Introduction Membership: 15 countries, 7 territories

1. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Statistical training and capacity building in data and information management in Pacific island countries and territories – activities undertaken by the Secretariat of the Pacific Gerald Haberkorn Manager Statistics and Demography Program Secretariat of the Pacific Community Noumea, New Caledonia geraldH@spc.int

2. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Introduction • Membership: 15 countries, 7 territories • Population: 9,3 million (r=2.0%): Papua New Guinea: 6,3 million -> Tokelau (1,200) • Countries/territories: comprising of single islands, to countries comprising of hundreds of islands (540,000km2 -> 12 km2); • Area (sea): 30 million km2; 7,500 islands; 500 inhabited

3. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Our key operational and strategic objectives: • Build statistical capacity of national statistical & planning offices • Enhance statistical skills across the national statistical system • Improve quality of social and economic statistics in the region • Meet the information needs of national policy-makers & planners • Reduce the reliance of PICTs on external technical assistance • Reinforce international best practice in statistical methods • Develop professional standards in the collection and dissemination of official statistics

4. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Main Fields of Training (national/sub-regional) • Generalized Statistical Training • Survey Operations and procedures; Data analysis and report writing; Project planning/team management • Introduction to basic statistics/with SIAP, since 2004 • Specific Training courses • Data user workshops; introduction to GIS; OCR technologies; population projections; policy analysis; web publishing • Technical collaboration • Census planning; census & survey analysis; production of statistical outputs • Noumea HQ-based professional attachments

5. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Coordination of training at country/sub-regional level 1. National level/sub-regional (SPC training) • Multi-year Statistics and Demography Programme (SDP) strategic plans (current: 2006-2008); • Developed every 3 years in collaboration with membership (two inputs): • country requests/needs, in line with their own national development frameworks; national statistical plans/master plans where available; • SDP position papers (we identify key/emerging issues “from where we sit”) • Reviewed/endorsed at triennial governance meetings(most recent: Sep 2007) • Reviewed/re-affirmed annually with membership (mail-out of TA/training needs assessment questionnaire for coming year) => Provide evidence base for negotiating funding arrangements with our development partners

6. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Coordination of training at country/sub-regional level 2. National level (SPC + partner agency) • Combination of: • multi-year SDP strategic plans (current: 2006-2008), plus • existing needs (not yet attended to/no funding available to date), or • emerging national needs; or • emerging funding support • Current examples: • ABS-SPC partnership in strengthening project planning/project team management (plan statistical collection: DHS, census) • StatsNZ-SPC partnership 2010 census assistance (Niue, Tokelau, Cook islands) • UNFPA-SPC: assistance with population policy analysis; integration of population data in policy development and planning; • Address existing need + funding availability through “sudden” availability of AusAID (Pacific Governance Support Program) and NZAid support (increase of TA to NZ “affiliated” countries).

7. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Coordination of training at country/sub-regional level 3. Sub-regional level (SPC + partner agency) • Combination of: • multi-year SDP strategic plans (current: 2006-2008), plus • Multi-year collaborative program with partner agency (e.g. SIAP) • Current example: SIAP (2004-2006) • Introduction to Basic statistics (3 weeks) • Similar courses held by SIAP (in Japan) for many years: ( = very costly plus very limited access to Pacific island participants) • Decision in 2004 to organize Pacific islands sub-regional course; using SPC technical experts/teachers (familiar with regional situation); • 3 sub-regional courses held thus far (next one: June/July 2008) • Other example of functioning interagency partnership in providing more effective (coverage + cost) training support to both agencies’ membership

8. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Delivery of training/TA/capacity building at country/sub-regional level • Country-based • Sub-regional and regional (seminars, workshops) • SDP Noumea-based professional attachments • Facilitate country-country support(South-South arrangements)Examples: Fiji NSO data processing staff assist Tuvalu Census; Vanuatu HIES; Kiribati NSO staff assist Nauru DHS enumerator/supervisor training. • Partner agency bilateral support Examples: work programme attachments/study tours provided by ABS, Statistics NZ (Pacific placement programs), US Census Bureau, INSEE.

9. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Funding for statistical training • Core budget (some; limited to staffing) • Programme budget (secure for 3 years; limited to few activities) • Project funding (varied/variable: most prevalent source of training/HRD funds) • Interagency collaboration (good synergies) => SPC appreciates current/ongoing support from our main development partners (AusAID, NZAid, UNFPA) and partner agencies (ABS, StatsNZ, UNESCAP, UNSIAP)

10. 3rd Workshop on Forging Partnerships in Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 20 – 21 November 2007s Key challenges • Provide ongoing training/capacity building support (ongoing demand given small NSOs and high staff turn-over); • Secure ongoing commitment from development partners for statistical training/capacity building • Pursue more strategic balance between • national capacity building, • developing regional capacities (e.g. increased focus on developing pool of regional experts for increased South-South type arrangements), • Outright capacity supplementation (provided/coordinated by SPC, in partnership with key regional players, e.g. pool of regional experts, ABS, and StatsNZ) =>Development/Implementation of such a strategy will be key ingredient of 2009-2011 SDP strategic plan.

11. Annex: PICT NSO staff numbers (Dec 2006)

12. Person Weeks 25 20 15 10 5 0 Fiji NMI PNG FSM Niue Palau Guam W & F Nauru Tonga Cooks Kiribati Tuvalu Samoa Tokelau Vanuatu Marshalls Solomons Pitcairn Islands New Caledonia French Polynesia American Samoa