Conference of European Statisticians 2014 High-level Group for the Modernisation of Statistical Production and Services

1. Conference of European Statisticians 2014High-level Group for the Modernisation of Statistical Production and Services Pádraig Dalton Central Statistics Office Chair of HLG April 10, 2014

2. High-level Group • Created by the CES bureau in 2010 • To oversee and coordinate international work relating to the modernisation of official statistics • 10 heads of national and international statistical organizations • Vision and strategy endorsed by CES in 2011/2012 • Engagement goes way beyond formal membership of HLG • Over 40 countries involved in HLG activities

3. What do we do? • Oversee activities that support modernisation of statistical organisations • Stimulate development of global standards and oversee international collaboration activities • “Within the official statistics community ... take a leadership and coordination role”

4. HLG achievements to 2013 • 2012: Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM) • 2013 Paper: What does Big Data mean for official statistics • 2013 Projects: • Common Statistical Production Architecture • Frameworks and Standards for Statistical Modernisation

5. Development of a CommonStatistical Production Architecture

6. Project Outcomes • Conceptual architecture framework for sharable components of statistical production • Tested in practice in a “proof of concept” • This showed that the CSPA approach works • It promises increased: • interoperability • collaboration opportunities

7. CSPA Development Project

9. Project Outcomes GSIM v1.1 GSBPM v5.0

10. Mappings Fundamental Principlesof Official Statistics

11. Frameworks and Standards Project

12. HLG activities in 2014 • Implementing the Common Statistical Production Architecture • The use of Big Data for official statistics • 4 Modernisation committees • Organisational frameworks and evaluation • Production and methods • Products and sources • Standards

13. Implementing the CSPA

14. Components being built • Seasonal Adjustment – France,Australia, New Zealand • Confidentiality on the fly – Canada, Australia • Error correction – Italy • SVG Generator – OECD • SDMX transform – OECD • Selecting sample from business register – Netherlands • Editing components – Netherlands • Classification Editor – Norway

15. Architecture Working Group:Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Turkey, Eurostat • Catalogue team:Australia, Canada, Italy, Hungary, New Zealand, Romania, Turkey, Eurostat

16. Big Data

17. Background • HLG paper for 2013 CES Plenary Session “What does Big Data mean for official statistics?” • CES gave priority to work on: “facilitating the use of Big Data for official statistics” • Big Data is a priority project for 2014, involving: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Colombia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Eurostat, OECD

18. Strategic / methodological issues • April 2014 - key challenges identified: • The need for a quality framework for Big Data • Managing privacy and data security • Developing partnerships with data suppliers, processors and users • Developing methodology for Big Data • Developing the skills needed to use Big Data • Currently establishing task teams to tackle these issues • Volunteers welcome! • Reports / guidelines by the end of 2014

19. Technical issues • “Sandbox” will be launched next week • Testing remote access / processing • Testing standards, methods, tools • “Learning by doing”

20. HLG Activities 2014: Wider involvement

21. HLG roadmap beyond 2014 • Implementing common standards and models for the official statistics “industry” • Promoting collaboration and sharing • From the design stage, not just the outputs • Modular systems giving increased flexibility for new sources / processes / outputs

22. But what is the HLG really all about? How can we unite globally to create a new model of collaboration? Lidia Bratanova, UNECE There is more reason to work together now than ever before Gosse van der Veen, formerly CBS, The Netherlands There is a real opportunity, it’s a challenging opportunity, and its not obvious that we will succeed Wayne Smith, Statistics Canada The biggest challenge is a cultural one, not only between our institutions but within our own institutions Brian Pink, formerly Australian Bureau of Statistics

23. Collaboration is the key word If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants Isaac Newton

24. Collaboration: Easy to say but difficult to do…effectively • There are a lot of players • National and international statistical organisations • There is a real willingness to collaborate • We need to identify mechanisms to ensure we do it effectively • Activities must compliment one another, not duplicate • Stating the obvious…..but that’s not always a bad thing! • Awareness is the starting point • Who should coordinate these initiatives?

25. Resourcing HLG activities • HLG projects are mainly resourced through volunteer experts • On-going need for coordination and project management activities, funded by donations • The UNECE Secretariat has set up a trust fund • We need $180,000 per year to support the current level of progress • How can you help?

26. Discussion Points • What are your priorities for future work on modernisation of statistics? • How can we collaborate more effectively and ensure maximum return from the various initiatives? • To what extent do HLG activities align with your respective modernisation programmes? • How can you get involved and support HLG activities?