Driving the data revolution: Asia-Pacific forges agreements to improve statistics
United Nations committee on Statistics meets to build regional frameworks for better data
Bangkok (ESCAP News) -- Between 2001 and 2011, over 450 million people in
the Asia-Pacific region were brought out of poverty, but 772 million people
still live on less than $1.25 a day. The number of women in the region
dying because of pregnancy has about halved since 2000, while disasters
over the past five years have cost the region $501 billion. Statistics like
these reveal the social, economic and environmental situation that we live
in, and allow us to accurately know where we have made progress - and to
understand where progress still needs to be made.
The fourth session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Committee on Statistics opened this week
advocating that such precise, representative and timely information serves
as a basis to help countries achieve and measure their development goals.
However, many Asia and Pacific countries still lack the capacity to produce
the figures needed. Some face significant challenges producing even the
most basic statistics, such as population counts or GDP.
Dr. Anis Chowdhury, Director of the ESCAP Statistics Division opened the
committee saying, “The world is awash with data and yet we lack credible
information about the poorest and most marginalized communities. A data
revolution has been called for – to make data work more directly in support
of development and to leave no one behind. The goals and targets of the new
development agenda will not be realized without quality statistics to
provide insight about the most disadvantaged, vulnerable people in our
communities.”
To illustrate the problem further, even if countries produce official
statistics they may be of an uncertain quality, not
internationally-comparable, or delayed so much that they lose their
relevance. This hampers the ability of governments to make policy decisions
that effectively respond to the needs of their population or efficiently
direct limited resources.
Regional Commissions will play an important role in the monitoring and
implementation of the post-2015 development agenda which requires effective
and robust national statistical systems to track progress. This week’s
session brings together chief statisticians from countries across the Asia
and Pacific region to agree on priorities for statistical development and
reach consensus on areas where cooperation can best add value to national
and international efforts. It will also look to shape a framework for
measuring and monitoring capacity development of national statistical
systems.
At this session, Governments are expected to agree on a core set of gender
statistics for the region, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Governments will also decide
on regional approaches to improving population, social, disaster and
environment statistics alongside realizing the ‘data revolution.’ These
initiatives build on other collaborative work instigated by the Committee
on Statistics in economic statistics, agricultural statistics and civil
registration and vital statistics.
ENDS