The Fifth Session of the Governing Council of SIAP meeting in Phuket (SIAP) was held from 16 to 17 November in Phuket, Thailand. Hosted by Thai National Statistical Office, the session was attended by all Governing Council Members, including Japan, China, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Malaysia, Pakistan, Republic of Korea and Thailand as well as representatives from ESCAP. Seven representatives from non-member governments and five observers from United Nations entities and international bodies also attended the session. Director of SIAP served as Secretary of the Council.

In her opening statement delivered by Haishan Fu, Director of ESCAP’s Statistics Division, Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, recognized the important role of SIAP and urged the Governing Council to assist SIAP to become an even stronger and more effective institute by providing policy advice on its strategic direction, programme structure, resource mobilization and management.

The Governing Council endorsed the long-term plan of SIAP for the academic years 2010 to 2014 which had been developed on the basis of the strategic plan endorsed by the Governing Council last year during its fourth session. The long-term plan, inter alia, aims at strengthening national statistical capacity and improved official statistics in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Governing Council supported SIAP’s efforts to extend its distance training and e-learning courses and stressed the importance of training of trainers to support national statistical offices in building their sustainable capacity.

The Governing Council also stressed the need for continuing support to SIAP by the Member States, in particular during 2010 which marks its 40th anniversary.

The Statistics Division of ESCAP, in close collaboration with the Washington Group (WG), ECE and countries participating in the UN Development Account project Improvement of Disability Measurement and Statistics in support of the Biwako Millennium Framework of Action and the Regional Census Programme, organized a regional workshop to present the results of the cognitive and pilot tests of an extended question set to measure disability through surveys.

The event convened senior statisticians, and health and disability professionals, from over 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting provided a unique opportunity for practitioners, experts and statisticians to become familiar with the WHO’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the ESCAP/WG extended question set to measure disability.

The main objectives of the meeting were to:

Project participants from Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Mongolia, Philippines and Sri Lanka shared their experiences in conducting the cognitive and field tests of the ESCAP/WG question set in their countries, recognizing both the challenges as well as the virtues of using new methodologies to develop accurate and reliable surveys. In particular, project countries recognized the effectiveness of conducting a thorough cognitive test to design effective question sets.

Non-project countries expressed interest in obtaining information to help them conduct similar surveys to obtain more accurate prevalence rates on disability. To spread the experience to other countries, participants requested ESCAP to share the forthcoming project country reports containing the results of the cognitive and pilot tests; making available training materials and other useful resources regarding the ICF and measuring disability; and the ESCAP/WG interview guidelines. In addition, sub-regional and in-country workshops were suggested as powerful tools to raise awareness and advocate for the application of these new methods.

Notable discussions also took place regarding the shift from a medical to a social model approach of disability measurement in the context of WHO’s ICF. While some participants considered policy makers are still reluctant to adjust to such a new framework, most delegates recognized that a number of countries in Asia-Pacific have already implemented the ICF approach in their data collection efforts and acknowledged the importance and benefit of sharing countries’ experiences by discussing the advantages and challenges faced in its adoption. Building consensus among statistical offices, health ministries and disabled persons organizations was identified as a key requirement to move the disability agenda forward in the immediate future. 

In all, delegates agreed that the use of the ICF approach will offer a better understanding of disability, and that the adoption of the WG questions will allow for international comparable data while also contributing serving as an instrument to enhance social protection and services. In this context, workshop participants underlined the central role of addressing the disability subject as part of their countries’ strategies aimed at not only supporting the Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities, but also in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

For further information please visit our website www.unescap.org/stat/disability/ or contact Andres Montes at montesa@un.org.

At the inaugural session of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics held in Bangkok from 4-6 February 2009, member States recognized an urgent need for improvement of economic statistics in developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The ESCAP secretariat was requested to take action, and the session decided to:

The report of the first session of the Committee on Statistics and other documents may be accessed from the ESCAP website at <http://www.unescap.org/stat/cst/1/index.asp>.

In response, the Statistics Division of ESCAP in close cooperation with key subregional, regional and global statistics development partners and through direct consultation with member States initiated work aimed at developing a Rgional Programme for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific (henceforth referred to as the Regional Programme). The Regional Programme will aim to increase national capacities to produce basic economic statistics in accordance with international standards and good practices.

The draft Regional Programme was developed based on: the results of a comprehensive review of the current state of economic statistics in individual countries in the region, identifying specific country needs for capacity-building; a core set of economic statistics (as defined by the TAG) that all countries in the region should be inspired to produce over the longer term; and the recommendations and conclusions from an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on the Development of Economic Statistics in the Asian and Pacific Region which took place in Bangkok, 17-18 September 2009. The report of the EGM and other documents may be accessed from the ESCAP website at <http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/egm2009/index.asp>.

The draft Regional Programme was discussed during the Workshop to Develop a Regional Programme for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific and participants' comments and recommendations on the draft document will be used to finalize the Regional Programme. The Programme will be finalized during early 2010 by the secretariat and the Technical Advisory Group on Development of Economic Statistics, in consultation with the Bureau of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics.

The Workshop to Develop a Regional Programme for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific was organized by the Statistics Division of ESCAP in collaboration with SIAP from 9 to 11 December 2009 at the United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok.

The main objective of the workshop was to provide a forum for national and international experts to discuss and review the draft Regional Programme including the proposed core set of economic statistics that all economies in the ESCAP region should aspire to produce as developed by the TAG. During the workshop participants also discussed issues related to the Programme's implementation and monitoring as well as coordination of technical assistance in the area of economic statistics in the Asia and the Pacific and the 2008 SNA implementation in the region. The Workshop brought together national and international economic statistics experts including representatives from 19 Member countries and 10 international organizations including: ADB, ASEAN Secretariat, CISSTAT, Eurostat, FAO, GTZ, ILO, IMF, UNSD and USAID.

The conclusions and recommendations of the Workshop focused the core set of economic statistics, structure and components of the Regional Programme, its implementation and monitoring as well as the best way of moving forward with the improvement of economic statistics and Asian and the Pacific region.

Of particular importance to the improvement of the economic statistics in the region was the clear support of the participants and their organizations for the draft Regional Programme and their endorsement in principle of the proposed core set of economic statistics. Participants expressed their support for the TAG proposal for the core set of economic statistics, which currently includes the economic statistics in the following domains: Prices and costs, Demand and output, Income and Wealth, Money and Banking, Government, Labour Market and Natural Assets and the Environment. It was recognized that the core set of economic statistics specifies the minimum set of statistics required for informed decision-making and if produced should be sufficient to compile the complete set of National Accounts as recommended in the System of National Accounts.

Participants recommended that the main aim of the Regional Programme should be the development of the capacity of National Statistical System in the region to ensure that all ESCAP Members and Associate Members can produce the core set of economic statistics by 2020. It was further recommended that this aim be achieved by setting three main intermediate goals for that period.

The participants also recognized the need for increased advocacy for economic statistics in the region and increased support from the policy-makers for the National Statistical Systems. They supported the central role of ESCAP in the coordination of the capacity building in the region and improvement of economic statistics during the next decade. Finally it was agreed that both the Regional Programme itself and the core set of economic statistics shall be discussed at the next session of Committee on Statistics as well as Commission.

For more information on this Workshop please visit: <http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/econ-dec09/index.asp> or contact Mr Artur Andrysiak, Statistics Division through <stat.unescap@un.org>.

In the context of the United Nations Development Account Project "Interregional Cooperation on the Measurement of Informal Sector and Informal Employment", the Statistics Division of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), organized an interregional workshop on 3 - 4 December 2009, at UNCC in Bangkok.

The informal sector represents a fundamental component of the economic structure of many developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and though some progress has been made at the global level so far, on the measurement of the informal sector and informal employment, considerable conceptual and methodological development is still required to fully integrate these into regular economic and social statistics. The development account project, which piloted the '1-2' Survey approach as a methodology for the measurement of the informal sector and informal employment, was designed with the objective of improving the availability of sound and internationally comparable data on the informal sector and informal employment, in order to strengthen analysis for evidence-based socio-economic policy making. It aimed at raising awareness among national statistical offices and other relevant government agencies in participating countries on the importance of collecting and disseminating data on the informal sector and informal employment, and on compiling exhaustive estimates of GDP; and improving technical capacity of national statistical systems in participating countries to collect, compile, analyze and disseminate data on the informal sector and informal employment, in line with internationally agreed methodological standards. The project adopted an integrated approach for implementation with five distinct but interlinked components: advocacy, statistical capacity building, data collection, data analysis and dissemination, and knowledge management.

Implementation of this project began in September 2006 and it is expected to terminate at the end of December 2009. This interregional workshop, therefore, as a project concluding workshop, aimed to review and evaluate the substantive and strategic processes and the findings and results of the project, in order to consolidate lessons learned and, to identify areas and modalities for further work at the sub-regional, regional and inter-regional levels.

In addition to the three regional commissions implementing the project, the workshop brought together survey statisticians and national accountants directly involved in the design, implementation and management of project activities from the five project partner countries: Mongolia, Palestine, the Philippines, Saint Lucia and Sri Lanka, and representatives of the Ministry/Department of Labor from the three project countries from the ESCAP region. Some members of the project steering committee as well as experts from international statistics development partners also participated in the workshop.

The workshop provided a forum to review and evaluate the rationale, objectives, expected accomplishments, strategy and activities of the project. Project partner countries had the opportunity to express their perspective on how the project's objectives improved things in this area of work at the national level together with the relevance and sustainability of the project's objectives in the context of their national programme of work. Participants highlighted the added-value of interregional cooperation and the partnership approach used in the implementation of this project.

A range of issues and lessons learned were considered and discussed with regard to '1-2' Survey methodology piloted for data collection on the characteristics of household unincorporated enterprises with at least some market production (HUEMs), the estimation of the informal sector to GDP, as well as on the estimation of informal employment and informal sector employment.

This project concluding workshop provided a unique opportunity to assess the project's contribution towards the conceptual and methodological development in this area of work, and also, to identify and put forward recommendations for possible future interventions and cooperation in order to take forward the global agenda on the measurement of the informal sector and informal employment. Suggestions were outlined on using the project's experience and results as a basis to advocate for the replication of this work by other regional commissions, and to link this work with other global, regional and sub-regional initiatives including possibly to a broader programme on economic statistics and more south-south cooperation in this area of work.

For more information on the development account project and the workshop kindly visit http://www.unescap.org/stat/isie/index.asp or contact Ms Sharita Serrao through <mailto:stat.unescap@un.org>

The Statistics Division of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) organized a regional workshop on measuring the informal sector and informal employment under the Development Account Project "Interregional Cooperation on the Measurement of Informal Sector and Informal Employment". The project has been implemented by ESCAP (lead agency), Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in close collaboration with UN Statistics Division, ILO, the Delhi Group, ADB and WIEGO.

The project implemented a data collection strategy which features a two-phased or '1-2' survey approach to operationalize it. In this approach, the starting point for identifying informal sector (IS) enterprises is identifying household unincorporated enterprises with at least some market production (HUEMs), as informal sector enterprises are a subset of the HUEMs. The first phase entails modifying a standard household labour force survey (LFS) to extend its objectives to include: constructing a frame of HUEMs; determining whether employment of an individual is in a HUEM, and determining whether a job is in informal employment as defined by the 17th ICLS guidelines concerning the statistical definition of informal employment. The second phase is an enterprise survey, with the HUEM as the unit of observation, designed to collect data on employment, production and output, costs and expenditures, and capital formation of the enterprise. A secondary objective of this survey is to provide information on the organization, business practices and environment, and other country-specific policy-related concerns.

The project piloted the application of the above-mentioned '1-2' survey methodology in five countries representing three regions: Mongolia, Philippines and Sri Lanka in Asia; Palestine in Western Asia and St Lucia in the Caribbean. Moreover, the methodology is being implemented in Armenia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia under a technical assistance project of the ADB and in Vietnam with assistance from DIAL-IRD. The body of knowledge created and lessons learned from designing and conducting these sample surveys, processing of and generating estimates from the surveys, and analyzing the survey estimates were shared with a broader group of countries during this regional workshop.

For more information on the development account project and the regional workshop kindly visit http://www.unescap.org/stat/isie/index.asp or contact Mr Christian Stoff (stoff@un.org).

UN-HABITAT and ESCAP co-organized the Asian City Census Analysis Workshop from 30 November - 3 December 2009 in Bangkok. The workshop was attended by 22 census managers from 16 countries, one UN-HABITAT Programme Manager or other UN-HABITAT Officer from 11 of the these 16 countries, one representative from the UN-HABITAT Regional Office, 2 from UN-HABITAT Bangkok Office and resource persons from the Global Urban Observatory (UN-HABITAT), ESCAP and the Joint Research Centre, European Commission.

The first two days of the Workshop were attended only by population census managers, who familiarized themselves with the monitoring of the UN-HABITAT Agenda and with UN-HABITAT Agenda indicators. Many of the UN-HABITAT Agenda indicators can be computed from the population census or other surveys conducted by national statistical offices. Hence, the census managers had brought population census data for their countries to use during the workshop. They recoded their population census data so as to easily identify data for individual cities in their countries and then proceeded to compute the following indicators at city level: (a) Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source, (b) Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility, (c) Proportion of households living in a housing unit considered as "durable", and (d) Overcrowding (proportion of households with more than three persons per room). Based on these indicators the census managers computed shelter deprivation and proportion of households living in slums each city that they had identified in their country.

UN-HABITAT Programme Managers and other UN-HABITAT Officers from within the region joined the population census managers during the last two days of the workshop (2 - 3 December 2009). The participants concluded that knowledge of slum households by type shelter deprivation at the city level could facilitate formulation of better programmes which could lead to reduction in the proportion of population living in slums in a city. They noted that in one of the countries, the proportion living is slums could be reduced greatly just by providing better sanitation. They also stated that most projects cover one or two cities at a time, hence city level indicators are necessary for designing a project that improves the living conditions of many households with a smaller budget. Indicators compiled from the population census and other surveys conducted by national statistical offices can be produced at lower cost and more sustainably than city level databases done independently at the city level.

On the final day participants were introduced to how slum areas in a city can be identified from high resolution satellite photographs, in addition how satellite photographs can be used to prepare better boundaries for enumeration areas in the urban areas. This was followed by an overview of the UrbanInfo database and how they could adapt UrbanInfo to their country. Then Census managers and UN-HABITAT Programme Managers from each participating country discussed institutional framework of collaboration among stakeholders such as the municipal authorities, ministry of housing, national statistical office and UN-HABITAT for developing National Urban Observatories and Local Urban Observatories.

The Regional Course on REDATAM software was conducted by SIAP under its outreach training programme and in collaboration with ECLAC-CELADE. The UNFPA Asia and the Pacific Regional Office provided financial support while ECLAC-CELADE provided a resource person. SIAP was responsible for administrative arrangements of the course.

A total of fifteen participants from fourteen countries, namely Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, China, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri-Lanka and Thailand, attended the course.

The course aimed to provide participants with basic and sound knowledge of the Redatam+SP software. Its main objective were:

The course contents were designed by ECLAC-CELADE and delivered by Ms Maria Alejandra Silva, an officer of CELADE.

The course topics covered introduction to the REDTATAM +SP family, and its various innovative features to support analysis of population and housing data.

Based on the evaluation, it was concluded that the course was very effective in the creation of 2010 round population and housing census database, and in statistical data analysis of population and social indicators collected in the census.

As part of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) of the Government of Japan, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organized an annual seminar on "Promotion of gender Equality" at SIAP premises in Chiba, Japan. Organization of the seminar was based on the bilateral agreement between national governments and the Government of Japan.

This one-day seminar aimed to provide the participants with basic knowledge on gender statistics and MDGs including methods of calculation of gender related indicators.

A total of eleven participants from seven countries, namely Cambodia, Fiji, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Nepal, Nigeria, Seychelles, Viet Nam and Yemen, attended the seminar. All the participants were officers of National Machinery on gender issues in their respective countries.

The course contents as well as course materials were developed by JICA. The lectures on gender statistics and MDG were delivered by Ms Gereltuya Altankhuyag and Mr Gamini De Silva, faculty members of SIAP.

In closing, all participants evaluated the seminar as effective in terms of awareness raising and capacity building in producing and analyzing gender related statistical data. In addition, the seminar contributed to networking of statisticians which could lead to the improvement of production of gender statistics.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, Government of Japan (MIC), a three day workshop on Examining Training Materials Prepared for Self-learning Purposes was organised by the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) at its premises in Chiba, Japan. The main thrust of the workshop was to identify suitability of course materials on Survey Planning, Questionnaire Design, Field Data Collection as well as basic knowledge on National accounts in a self learning environment. Effective ways of interactive learning were also explored during the workshop.

Opened by Ms Davaasuren, Director of SIAP-ESCAP, the workshop was attended by SIAP and MIC staff, a representative from ESCAP as well as nine participants from seven countries namely Bangladesh; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Malaysia; Nepal; Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka. The participants went through the self learning materials topic by topic, followed by in-depth discussions on the qualities of the course materials, the ways they were presented, their suitability for online publications and target audience identification.

All the participants expressed their satisfaction on the workshop and opined that development of such materials as well as making such materials easily available to NSO's would greatly help their capacity building. In addition, they found the learning contents and instruction strategy at the top end.

A two-day workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific was organised by SIAP in cooperation with ESCAP Statistics Division and National Statistics Office, Thailand.

The workshop brought together representatives from NSOs of Australia; China; India, Indonesia; Iran (Islamic Republic of); Malaysia; Pakistan; Philippines; Republic of Korea; Thailand; Hong Kong, China; as well as representatives from ILO, IMF, ASEAN Secretariat, ADB and ESCAP.

Day One of the workshop focused on developing an outcome oriented training programme using the skills based training approach, with a particular focus on the Core Skills Framework that SIAP (CSF) would be using. Day Two focused on Strengthening Partnerships in Statistical Training.

Key observations/recommendations of the workshop reiterated the importance of SIAP in the skill development of NSOs, They mentioned that the Tokyo based training contributed to the development of future leaders of NSOs and that CSF was able to capture training needs effectively. A training-of-trainers programme by SIAP in relevant statistical disciplines across the region was recommended. Also recommended was that NSOs should pro-actively identify possible duplication of training and other technical assistance with international donors in consistent with Principle 1 of the 2009 Dakar Declaration.

A formal evaluation by all participants revealed that the workshop was very fruitful and important to their respective countries.

In collaboration with National Statistical Bureau (NSB) of Bhutan, SIAP conducted a country course on "Small Area Estimation", aiming at providing its national officials with basic theoretical knowledge on methods of small area estimation.

A total of twenty two participants from NSB, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, Royal Civil Service Commission, Thimphu City Corporation, Ministry of Information and Communication and Cross National Happiness Commission participated in the course.

The main topics of the course included: users for small area estimation, introduction to STATA software, choice of small area techniques, broad area ratio estimator (BARE), broad area ratio estimator without auxiliary data (BARE_NAD), broad area ratio estimator with auxiliary data (BARE_AD), introduction to "Grid Square" method, regression based models (RBM), regression based models - Area level models, regression based models - Unit level models, diagnostics for the quality of small area estimation, basic conditions for success and trade-off between quality, cost, time and efforts.

The training materials were developed based on guidelines prepared by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Statistical Bureau of Japan on the methods of small area estimation.

In closing, the participants evaluated the course as an effective tool in enriching their knowledge in the methods of small area estimation as well as developing their skills in the practical application of those methods.

The 8th Management Seminar for the Heads of National Statistical Offices in Asia and the Pacific was jointly organized by SIAP, UNSD and the Government of India through its Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MSPI), with support from the Statistics Division of ESCAP and a resource person from World Bank.

The theme of the seminar was "Strategies for Achieving Effective Data Communication". Objectives of the seminar were to strengthen capability in the area of leadership and management of data communication with a view to enhancing statistical capacities in support of economic and social development, and to provide an opportunity to exchange views and to share experiences in managing the development of data communication by national statistical offices.

In total, thirty three participants including twelve heads of NSOs from twenty four countries attended the seminar: Afghanistan; Australia; Bangladesh; Bhutan; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; China; Hong Kong, China; India; Indonesia; Islamic Republic of Iran; Japan; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Malaysia; Maldives; Mongolia; Myanmar; Nepal; Pakistan; Philippines; Sri Lanka; Thailand; Timor-Leste and Viet Nam.

The seminar was held at the conference room of NASC ( National Agricultural Science Center ) Complex, while the morning session on Day 2 at the MSPI premises.

In the opening ceremony, Dr. Pronab Sen, Chief Statistician of India delivered a keynote speech and highlighting the importance of communication strategies in light of the enormous changes that had taken place in the environment within which the official statistical systems operated.

The seminar consisted of four sessions; Session 1: Data communication standards: principles and components; Session 2: Communication with data suppliers: strategies and tactics; Session 3: Communication with data users: strategies and tactics; Session 4: Enhancing the visibility and image of statistical agencies: strategies and tactics.

The participants' evaluation indicated that the seminar was relevant to their work, and they were satisfied with its level and contents. The seminar noted that statistical communication was not limited to the flow of data but covered also contextual information. It also noted that hardware and new technology could not replace a good strategy for engaging the producers and users of data.

SIAP conducted the sub-regional course on 2010 Round Population Census Data Quality, in collaboration with Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), Government of Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR), China. Participating in the course were twenty statisticians involved in the preparation of the 2010 Round Population Census from the following ten countries/regions: Brunei Darussalam; China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Macao, China; Malaysia; Republic of Korea; Singapore and Viet Nam.

Mr H. Furuta, Lecturer/Statistician of SIAP and Mr Nath, former Director General of the Central Statistical Organization of India were two main course lecturers.

Topics covered in the course comprised: (i) Introduction to evaluation framework of population census, (ii) Frame construction and data collection, (iii) Data editing, (iv) Dissemination of census result, and (v) Geographical Information System(GIS) for statistical work.

All participants highly evaluated the course level and contents and its relevance to their work. In addition, the course contributed to networking of statisticians involved in population census activities in East Asia and South-East Asia.

In addition to hosting the course, the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR), China, invited all participants and lecturers to a party celebrating the Silver Jubilee of Official Statistics of Macao in the evening on the last day.

SIAP conducted a country training course on Analysis, Interpretation and Research in Statistics for Maldives, aiming at improving the capacity of its national statistical systems to produce a range of official statistics required for planning and decision making in both the public and private sectors. The course was designed principally to train statisticians in the middle of their professional careers on the application of statistical methods and techniques to analyse, interpret and disseminate official statistics. This would also contribute to the improvement of socio-economic indicator databases needed for the implementation and monitoring of programmes on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Twenty participants from NSO; Central Bank of Maldives; Ministries of trade, labour, finance, health, justice and office of customs participated in the course.

Mr Gamini de Silva, SIAP faculty member, conducted the course with assistance from Mr Idham Fahumy, a resource person from the National Planning Department (NPD).

Consisting of 3 modules, the course covered the following: Module 1: Principles in Research Methodology; Module 2: Review of Data Analysis (Inferential Statistics, Univariate, Bivariate Multivariate and Time series analysis, Index numbers); and Module 3: Report writing and presentation including a mini project work done by the participants.

In closing, all the participants evaluated the course as a success, especially the usefulness of the mini project introduced in the course and requested that such work be continued in the future.

SIAP conducted its fifth Regional course on Poverty Measurements from 29 September to 9 October 2009 at the Education and Training Centre (ETC) of BPS, Jakarta, Indonesia. The course aimed at strengthening the capability of national statistical systems throughout the Asia Pacific Region in poverty identification, measurement and analysis.

Twenty four middle-level statisticians from national statistics offices in the following countries participated in the course: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Samoa and Sri Lanka. Moreover, there were five participants from the host country.

SIAP consultant, Mr Jose Ramon G. Albert, served as the course director-cum-lecturer, assisted by local lecturers, Dr. Hamonangan Ritongan and Dr. Ali Said.

The course contents included topics on: Concepts and definitions of poverty and poverty indicators; construction of poverty lines; poverty and inequality measures; poverty profiles; determinants of poverty; introduction to small area estimation and use of Geographic Information Systems(GIS), with the commercial software Arc View and the freeware Adept (developed by World Bank) for poverty mapping.

In closing, all the participants evaluated the course as a success and BPS/ETC expressed its keen interest to collaborate with SIAP in future capacity building programmes.

SIAP conducted a country training course entitled "Research-based Training Course" in Mongolia from 28 September to 2 October 2009, in collaboration with the National Statistical Committee (NSC) of Mongolia and the National University of Mongolia (NUM). The UNDP office in Mongolia through its Poverty Research and Employment Facilitation for Policy Development (PREF II) project provided financial support while NSC and NUM provided all logistic and administrative support.

The aim of the course was to provide staff of NSC, NUM, Ministry of Social Welfare and Labour (MoSWL) and National Development and Innovation Committee (NDIC) with basic and sound knowledge on research principles and concepts, to introduce with methods of statistical data analysis to make them understand the findings of the analysis and to enable them to explain the results from their study or analysis to policymakers.

The course contents were designed by SIAP in collaboration with the counterparts in Mongolia and delivered by a SIAP lecturer.

The course covered topics such as concepts of research study and research design, techniques of literature search and writing literature review, "Reference Manager", how to write an abstract and an executive summary, introduction to STATA software, descriptive statistics using STATA software, contingency table analysis - ANOVA, correlation and simple linear regression analysis, logistic regression analysis and time series analysis.

A total of twenty five staff from the NUM, NSC, MoSWL and NDIC participated in the training course. All course materials as well as lectures were made available in Mongolian.

In closing, 91% of the participants indicated that the course level was just right. All the participants pointed out that the course contents were relevant and useful to their work. However, almost half (45.4%) of the participants indicated that the course was too short.

Fourth Regional Course/Workshop on Statistical Quality Management and Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, 21 - 25 September 2009 in Daejeon, Republic of Korea.

In collaboration with Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) and with the support of ESCAP, SIAP conducted the Fourth Regional Course/Workshop on Statistical Quality Management and Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics to introduce the fundamental principles of official statistics (FPOS) and concepts of statistical data quality requirements, role of national statistical offices(NSOs) in meeting the information needs for policy analysis and monitoring alleviation of poverty and income inequalities in the Asia and the Pacific.

Nineteen deputy heads of NSOs from Bangladesh; Bhutan; Cambodia; China; India; Indonesia; Iran (Islamic Republic of); Lao People's Democratic Republic; Macao, China; Malaysia; Mongolia; Myanmar; Nepal; Philippines; Sri Lanka; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Tonga and Viet Nam participated in the course/workshop. In addition, there were two participants from the host country.

Resource persons comprised Mr Furuta, Lecturer/Statistician of SIAP who also was the course director, Ms Ericta, SIAP consultant, and Mr Manzano, Economic Affairs Officer of Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division, ESCAP.

Mr Furuta conducted the course orientation session, followed by Ms Ericta's lectures on interpretation of each FPOS. Participants were divided into four groups for three group work sessions: (i) to identify the major users and specific users of population census and to describe the statistical products for each type of user as well as channels for each product, (ii) to prepare a plan for launching the new series, the change of which was due to rebasing, revised classification, change in methodology or change in concept and (iii) to discuss mechanisms for statistical coordination and how to implement those mechanism.

Mr Manzano delivered lectures on current economic crisis and its impact on economic and social indicators such as poverty, inequality and unemployment, based on ESCAP flagship publication "Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2009".

Finally, Mr Furuta summarized the course/workshop and conducted the evaluation session.

Outcomes of the course/workshop revealed that (i) data gaps in terms of quality and availability in meeting users' requirements and priorities had been identified, (ii) outline of action for improving the policy relevance of statistics prepared, and (iii) capacity to communicate with economists/policy makers built.

In closing, all participants evaluated the course/workshop highly relevant to their work, and they were satisfied with the course level and contents.

The calendar of all international meetings related to official statistics in Asia and the Pacific is maintained at http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/events_Asia_Pacific.asp

Please note that PARIS21 is maintaining event calendars for Africa and Asia at http://www.paris21.org/pages/events/all-events/list/

The online database contains time series data for 31 of the regional members and associate members of ESCAP and is designed to provide up-to-date monthly (or quarterly) data to assess economic trends for countries or areas in the region. The online database covers the period from January 2005 and is updated every quarter.

Published: 7 November 2009

Website: http://www.unescap.org/stat/data/statind/areaSectorIndicators.aspx

Mr Jan Smit, Regional Adviser on Statistics, Statistics Division
Mr Artur Andrysiak, Statistician, Statistics Development and Analysis Section

Scheveningen, The Netherlands, 14-16 December 2009: Contributed to and participated on behalf of the ESCAP Statistics Division in the International Seminar on Early Warning and Business Cycle Indicators organized jointly by the UNSD and Statistics Netherlands.

The seminar was part of the UNSD/DESA series of seminars on the methodology on generating high quality rapid or 'flash' estimates of economic performance, their international comparability, the communication strategy of such estimates and

the development of additional synthesis indicators on the performance of the real economy and the financial markets for effective monitoring.

During the seminar participants discussed the results of the global assessment of the data availability, timeliness and comparability of high frequency and first estimates; problems in collection of early warning and business cycle indicators; and the usefulness of early warning and business cycle indicators in actually tracking economic developments. Additionally, during the seminar participants reviewed existing country practices in the preparation of: first GDP estimates; composite indicators; sentiment surveys and their application in tracking the economic crisis. Furthermore participants reviewed and provided recommendations on the proposed analytical indicator template to monitor and report on the performance and turning points of the real and financial economy and markets.

The ESCAP Statistics Division contributed a paper titled Availability and quality of short-term economic statistics in the Asian and the Pacific Region. The ESCAP paper provided a comprehensive overview of the current state of economic statistics in the region based on preliminary findings of ESCAP Region-wide assessment of the capacity of national statistical systems in Asia and the Pacific to produce basic economic statistics.

To access the ESCAP paper or find our more information about the workshop please go to http://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/workshops/2009/netherlands/ac202-2.asp

Ms Haishan Fu, Chief, Statistics Division
Mr Jan Smit, Regional Adviser on Statistics

Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, 28 September - 2 October 2009: Provided training on the Human Development Indices (HDI) and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) indicators to officials of the Myanmar Government, as guided by the strategy of the Executive Secretary, and in response to Myanmar Government’s requests. The training workshop provided a valuable opportunity for mid-to-senior-level government officials from eight ministries to interact with each other. The participants came from diverse backgrounds and appreciated the training for its coverage of various conceptual and technical issues. They collectively acknowledged the severe data constraints due to the lack of population and housing censuses (last one conducted in 1983) and labour force surveys (last in 1993), as well as the limitations of the existing vital registration system; they also recognized the urgent need for support for national statistical capacity building. The participants stressed the need to collect and compile data for HD and MDG indicators according to internationally agreed definitions and methodology, and to assess progress in Myanmar in comparison to other countries in the ASEAN region. They emphasized the desire to apply the training in their work and requested more support, including regular training and more reference materials. The ESCAP team also met with the UN Country Team Myanmar to debrief each other on ESCAP's statistical training activities in Myanmar and the work of the newly established M&E Group of UNCT. Both parties greed that any statistical capacity building (SCB) programme for Myanmar would be developed and implemented jointly with UNCT. As a first step of collaboration and coordination, ESCAP was invited (and accepted) to join the M&E Group and the M&E Group was invited to participate in a planned joint SCB needs assessment mission.

Mr Jan Smit, Regional Adviser on Statistics
Mr Viet Vu, Consultant, Statistics Division

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2-6 November 2009: Assisted the National Statistical Office (NSO) of Mongolia with the estimation of the value-added generated by the informal sector using data from the 1-2 Survey conducted in 2007-2008, and the integration of these estimates into the existing national accounts of the country, and acted as resource persons at the "Workshop on measuring the informal sector and informal employment" (4 November). The Chairman of the NSO expressed his satisfaction with what the Development Account project "Interregional cooperation on the measurement of informal sector and informal employment" project had achieved in Mongolia with regard to the contribution of the informal sector to GDP. The Workshop on measuring the informal sector and informal employment, which was attended by 51 representatives from various government minis-tries and agencies, universities, the private sector and international organizations (including UNDP, ADB and World Bank), was a success, with some referring to the 1-2 Survey as a "magnificent survey".

Beijing, China, 2-3 July 2009: Represented ESCAP at the UN China United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2011-2015 Strategic Planning Retreat. The Retreat agreed on the following - tentative - strategic priorities for the 2011-2015 China UNDAF:

• Environment, climate change and natural disaster management within a low carbon economy
• Evidence-based social policy reform to address the needs of (all) vulnerable groups
• Implementation of international conventions and promotion of South-South cooperation

with the addition of two cross-cutting themes:

• Gender
• Advocacy and partnership

Suva, Fij, 31 August - 4 September 2009: Attended the Regional Inter-Agency Statistics Meeting hosted by EPOC and co-organized by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), ADB and UNICEF. During the discussion on the coordination of statistical capacity building activities in the Pacific, Mr Smit briefed the Meeting onn ongoing and planned statistics development activities of the Statistics Division and SIAP and on the informal mechanism for coordinating support for statistics development in Asia and the Pacific that the division is developing. While in Suva, Mr Smit also discussed with the Director-General, SPC and Head, EPOC the possible role of ESCAP in the formulation and implementation of a vision for statistical capacity in the Pacific by 2020 ("Statistics 2020"), worked with EPOC and SPC staff on Pacific input for the Regional MDG Report 2009, and provided some assistance to the Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics (FIBS) with the implementation of the Development Account project "Improvement of Disability Measurement and Statistics in Support of the Biwako Millennium Framework and Regional Census Programme".

Yerevan, Armenia, 9-13 November 2009: Assisted the National Statistical Service (NSS) of Armenia with a number of IT-related issues. Mr Smit reviewed the NSS website, in particular its data dissemination components, as well data various databases and data collection forms, and made suggestions for improvement. He also delivered presentations to NSS staff from various departments on "The R language for statistical computing" and "International metadata standards". While in Yerevan, he furthermore attended a regular UN Armenia Country Team meeting (12 November), at which he briefed attendees on the mission and its main findings and participated in discussions on statistical issues in Armenia.

New Delhi, India, 3-5 November 2009: Participated in the eighth SIAP Management Seminar for the Heads of NSOs in Asia and the Pacific. There is a separate article on the Seminar under Training Workshops by the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific.

Dakar, Senegal, 16-19 November 2009: Represented ESCAP at the PARIS21 Consortium Meeting on the occasion of its 10 th anniversary.

Geneva, 19-22 October 2009: Clovis participated in the 16th Inter-agency and Expert Group Meeting on MDG Indicators and its preparatory meetings that were organized by UNSD and hosted by ILO in Geneva on 19-22 October 2009. His mission was to exchange information on monitoring the progress towards the MDGs in Asia-Pacific and, in particular, to present ESCAP's data strategy to support the production of regional MDG reports. The meeting recommended strategies for improving the production of MDG indicators, including metadata, the country-level coordination of MDG monitoring, capacity building activities, and establishment of MDG national databases.

Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania 7-9 October 2009: To participate as a resource person at the Ninth Meeting of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG) and present the results of the cognitive test undertaken in the context of the United Nations Development Account project Improvement of Disability Measurement and Statistics in Support of the Biwako Millennium Framework and Regional Census Programme.

The meeting provided an excellent opportunity for the six project countries to share their experiences with colleagues from other statistical offices from Asia and the Pacific and other continents, while clearly identifying Asia-Pacific as the leading region in the development of improved measurement tools on disability.

A key outcome of the meeting was the request made to the WG Secretariat by member States from the African and Middle-Eastern regions, to recommend in its next report to be presented at the UN Statistical Commission in February 2010, that the experience of Asia-Pacific be replicated in their regions.

The WG Secretariat extended its appreciation to ESCAP for continuing to support its work towards the development of better methodologies to measure disability, and highlighted that without this backing, little would have been achieved in the last couple of years.

Mr Clovis Freire moved back to his position as Economic Affairs Officer at the Disaster Risk Reduction Section, Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division (IDD) after 5 months working on the preparation of the Regional MDG Report 2009.

The report, which would be launched soon, assesses the implications of the global economic crisis for the achievement of the MDGs in Asia-Pacific region. Clovis has contributed in drafting the report, including in conducting the analysis of MDG progress in the region, the impact of the crisis on poverty and on the identification of the most vulnerable countries and the MDGs at greatest risk.

He has shared the initial results of that work at the Expert Group Meeting on Regional MDG Report 2009 that was held in Bangkok in August 2009, the Expert Group Meeting on Closing the Gap: Strategies to Combat and Monitor Exclusion in Asia and the Pacific, which was held in Bangkok in September 2009, the 16 th Inter-agency and Expert Group Meeting on MDG Indicators that was held in Geneva in October 2009, and the Asia-Pacific Trade Economists' Conference: Trade-Led Growth in Times of Crisis, which was held in Bangkok in November 2008.

Clovis joined ESCAP in 2005 as Associate Economic Affairs Officer, following two years in the Department of Management, United Nations Headquarters, New York.

Upon completing 35 years of dedicated service to the United Nations, Ms Prapapan Treeratpituk retired from ESCAP Statistics Division on 30 November 2009.

Prapapan joined Statistics Division in September 1985 as Clerk, and progressed in her career with competence and trustworthiness. Her last position before retirement was Staff Assistant to Chief of Statistics Development and Analysis Section, Statistics Division. During her tenure, she had rendered efficient support services to many Regional Advisers, assisted in the smooth organization of legislative as well as technical meetings, shouldered administrative and logistical functions of the Division, to name but a few.

Prior to joining the Statistics Division, she worked for Committee for the Coordination of Investigations of the Lower Mekong Basin.

We wish Prapapan a very happy and healthy retirement.

Mr Yanhong Zhang has joined ESCAP Statistics Division as Statistician in the Statistics Development and Analysis Section, effective 1 December 2009.

Prior to joining ESCAP, Yanhong, worked as Programme Specialist at UNESCO Institute for Statistics, where he conducted cross-national comparative analytic studies focusing on national progress towards achieving international goals, socio-economic and gender equity in student learning outcomes, school quality and educational participation. He also delivered a number of training courses on the use of statistical methods to assist member states in analyzing and interpreting data regarding public policies, educational quality and equity, and national and international standards.

At the methodological level, Yanhong has experiences in developing comparative education indicators, designing and implementing sample surveys, as well as carrying out assessments of skills and student learning. He was also responsible for compiling and validating education indicators for Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, based on education, economic and population statistics.

Earlier, Yanhong worked as Senior Researcher at Statistics Canada in Ottawa, and Teaching/Research Assistant at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, United States of America.

Yanhong, a national of China, holds a Doctorate of Education degree (Educational Administration, Planning and Social Policy) from Harvard University.

Mr Aloke Kar has joined the faculty of the Institute as Lecturer / Statistician in November 2009.

Prior to joining SIAP, Aloke served the Statistical Service of Government of India for more than 25 years in various capacities. He held the post of Deputy Director General before joining the United Nations - Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) as Regional Advisor on National Accounts and Economic Statistics. He served ESCWA for about three years before joining SIAP.

During his tenure with the Government of India, he has been involved in developing survey designs, analysis of survey results and writing survey reports for household and establishment surveys. He has also engaged in compiling national accounts statistics (at the national and regional level) in the Central Statistical Organization. While serving the ESCWA, he has provided advisory services to a number of member countries of the region on different areas of economic statistics such as national accounts, price statistics, and economic surveys.