Asia-Pacific Stats Café Series: Exploring new horizons: Nepal’s Practice in implementing data integration approaches

Petra Nahmias is Chief of the Population and Social Statistics Section at UNESCAP, having recently taken up this role. She previously led the statistics team at UNHCR, working on a wide variety of statistical and demographic issues related to forced displacement and statelessness. A sociologist-demographer by training, she has further experience in both the international and national statistical systems including the United Nations Population Division, the UK Department for International Development and the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.

Jose Ramon Albert is ESCAP’s (International Statistics) Adviser for the Data Integration Project in Nepal. He holds a PhD in Statistics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is a Senior Research Fellow of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. Dr Albert is a former Chief Statistician of the Philippines, having served as the Secretary General of the defunct National Statistical Coordination Board. For over two decades, he has had short-term assignments in 27 countries across the world on poverty and vulnerability measurement, education, social protection, gender and social inclusion, innovation, and other development issues. He has authored various technical papers and popular writings on topics spanning poverty analysis, income distribution, the middle class, education statistics, ICT and innovation statistics and big data, and climate change. He is also a member of various bodies and expert groups on statistical matters, including the UN Global Pulse Privacy Advisory Group.

Ram Hari Gaihre is a Senior Statistician at the Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal. He started his career as a government statistician in 1996. Earlier e worked as a resource person at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand for capacity building training on poverty mapping (SAE) for statisticians at ASEAN NSOs. He worked as a survey design expert in UNESCO office in Kabul, Afghanistan. He led identification of poor households in Nepal using proxy means testing (PMT). He holds M.Sc. in Statistics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal (1993) and M.A. in Economics from the University of Tsukuba, Japan (2013).

Dr Hassani is an accomplished statistician with a PhD in Statistics and more than 15 years of extensive experience in national/international and multicultural organisations, research institutes, and academia. He has been recognised as one of the world's top 1% scientists from a range of academic backgrounds in the official 2022 Elsevier and Stanford University rankings. He has published more than 200 Journal papers, 20 highly cited papers, with an i10-index of over 98, an H-index of over 41, and a Top 95% Researchgate score. He is an enthusiastic data scientist looking for new initiatives and research with an impact on society and has received several national and international awards for his contributions, including the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr Hassani's research interest lies in statistical analysis, modeling, Big Data, Data mining, and the application of new technology in Statistics.

Rishi Ram Sigdel is a Director at National Statistics Office (NSO) in Nepal. He has been working as a government employee for the last 19 years in the field of official statistics, mainly Health Statistics, National Accounts, Trade Statistics and at present as Director of the training section of the NSO. He holds a master’s degree in Statistics (Nepal) and Economics (Japan). He has contributed to academic literature such as Total Factor Productivity Estimation of Nepal: Growth Accounting and Econometric Estimation; Statistical Policies and National Accounts in Nepal; GDP Forecasting of Nepal; Institutional Delivery and Household Income in Rural Nepal; Administrative Records as a Source of Official Statistics in Nepal; Health Statistics: Sources, Problems and Solutions; A Statistical System of Nepal: History to the Present; Tourism Satellite Accounts of Nepal: Opportunities and Challenges. He is also an author of the Statistical Literacy Handbook and some chapters of the Economic Indicators book, both published in Nepali.

Afsaneh Yazdani is a Statistician at ESCAP Statistics Division, Population and Social Statistics Section. She is currently leading a regional initiative on data integration. Before joining ESCAP in 2018, Afsaneh worked in various capacities at the Statistical Centre of Iran for more than 20 years. Afsaneh has extensive experience in official statistics with a focus on survey methodology, censuses, and register-based statistics.