The Statistics Division is happy to announce the forthcoming launch of the new Statistical Yearbook. The launch, originally scheduled for mid-December, has been postponed to the end of January 2008, when the printed copies will become available. This postponement is mainly due to the heavy involvement of the Statistics Division in producing the unplanned study "Ten as One: Challenges & Opportunities for ASEAN Integration" (see Statistical Newsletter of November 2007) and some delays in printing the publication.

The new Statistical Yearbook bears a large number of innovations. For the first time in its 50 year history, the Yearbook presents data compiled from global sources maintained by United Nations agencies and other international organizations to facilitate comparisons across countries and over time. The use of "international", rather than "national", data allows for three major innovations, which together have resulted in a completely revised ESCAP flagship publication: the organization of the Yearbook in chapters that monitor comparatively the performance of ESCAP countries in the social, economic and environmental fields, the presentation of indicator values aggregated to regions and other groups of countries of interest, and the use of charts and analytical text to facilitate the interpretation of indicator values and trends therein.

The ESCAP secretariat hopes that the use of internationally comparable data and methodological transparency triggers discussion on the benefits of following international statistical standards and methodologies at the national level. Data on neighbours and other countries with similar circumstances and levels of development provide essential benchmarks for evidence-based policy planning. At the same time, comparable indicators provide yardsticks for citizens to hold their decision makers to account, and promote good governance and prudent management of public resources.

The new Yearbook would not have been possible without the considerable efforts of international agencies in collecting the data and ensuring that the figures are as comparable between the countries and over time as possible. Nor would it have become a reality if it were not for the efforts of national statistical systems to produce the original data. By taking data from international agencies, ESCAP does its part to reduce the response burden on national statistical systems, contributing to the freeing of resources for better use.

This Yearbook will be available online at the ESCAP website, http://www.unescap.org/stat/, where its data and other ESCAP data are downloadable in a user-friendly format.

For inquiries or to place orders, please e-mail: publications@un.org or call toll free: 1-800-253-9646 ( Americas, Asia or Oceania) or: unpubli@unog.ch (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

From 12-14 December 2007, policy makers and statisticians from the ESCAP region convened in Bangkok for the fourth session of the Committee on Poverty Reduction. Major outcomes of the session concerning the statistical agenda included the following.

The Committee, while supporting rationale and content of the revised MDG monitoring framework, expressed concerns on the relevance and measurement challenges posed by some of the proposed new indicators and felt more discussion is needed at the international level in preparation for the 38th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission in February 2008, when the revised framework will be officially adopted. The Committee also expressed concern over the continued lack of basic data and weak technical capacity for MDG monitoring. It stressed the need for sustained statistical capacity building and called on ESCAP to advocate and promote national strategic planning for statistical development and to assist countries in prioritizing data collection initiatives and localizing MDG targets and indicators.

Second, the Committee emphasized the importance of measuring working poverty to enable better targeting of policy decision-making and recommended that the secretariat should continue providing assistance to members and associate members in the development of working poor measurement, particularly by building their capacities for related data collection and analysis. The Committee also recognized the growing importance of urban poverty and the need for finding adequate instruments for measuring it. In this regard, the Committee requested the assistance of ESCAP Secretariat in developing definitions and methods that could adequately measure the extent of poverty in floating populations. Some members expressed their appreciation and support to the Division for its initiatives on improving the measurement of informal sector employment, which more generally supports the efforts in estimating the number of the working poor.

Third, the Committee took note of the conclusions and recommendations of the Expert Group Meeting on Effective Use of Information Technology in Population Censuses (see next article) and requested that the Statistics Division should continue providing statistical training, and organizing forums for sharing experiences and best practices among statistical and census offices in the region in the use of information and communication technologies.

Fourth, the Committee expressed strong appreciation and support to the Division for developing and implementing a UN Development Account funded project on improving disability measurement and statistics in support of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action. It also provided guidance and recommendations on the implementation of the project. In particular, several countries requested the Division to conduct in-country advocacy workshops and to support survey-based disability data collection by developing standard questionnaires. Some countries indicated that they plan to include disability in the upcoming census and requested technical assistance.

Finally, the Committee expressed strong support for reinstating a separate Committee on Statistics in view of the importance accorded to statistics and National Statistical Offices in their respective countries; the need for a regional forum to coordinate and exchange knowledge; and the central, cross-cutting role statistics plays in formulating and implementing policy, tracking progress, and advancing the regional application of MDGs concepts and frameworks.

The Statistics Division organised an Expert Group Meeting on the "Effective Use of IT in Population Censuses" from 10 -12 December 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand. The discussions were facilitated by papers that the invited experts had prepared on various aspects of applying IT in their own censuses, the report of the survey on information technologies applied in population and housing censuses during the 2000 round of censuses and related plans for the 2010 round of censuses that the secretariat had conducted during the third quarter of 2007.

The experts shared their experiences in evaluating, managing and implementing technologies at various stages of censuses, including planning, field operations, data capture, data processing and dissemination. The EGM noted with appreciation the bilateral assistance that Australia and Japan, and the multilateral assistance that ESCAP, SIAP, UNECE and other international agencies working on statistical development in the region, had provided over the past two decades. It agreed that the results of the assistance focusing on improving the use of IT in population censuses had been particularly tangible.

The EGM agreed on a number of conclusions and recommendations, which are grouped under the following headings:

• Observations on the trends that affected the application of IT in upcoming population censuses;
• Lessons learned in applying IT in the previous round of population and housing censuses;
• Recommendations addressing the Governments in the region;
• Recommendations addressing statistical and census offices in the region; and
• Recommendations on what ESCAP, especially the Statistics Division and SIAP, should do, in collaboration with other agencies, to assist the developing countries in this area of work.

The Expert Group Meeting documents can be found under http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/egm2007/.

The Global Forum on Gender Statistics took place in Rome, Italy from 10 to 12 of December 2007, followed by the establishment of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group (IAEG) on Gender Statistics. Hosted by the Italian Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) and jointly organised by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the forum provided a new opportunity to take stock on the progress of mainstreaming gender statistics around the globe.

Following the course set by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), the Global Forum on Gender Statistics served as a prospect to enhance countries' capacity to collect, use and disseminate indicators assessing the status of women in society. It also allowed for an international dialogue on how to improve indicators, contributing to more effective policies on gender. The Forum, as well as the IAEG, were established in December 2006 due to a growing demand for quality gender statistics and to create synergies among existing initiatives around the world.

Since the fourth World Conference on Women that took place in Beijing in 1995, overall progress made in the collection of data and production and dissemination of indicators on women has not met expectations. While those indicators related to the Millennium Development Goal 3 and those in other goals related to gender equality - such as maternal mortality - are now commonly reported by most countries, some important gaps still remain in other areas particularly related to employment, women's participation in the economy and violence against women. Hence, during the Forum, best practices on data collection through different sources such as censuses, household surveys and administrative records were discussed. It also saw the launch of GenderInfo, the most comprehensive database on gender available to the public. Another subject high on the agenda was violence against women since measuring violence against women has proven to be a difficult endeavour although high emphasis has been given to this topic by many countries around the globe.

The IAEG on Gender Statistics, the first in a series of international gatherings to discuss statistics on this subject, will serve as a permanent space to disseminate best practices on data collection and on how to best translate this information into sound policy making. It is also intended to serve the purpose of aligning partners in the work in progress on gender statistics; contribute in reviewing the latest technical and methodological developments on the subject; and serve as a platform to maintain GenderInfo, a global database on gender indicators.

Following the recommendations put forward by the forum, the IAEG will serve as a permanent mechanism to improve global coherence on gender statistics; promote methodological developments; build technical capacity, and improve access to data and other materials related to this subject. The IAEG will focus in research areas related to violence against women, informal work, time-use and poverty. This group will also contribute to the production of teaching materials to conduct training workshops at the regional and country level. The next meeting of the IAEG will take place in November of 2008.

The Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), in collaboration with the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) of Sri-Lanka and UNDP regional office in Colombo, organized a country course on Small Area Estimation in Colombo, Sri-Lanka, on 10 - 14 December 2007. The course belongs to the series of specialized courses/workshops conducted under the outreach training programme of the Institute in partnership with National Statistical Organizations.

The main objectives of the course were to introduce participants to concepts and definitions of small area estimation, to provide them with introductory knowledge about the types of methods of small area estimation and in particular to assist them to become familiar with broad area ratio methods and model-based methods of estimation of small area statistics. Moreover, the course also aimed to introduce participants to STATA 8 for data manipulation and data preparation stages of the model-based small area estimation, for running logistic regression models and for diagnostic test of the fitted model.

A total of 19 officials from the DCS representing a variety of divisions of the department benefited from this course. This course was the first one designed principally for technical staff of the major statistical divisions of the DCS. Participants performed a number of exercises to apply methods learned during the lecture sessions using real datasets from the Sri Lanka Household Income and Expenditure Survey and data from another country. During the exercise sessions, particular attention was paid to the application of model-based methods of estimation.

This course was an initial step towards estimating MDGs indicators and other relevant statistics at the lowest administrative level in Sri-Lanka. Further training and follow-up activities are needed to deepen the knowledge and skills of participants and allow the DCS to monitor progress towards the MDGs at the sub-national level.

Ilpo Survo, Chief, Statistical Information Services Section, Statistics Division:

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 17-18 December 2007. To represent ESCAP at the eighth ASEAN Heads of Statistical Offices Meeting (AHSOM8). The Heads issued a policy statement and adopted a report, the main contents of which will be reflected in the next Newsletter.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11-13 December 2007. To participate in the "International Poverty Conference, Poverty and Inequality in the 21st Century" organized by the United Nations Development Programme-Malaysia, the World Bank Institute, the Economic Planning Unit and the University of Malaya Center for Poverty and Development Studies. The conference featured panels of experts who discussed a wide range of topics ranging from poverty mapping to environment and poverty.

Vientiane, Lao PDR, 5-7 December 2007. To attend the Workshop on Disability Statistics from 2005 Lao Census, as a resource person. The workshop was organized by Lao Disabled People Association in cooperation with National Statistics Centre and ESCAP. In the workshop, Mr Liu delivered presentations on statistical concepts of disability and regional overviews, and assisted in establishing a National Coordination Unit on disability statistics. A draft workshop recommendation endorsed by several senior Government officials was prepared during the workshop and will be submitted to High-level National Committee for Persons with Disabilities for approval.

Rome, Italy, 10-12 December 2007: To represent ESCAP at the Global Forum on Gender Statistics and at the Inter-Agency and Expert Group (IAEG) on Gender Statistics. Mr Montes presented the latest developments regarding gender statistics in the Asia and the Pacific region during the session: Producing gender statistics through population censuses: perspectives from the regional commissions organized by UNFPA. Mr Montes also actively participated in the setup of the first meeting of the IAEG on Gender Statistics which will serve as a permanent space for dialogue and discussion on gender statistics.

Margarita F Guerrero, Regional Adviser on Statistics, Statistics Division:

Male, Maldives, 26 November-6 December 2007. Provided advisory services to the Statistics Division, Ministry of Planning and National Development on the sample design and selection, listing and survey operations for their 2007 Economic Survey.

Manila, Philippines, 17-24 November 2007. Provided advisory services to the National Statistics Office on the questionnaire, survey and sample designs for '1-2' survey implementation under the Development Account Project on Measurement of the Informal Sector and Informal Employment.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 28-31 October 2007. Served as resource person on labour statistics issues, integrating framworks for development of an ASEAN labour market information system and strategies for improving statistical data and methods for the ASEAN-ILO Technical Workshop on Labour Statistics: Setting Priorities for Enhanced Knowledge and Regional Cooperation hosted by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia.

As part of the curriculum of the course, a field trip to Hiroshima and Kyoto from 14 to 16 November 2007 was organised for the participants of the Third Group Training Course in Modules on Fundamental Official Statistics.

The field trip aimed to inform the course participants on the statistical activities in municipal government offices and Japan's history and culture by visiting some heritage sites. The core part of the field trip was the visit of the Hiroshima Municipal Government Office. Through this opportunity, all participants were able to learn many statistical activities carried out by the Hiroshima City government. The presentation by the head of Coordination Division, Planning and Coordination Department of Hiroshima City Government office included topics like the coordination of statistical activities with the Statistics Bureau in Tokyo, the catering to local needs of the Municipal Government for planning and decision making as well as the use of ICT in gathering and processing information. In particular, participants appreciated the presentation on sampling design and the analysis of data.

The field trip also included visit of two manufacturing corporations, Mazda Motor Corporation and Kyocera Corporation. During these visits, the role and methods of consumer demand surveys for product designing and pricing were explained.

• Mr Rashid Salaria, Consultant, Pakistan
• Dr Panos Kalnis, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, National University of Singapore
• Mr Gabriel Ghinita, Ph.D student, Department of Computer Science, National University of Singapore

The list of future events is provided for coordination purposes only. The list is incomplete and events, dates and venues may change. Please do not publish or disseminate the list without confirming the latest information with the Statistics Division or SIAP, as appropriate. Note that not all meetings are intended for all countries.

The following list of future events has been compiled, for coordination purposes only, on the basis of information available to the Statistics Division as of 27 December 2007. Readers are strongly advised to verify the correctness with the indicated organizers. Events, dates and venues may change. Please do not republish or disseminate the list.