As the landscape of information producers is changing rapidly, statistical offices must consider the developing new business models, engaging in partnerships, strengthening and modernizing the legal and institutional basis, and using new data sources and technologies to allow modernization of official statistics. Strategic and managerial issues are relevant across statistical domains and aim to strengthen the responsiveness, accountability and transparency of statistical institutions to ensure access to high-quality information, as enshrined in Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Strategic and managerial issues are often on the agenda of the plenary sessions of the Conference of European Statisticians (CES) and the meetings of the CES Bureau. An important vehicle are the so-called in-depth reviews of topics of high relevance, selected by the members of CES.
Every second year the CES and the Regional Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM: Europe) discuss areas of mutual strategic importance for the statistical and geospatial communities.
Many workstreams under this topic are also taking place under the High-Level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics (HLG-MOS).
Work in this Area includes:
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Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
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The Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics underlie everything that the producers of official statistics do: from the methods for collecting, processing and storing data to the ways that statistical offices disseminate statistics and communicate with those who use them. Statistical offices across the region are recognizing the continued and increasing importance of the Principles in guiding what they do. More than thirty years on, they remain a collective manifesto for serving society with impartial, relevant and accurate information to guide decisions.
UNECE developed and adopted the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics in 1992. The United Nations Statistical Commission adopted these principles in 1994 at the global level. In January 2014, the Fundamental Principles were adopted by the General Assembly.
To complement the Fundamental Principles UNECE has developed a set of Core Values of Official Statistics, and defined behaviours how we live these values in 2023.
RESOURCES
General Assembly Resolution E/RES/2013/21
30th Anniversary of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
Core values of official statistics: defining the behaviours that show how we live the values
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Assessing and understanding the value of official statistics
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National statistical offices have a variety of reasons for wanting to measure the value of what they do: both to prove that their work is worth it, and to improve what they are doing- for which they need benchmarks against which to measure improvement.
The simple assumption often made in the official statistics community that the value of official statistics is high and just needs to be better communicated should be questioned. Instead, value should be viewed through a consumer-centred lens to guide the official statistics community towards understanding, extending, creating, maintaining and improving that value, which is the ultimate goal.
RESOURCES
Assessing and understanding the value of official statistics (2019-2022)
Task Force on the Value of Official Statistics (2015-2017)
Measuring the Value of Official Statistics: testing and developing a measurement framework (2022)
Recommendations for Promoting, Measuring and Communicating the value of official statistics (2018)
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Modernizing statistical legislation
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Improving the governance of statistical production and the legal framework is fundamental to producing high-quality statistics and a priority for many countries. Particularly, in the context of the changing data landscape, emergence of other data producers and new data sources, a flexible and forward-looking legal basis is needed to support and enable national statistical systems that are fit for purpose and for the environment that they are trying to measure. UNECE provides a platform for national statistical offices to share experience in modernizing legal and institutional frameworks of official statistics and discuss emerging issues posing legal challenges to national statistical systems.
The Conference of European Statisticians (CES) has been supporting its members in this area by developing and endorsing, together with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Eurostat, the Generic Law on Official Statistics (2016) and the Guidance on Modernizing Statistical Legislation (2019). Aligning with the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, the documents provide guidance on developing the statistical legislation needed to support the modernization of statistical systems and unleash the full value of official statistics. As of 2024, more than 30 countries worldwide have used UNECE guidelines on statistical legislation to revise their laws. Regional versions were produced by ECLAC and ESCWA.
Since 2020, regular meetings of legal and managerial experts are organized to continue sharing experience in modernizing legal and institutional frameworks of official statistics and discussing emerging issues posing legal challenges to national statistical systems.
Work on this area is coordinated by the UNECE Steering Group on Statistical Legislation.
RESOURCES
Steering Group on Statistical Legislation
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Data stewardship and the changing role of national statistical offices
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The rapidly evolving landscape of data production and sharing is an opportunity for national statistical offices to reconsider their position in the national data ecosystem and take on a broader role as a provider of data services. A concept often used in association with this changing role is data stewardship.
In a 2024 publication, data stewardship and other related concepts were defined and explained for the context of official statistics. Ongoing work focuses on the changing role of national statistical offices beyond the national statistical system. In addition, UNECE provides a forum for exchange of practical experiences with different aspects of the data stewardship role.
RESOURCES
Task Force on the changing role of national statistical offices in data ecosystems (2024 – 2026)
Task Force on Data Stewardship (2021 – 2023)
Data Stewardship and the Role of National Statistical Offices in the New Data Ecosystem (2024)