staff to conduct lectures in Tokyo.

18. In the two-month group training course in analysis and interpretation of statistics, the course structure was changed so that a particular subject or topic is dealt with in each year. For the first course, held in 1997, the topic chosen was population and demography, while that for the second course, organized in 1998, was macrostatistics. There are several advantages in adopting this approach. The composition of the course participants becomes more homogenous as they have similar working experience and academic background. This greatly helps the faculty members in the delivery of their lectures. Furthermore, the subject matter can be dealt with in a more comprehensive manner and in greater depth. For the 1997 course, the East-West Center, Hawaii, and the Population Division of ESCAP provided resource persons to conduct lectures on selected topics; in 1998, the resource support was totally in-house.

19. The restructuring of the Tokyo-based courses is also reflected in the curriculum of the two-month group training course in automatic data processing for trainers which has been revamped to provide the participants with more focused training. In the current year, given that the year 2000 round of census operations will be a very important undertaking for the national statistical offices, the course included a three-week module on training in the use of IMPS provided by an expert on the software and with the collaboration of the United States Bureau of the Census. The participants, mainly from national statistical offices, have almost unanimously evaluated the training received in IMPS as useful for their work, and for the next few years SIAP will accordingly endeavour to include IMPS as a regular component in this course.

B. United Nations Development Programme

20. UNDP has been the main supporter of the SIAP outreach programme. Earlier this year UNDP approved the SIAP proposal on establishing and strengthening national capability in data collection/compilation and statistical analysis required in the preparation of national human development reports for member countries of ESCAP with an initial budget of US$ 596,750 for a three-year period beginning in 1998 under the UNDP ICP-VI funding cycle. UNDP also agreed to review this unique project for additional funding once the activities are under way.

21. The project seeks to enhance national capabilities in collection, compilation and interpretation of reliable statistical data underlying preparation of the national human development reports of developing countries of the region. The project will secure the involvement of national institutions in the capability-building exercise, and accord special emphasis on the utilization of regional expertise. Standardization of statistical information to enable inter-country comparisons will also be focused upon. The project will build upon the work already carried out by SIAP on human development indicators, and will be implemented through a mix of training activities at the national, subregional and regional levels.

22. By the end of 1998, SIAP expects to complete preparation of the training materials, and the series of country courses and annual subregional workshops will commence next year. An updated report on the implementation of this SIAP/UNDP project on statistics for national human development reports will be provided for the Committee at its next session.

C. Courses on sample design for household and establishment surveys

1. Annual SIAP course

23. Following the endorsement by the Governing Board at its third session, and as mentioned earlier in chapter I, the fourth course/workshop on sample design for household and establishment surveys was conducted outside Tokyo with the collaboration of the Census and Statistics Department of Macau from 27 April to 22 May 1998. The course/workshop resulted in greater cost-effectiveness and a larger number of participants. It was shorter than the previous courses, but the course content was not sacrificed; in fact, the number of lecture sessions on sampling per se increased as lectures on other topics which were normally a part of the Tokyo-based courses were excluded. Moreover, case studies and class exercises were introduced in place of project work, and the study trip was replaced by visits sponsored by government agencies to places of interest in Macau.

2. Outreach programme

24. It is an established fact that sample surveys of households and establishments are successfully used to collect a wide range of data, and national statistical offices in the developing countries of the region have become increasingly dependent on sample surveys for the collection of statistics for compiling and constructing social and economic indicators. Moreover, as greater importance is assigned to the timeliness and reliability of socio-economic data, more frequent surveys have to be undertaken. As such, sample design plays a critical role in the conduct of household and establishment surveys. Recognizing the importance of the subject, and to enhance the capability of national statisticians to undertake sample surveys, SIAP conducted two training courses on this topic in 1997, one targeted for the Pacific island countries and the other for countries with economies in transition, in addition to the annual two-month course conducted in Tokyo. Each course focused on sample design and techniques that are suited and relevant to the specific group of participating countries.

25. These two courses represented successful attempts by SIAP at collaborating with national statistical offices in jointly conducting courses on a subject of relevance to a group of countries. The strategy also resulted in increased participation. The course for Pacific island countries was organized in collaboration with the Bureau of Statistics of Fiji at Suva and had 25 participants from nine countries. The course for countries with economies in transition was held at Bangkok in collaboration with the National Statistical Office of Thailand and 25 participants from seven countries attended.

D. Other developments

26. SIAP has developed a Homepage on the Web with assistance provided by the host Government of Japan. The address of the SIAP Homepage is http://www.teleserve.co.jp/siap/ and it has been operational since 21 May 1997. The contents of the Homepage include information on the history of SIAP, courses and programmes, procedures for applying for training courses, members of the Governing Board, staff and training facilities.

27. The General Information Bulletin on SIAP, 1997 and SIAP Newsletter No. 33 (March 1998) were printed for distribution.

III. COLLABORATION ARRANGEMENTS

A. Collaboration with governments

28. In the reference period of the report, SIAP has collaborated with:

1. The Census and Statistics Department of Macau in conducting the fourth course/workshop on sample design for household and establishment surveys from 27 April to 22 May 1998;
2. The Bureau of Statistics of Fiji in conducting the subregional course in sample design for household and establishment surveys for the Pacific island countries from 12 to 21 November 1997;
3. The National Statistical Office of Thailand in conducting the training course in sample design for household and establishment surveys for countries with economies in transition from 15 to 24 December 1997.

B.Collaboration with organizations and agenciesp

29. SIAP has also collaborated with:

1. The country office of UNDP in the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the Lao National Statistical Centre in conducting the training course on review and presentation of different measurements of poverty with specific reference to the South-East Asian (or ASEAN) region in Vientiane from 31 March to 10 April 1998;
2. The World Bank and country office of UNDP in Cambodia in conducting the training course in survey sampling methods and applications for Cambodia in Phnom Penh from 1 to 12 June 1998;
3. The Statistics Division of ESCAP in organizing the workshop on the year 2000 (Y2K) problem in computers and strategic issues for national statistical offices in Bangkok on 18 and 19 June 1998;
4. The country office of UNDP in Viet Nam, by providing training for four sponsored officials of Viet Nam under the second training course in analysis and interpretation of statistics, 1998;
5. ADB in conducting a six-week special training programme in national accounts for sponsored officials of Viet Nam in 1997. 30. SIAP, with the collaboration of FAO and the State Statistical Bureau of China, will be organizing a workshop on system of economic accounts for agriculture in Kunming, China, from30 November to 4 December 1998.

31. Discussions have been held with several international agencies and national statistical offices with a view to seeking funding, technical expertise and training materials, as well as establishing collaborative arrangements. The response has been very positive and in some instances such collaborative activities are likely to materialize in 1999. As a specific example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has indicated that it will provide assistance to SIAP by assigning staff on a short-term basis to conduct courses on specialized subject areas; on the subject of deseasonalization of time-series data the Bureau has agreed to provide resource support for a collaborative two-week workshop, which is tentatively programmed for implementation in 1999.

32. The Committee may wish to note that, at the fifty-fourth session of the Commission, several governments offered to host SIAP-organized activities. In this context, a specific likely outcome is the organization of a training course on disability statistics in collaboration with the Government of India. Although the full details have yet to be finalized, the activity has been tentatively scheduled for implementation in 1999.

IV. INSTITUTIONAL MATTERS

33. In view of the unique status of SIAP as the only regional training centre in statistics and, given its expanded training programmes in emerging fields of importance in statistics, the issue of ensuring an adequate level of funding for the Institute's activities is of critical importance. The problem acquires greater urgency against the backdrop of an increase in demand by the national statistical offices of the ESCAP developing countries in both the range of subjects and the number of participants.

34. The Committee's attention is accordingly drawn to the fact that difficulties are being encountered by Government of Japan, which generously continues to provide the bulk of the overall cash contributions to SIAP, in maintaining its contribution at the prevailing level. Since any reduction in assistance by the Government of Japan could have an adverse impact on the SIAP programme and its activities, the Committee may wish to urge the Government of Japan to restrain, to the extent possible, the implementation of its budget cut on the Institute's allocation.

35. Currently, the ratio of cash contributions of the Government of Japan to the total of cash contributions is approximately 85 per cent, reflecting an imbalanced situation. It is therefore necessary to increase the cash contributions from other member and associate member countries to enable the Institute to operate on a stable financial basis.

36. The Committee is informed that the Institute has received increases in annual contributions from Brunei Darussalam, India and the Philippines and that financial support from the Islamic Republic of Iran has resumed. In addition, Vanuatu began making contributions annually to the Institute in 1997.

37. In spite of the increases in contributions to the institutional budget of SIAP, the need to increase the cash contributions from other member and associate member countries is still crucial in order to enable the Institute to operate on a stable financial basis as well as to undertake and implement new initiatives. The Committee may wish to express appreciation for the continued, and in some cases increased, cash contributions from members and associate members. The Committee may also wish to urge those countries that have not been contributing to the Institute to do so and also to those countries not meeting the minimum amounts as indicated in the Commission's guidelines to increase their contributions, particularly if they have been receiving assistance from SIAP on a sustained basis.

38. The Committee's attention is drawn to the Governing Board's recommendation at its third session that courses organized through SIAP institutional funds may be relocated outside Tokyo to countries in which costs are relatively lower. The Board agreed that such increased cost-efficiency in the conduct of courses could raise participation in SIAP training programmes, and allow the possibility of organizing a larger number of regional/subregional courses and workshops, particularly in the emerging areas of importance in statistics. As the first step in implementing this recommendation, SIAP collaborated with the Census and Statistics Department of Macau to conduct its regular annual course/workshop on sample design for household and establishment surveys for 1998 in Macau (see paras. 6 and 23 above).

39. Additional training courses/workshops in new topics of contemporary interest were planned by the Institute with the savings effected. One such activity, the SIAP/ESCAP workshop on the year 2000 (Y2K) problem in computers and strategic issues for national statistical offices, has already been implemented. Preparations for another such activity, the SIAP/FAO workshop on system of economic accounts for agriculture, have been finalized and this will be conducted shortly. Other activities that are in an advanced stage of planning for implementation in 1999 are in the areas of deseasonalization of time-series data and disability statistics. To facilitate the work of SIAP in seeking suitable venues for its training activities, the Committee may wish to urge member and associate member countries of ESCAP to forge a partnership with SIAP in the conduct of regional/subregional training courses and workshops in which their national statistical offices have a special interest.

Acknowledgments

40. SIAP wishes to acknowledge with deep appreciation the contributions of the following:

1. The host Government, Japan, for its continuing and generous support, both in cash and in kind, and for the provision of fellowships for the courses in practical statistics, analysis and interpretation of statistics, and automatic data processing;
2. The contributing member and associate members in the region for their continuing and in some cases increased cash contributions, through which they have demonstrated their interest in the Institute;
3. Other agencies of the United Nations and other international organizations, particularly ESCAP, FAO, ILO, UNEP and the World Bank for collaboration with SIAP in the implementation of its training activities.

41. The Institute is deeply grateful to UNDP for its continued programme support to SIAP, and especially for its fresh funding of SIAP/UNDP project RAS/97/065 under its Sixth Intercountry Programme for the Asian and Pacific region.

42. SIAP also thanks the Management and Coordination Agency of the Government of Japan, Statistics New Zealand, the United States Bureau of the Census, and the East-West Center in Hawaii for providing resource support in specific subjects at SIAP training courses through their experts.

Annex

LIST OF SIAP COURSES COMPLETED SINCE THE TENTH SESSION OF COMMITTEE ON STATISTICS

A. TOKYO-BASED COURSES

B. OUTREACH PROGRAMMES

C.INDIVIDUAL TRAINING PROGRAMME