UN Development Account Project “Strengthening the

Statistical Capacity of Central Asian countries”

Concluding Session “How Can the International Community Help?

Presentation at the High-Level Forum on Strategic Planning in Statistics for Central Asian countries in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

17-19.5.2006

Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECESession 5, 19.5.2006

19.5.2006 Petteri Baer, UNECE Statistical Division 2

Background• The importance of statistical indicators

– ”If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”• The link to the United Nations Millenium

Development Goals (MDG)• The Project will focus on three statistical areas,

critical to monitoring the MDG:– Population– Social conditions, health– Economic development

19.5.2006 Petteri Baer, UNECE Statistical Division 3

Beneficary countries• Azerbaijan• Kazakhstan• Kyrgyzstan• Tajikistan• Turkmenistan• Uzbekistan• and partially Afghanistan

• Overall objective”...to allow Central Asian countries monitoring their demographic, social and economic process toward the Millenium Declaration...”

• Total budgetUSD 385 000

• Implementation period2006 – 2008

19.5.2006 Petteri Baer, UNECE Statistical Division 4

Five expected accomplishments• EA1: Next population

censuses using regional ECE standards with specifications relevant to their national economic and social situation;

• EA 2: New ECE guidelines for the 2010 round of population censuses implemented in Central Asian countries;

• EA3: Strengthened capacity of Central Asian countries to produce and use statistics on the health status of the population;

• EA4: Better coverage by national accounts of aggregates of the informal sector (grey and black economy) and other forms of non-observed economic activities;

19.5.2006 Petteri Baer, UNECE Statistical Division 5

Five expected accomplishments (2)• And last but not least:• EA5: Improved sub-

regional cooperation among Central Asian countries in the area of statistics for tracking progress towards the Millennium Development Goals through regional meetings/workshops.

19.5.2006 Petteri Baer, UNECE Statistical Division 6

Activities in 2006• Meeting of the Project Management group• Seminar on measurement of population and

social conditions using population census• Training workshop for statisticians on disability

statistics• Advisory services to national statisticians

19.5.2006 Petteri Baer, UNECE Statistical Division 7

Activities in 2007• Training workshop for national statisticians on new

technologies for population censuses• ...and on the implementation of new ECE

recommendations for the 2010 round of population censuses

• Training workshop on health status statistics for users of health statistics

• Training workshop on best practices related to non-observed economy

• Meeting of the Project Management group• Advisory services to national statisticians

19.5.2006 Petteri Baer, UNECE Statistical Division 8

Activities in 2008

• Training workshop on best practices related to non-observed economy

• Meeting of the Project Management group• Advisory services to national statisticians• Evaluation of the results of the Project

19.5.2006 Petteri Baer, UNECE Statistical Division 9

Project implementation – First step• Meeting of the Heads of the National Statistical

Offices in Paris, 16 June 2006– As a back-to-back meeting with the Conference of

European Statisticians, held in Paris, 13-15 June 2006

• Decisions to be made on – Seminar and Workshop dates and venues– Preparation and presentation topics and

responsibilities in their preparation