Advocacy for statistics Presentation by PARIS21 Secretariat

1. Advocacy for statistics Presentation by PARIS21 Secretariat High-level forum on strategic planning for statistics: Bangkok, 6-8 June 2006

2. Central Stat. Office, Sector Units, Central Banks, etc. Ministers of Finance, Sector Ministers, etc. Development Agencies, WB, IMF, RDB, etc. OECD Statistics Office Mngers, UN Specialised Agencies; Stat. units in intl orgs Partnership: PARIS21 Constituencies and Linkages Policy makers Statisticians DevelopingCountries OECD Countries andMultilaterals

3. 1. Policy makers and funders in developing countries Key messages: • Role of statistics in improving development outcomes • Desirability of developing a culture of evidence-based policy and decision-making • Integration of statistics into policy frameworks (PRSs, SWAps, etc) • Need for better statistics and better use of statistics to improve use of resources, including aid effectiveness • NSDSs as a coherence framework to organise the development of their statistical system • Appropriate and sustained financing for statistics from national budget

4. 2. Policy makers and funders in OECD countries and multilateral development agencies Key messages: • Role of statistics in improving development outcomes • Integration of statistics into both national and donor policies • Statistics needed to improve aid effectiveness • Need to support the design and implementation of NSDSs • Financial and technical assistance, placed within the context of NSDSs • Donors should coordinate better and harmonise their reporting procedures with national systems

5. 3. Statisticians and analysts in developing countries Key messages: • Role of statistics to under-pin development progress • Need to address the new key priorities for statistics • NSDSs to serve as a coherence framework for all national/ official statistics and statistical programmes, however they are funded, including to coordinate donor programmes

6. 4. Statisticians and analysts in OECD countries and multilateral development agencies Key messages: • Role of statistics in development and of new priorities for statistics to under-pin development progress • Importance of NSDSs as a coherence framework and for technical assistance to be provided within the context of NSDSs • Donors and specialised agencies should be better coordinated; and should harmonise their reporting procedures with national systems • OECD NSOs to provide more and better organised technical support to developing countries

7. Why statistics? • If statistics improve and are used to inform decisions, policies are more likely to succeed • Good statistics are essential for the design and management of national policy frameworks such as PRS and for MDG monitoring • Better statistics also help donors by informing aid allocation and by monitoring implementation and outcomes • Investment in statistics will pay for itself many times over by improving the efficiency of resource allocation

8. Why now? • Greater emphasis on evidence and managing for results • More sophisticated policy analysis • Advances in ICT • Donor alignment and harmonisation increase costs of making faulty policy decisions

9. Statistics through the policy cycle • Need for careful and rigorous analysis, based on good quality and transparent statistics, throughout the policy cycle • Statistics needed to : • Identify issues • Design policies • Forecast the future • Monitor policy implementation • Evaluate policy impact

10. Advocacy: Currently Available Tools • Making the Case: National Strategy for the Development of Statistics • Measuring Up to the Measurement Problem by Chris Scott • Better Statistics, Better Policies, Better Development Outcomes

11. Advocacy: Currently Available Tools • Films: (1) Measuring the Change in World Poverty, (2) La Statistique au Service du Développement, and (3) Food and Agricultural Statistics in support of Development Order free copies from contact@paris21.org

12. Thank you!