91672 the world bank Getting the Numbers Right: Making Statistical Systems a IBRD Results Real Plus for Results SYNOPSIS Achieving meaningful and lasting reductions in poverty requires a clear understanding of the scope of the challenge, something that is impossible without accurate and timely data about populations and living standards. IBRD has fore more than a decade worked with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to help them develop or improve their collection and analysis of statistics, helping tailor their poverty reduction efforts to their people’s needs. Challenge spect to household surveys, for example through improved quality of sampling frameworks, improved data processing, and data comparability across time and countries, but chal- Since 1996, the International Bank for Reconstruction lenges remained. Many countries in the region still lacked a and Development (IBRD) has been providing support to strategic vision in terms of the overall management of the governments in the Latin America and Caribbean region statistical system. Their NSAs needed to be strengthened, to help improve the quality, frequency, accessibility, and coordination across key actors of the national statistical sys- comparability of statistics, as well as to reinforce the overall tem needed to be reinforced, and more dialogue and align- level of coordination between users and producers. Despite ment was needed among producers and users. relatively high levels of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, investment in national statistical systems has re- mained limited, and in many countries (with some notable exceptions such as Mexico and Brazil) statistical agencies Results have limited capacity and are not able to take advantage of the latest technological advancements in data management IBRD’s work in statistics has been seminal to the series of and approaches for harmonizing information systems. improvements in terms of poverty measurement and overall quality of data in Latin America and the Caribbean. At least IBRD’s work in statistics in the region was mainly triggered 20 countries can now correctly estimate poverty data as a re- by an inter-institutional agreement (MECOVI), estab- sult of collaboration with the Bank. Outputs and outcomes lished with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in this area can be organized into three categories: Promo- and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin tion of national strategies for the development of statistics, America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) almost 15 years ago. including support for monitoring and evaluation activities; Its focus was primarily on improving household surveys Support for surveys (and capacity building) and data bases and strengthening national statistics agencies (NSAs). Em- harmonization; Knowledge exchange. phasis was also given to ensuring quality demand for data from both public agencies and civil society organizations. Wide adoption of national strategies for the develop- During the 1990s, significant progress was made with re- ment of statistics (NSDS). Ten out of 17 Latin Ameri- March 2010 2 Getting the Numbers Right Key results and statistics: 450+ household surveys are included in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) database 210 harmonized household surveys are included in the SEDLAC database, a joint effort by the IBRD and the Univer- sidad Nacional de La Plata in Argentina. 14 countries created or are working on a National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) with IBRD sup- port and one state government in Mexico has a created its own statistics strategy. 150+ statistical teams in LAC participated in the First Regional Award for Innovation in Statistics organized by the IBRD. 100+ datasets have been documented within the Accelerated Data Program (ADP) and will be uploaded to the Re- gional Data Archive catalogue to be available for public use in 2010. 5 middle-income household surveys have been harmonized with the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) 36 countries (33 from LAC, Canada, the United States and Spain) are part of the Knowledge Transfer Network of the Statistical Conference of the Americas supported by the IBRD that will define and build a sound training program on statistical development. can countries have designed NSDSs. IBRD’s support to the promotion, development, and use of poverty maps by countries in this area has mainly been through technical national statistical agencies in Nicaragua, El Salvador and assistance and the fostering of dialogue between users and Honduras, by Panama’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, producers of statistics. These strategies aim to ensure that and planning agencies and universities in Guatemala. Pov- countries produce quality information (mainly to track erty maps were adopted and used as a tool for targeting national development plans or strategies), develop their social programs in four of these countries. IBRD has also national statistical capacities, adopt international standards supported countries in dealing with emerging issues such as for statistics and have an organized and systematic commu- the increase in commodity prices and its impact on food se- nication between suppliers and users of statistics. Currently curity and poverty. Special reports were prepared for coun- Bolivia, Paraguay, Guyana, and the Dominican Republic tries such as Honduras, Guatemala, Bolivia, and Brazil. and Mexico’s Yucatán state are in the process of designing their strategies. In the Yucatán, it will entail the creation of Continuous engagement with all the national statistical a State Committee for Statistical and Geographic Informa- offices in the region led to the construction of a complete tion. Although all Mexican states have the mandate of in- database of 450 household surveys, which the IBRD stores stalling such bodies by federal law, Yucatán is the first one and, more importantly, makes available to stakeholders to comply. Progress overall has been facilitated by a strong in the region. Since 2003, the Latin America and the Ca- collaboration with the National Statistics Institute (INE- ribbean (LAC) region has had a unique tool to support GI), which is keen to replicate the state’s steps throughout inter-country comparisons developed by the IBRD in col- Mexico. laboration with the Universidad de La Plata in Argentina, the Socio-Economic Database for LAC (SEDLAC). SED- Improved surveys, and data documentation, dissemina- LAC allows timely access to high-quality, socio-economic tion, harmonization, and use. IBRD has supported the statistics, including indicators on poverty, inequality, improvement of six Central American countries’ house- household income, employment, education, housing, ac- hold surveys on living standards through training, capac- cess to durable goods and services, annual growth rates in ity building, and technical assistance, including strategic welfare functions, pro-poor growth indicators, gender and dissemination of social indicators. It has also supported other numerous demographics. SEDLAC has developed IBRD RESULTS 3 and disseminated easily accessible products to facilitate Award process is underway and will put special emphasis benchmarking poverty outcomes in the region. on the Caribbean—a region that has traditionally under- invested in statistics. A few countries, including Brazil and In cooperation with the OECD/Partnership in Statistics Mexico, have also expressed interest in the creation of simi- for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), IBRD lar national competitions. IBRD promoted the creation of is supporting the Accelerated Data Program (ADP) to im- a consortium among these two countries and Colombia so prove the preservation, documentation and dissemination that they are able to establish an effective joint research and of micro-data through a Management Toolkit (MMT) and development programs of innovative statistical products complementing workshops for micro-data management and processes, involving staff from the three national statis- based on international standards. More than 16 public tical offices. agencies have benefited from the ADP since 2007. IBRD also conducted pilots of harmonization of household sur- vey datasets from five countries in Latin America (Brazil, Approach. Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Guatemala) with the Lux- embourg Income Study (LIS). As a result, statistics from Well-functioning and well-developed national statisti- these countries could be easily compared not only with oth- cal systems are the backbone of effective monitoring and er countries in the region but also with OECD countries. evaluation, and better policy making. IBRD has adopted a progressive approach to developing effective national Knowledge Sharing. IBRD has helped facilitate the sharing statistical systems since MECOVI was formally launched of information on statistical good practice between devel- in 1996 and, more recently, with the launching of IBRD’s oping countries, and between developing and wealthier na- LAC Team for Statistical Development (TSD) in 2006. tions. Nine countries in the LAC region recently convened TSD has supported countries in mainly three areas: a) to share experiences in the technical and operational aspects improving the supply of statistical information, b) in- in preparation for the upcoming 2010 round of population creasing the demand for statistical information, and c) censuses. This collaboration is particularly relevant given fostering coordination between producers and users of the increased use of mobile technologies like hand-held statistical information. The three challenges needed to be computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) for data addressed in a coordinated and systematic fashion. First, collection; Colombia was the first country to use these de- TSD promoted National Strategies for the Development vices for a census operation in2005. Mexico followed suit of Statistics (NSDS) in LAC as a guiding framework but for a smaller operation: a special census looking at land for countries. Second, TSD strengthened the partner- distribution and uses. Brazil will not only use PDAs, but also mini-laptops and the Internet for data collection/pro- cessing in its upcoming census 2010. Given Brazil’s popu- lation of 190 million people, the 2010 census will be the largest electronic data collection worldwide. To encourage and disseminate innovation in statistics, IBRD launched the Regional Award for Innovation in Statistics in fiscal year 2008, the first one of its kind worldwide. It drew attention from 20 Latin American countries and more than 150 statistical teams. Good practices collected during this event will be strategically disseminated making the most of technology and communications advancements. At the re- quest of interested countries, IBRD will facilitate financing for adoption of new technologies etc. The Second Regional 4 Getting the Numbers Right overall has allowed for a constant needs assessment, and more importantly, identification of opportunities to influ- ence policy dialogue. There are currently 15 approved Trust Fund operations, to- taling US$4 million. Half of these approved trust funds are of regional scope and the other half are country specific. In addition, IBRD allocates a significant amount of staff time to build statistical capacity as a byproduct of analytical and advisory activities carried out in partnership with govern- ment counterparts. Partners ship with the Center for Distributional, Labor and So- The complexity of statistics development has required the cial Studies (CEDLAS) of the University of La Plata to IBRD to build a broad and strong network of partners, support the production, expansion and dissemination of ranging from academia, other donors, and public agencies. the Socio-Economic Database for LAC (SEDLAC), a Support to governments has not been limited to the statis- unique harmonized database and set of indicators neces- tics agencies, but it has been targeted to planning agencies, sary to track and benchmark poverty and social outcomes and other line ministries involved with overall monitoring in the region. Through the NSDS and SEDLAC the and evaluation. Harmonization efforts and knowledge- IBRD team aimed to improve the availability and com- sharing perhaps have resulted in the largest partnerships parability of basic statistics to support benchmarking so- such as that with the Universidad de la Plata in Argentina cial outcomes across countries, better targeting of social for the operating of SEDLAC, with the OECD for the Par- expenditures and the development of systematic moni- is21 capacity building program and the Accelerated Data toring and evaluation systems. The sequence of these in- Program, and also with the IADB for the MECOVI pro- terventions and timeframes has varied across countries in gram, and recently, for the development of a State NSDS in line with their unique policy and political processes, and Yucatan, Mexico. institutional framework. Although continuous dialogue has been sustained with all the statistics agencies in Latin America, special interaction IBRD contribution has been sustained with the respective institutes in Colom- bia, Brazil, and Mexico through the Innovation Consor- Efforts in statistics carried out in LAC are generally tied tium. This has been due to their relative leadership in terms to other IBRD projects or initiatives in the region. IBRD of innovation in data collection and the need to share their has provided assistance through Poverty Assessments, Non- experiences with other countries in the region. Lending Technical Assistance (financed with core knowl- edge funds or in most cases via Trust Funds), or in the case of Yucatán through a “fee-for-service” approach. Capacity Next steps building many times is in response to demand expressed during seminars and conferences or a perceived need for In the years ahead, the TSD will continue to support better statistics, as identified for example through an exist- client countries in the same three areas, with the aim of ing monitoring and evaluation project. A continuous en- strengthening its statistical capacity to improve monitor- gagement with the national statistics agencies in the region ing and evaluation. This will require aligning the institu- IBRD RESULTS 5 tional and technical capacity of national statistics agencies learn more with new demands and stricter standards and protocols. In addition, we will help our clients face two relatively MULTIMEDIA new and increasingly pressing challenges. The first is the need to work with national statistics institutes to build –– LAC Team for Statistical Development incentives to retain young graduates with strong technical http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTER- skills and often find more lucrative positions in the private NAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/EXTLACR sector. EGTOPPOVANA/0,,contentMDK:21239536 ~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSite Secondly, the recent economic crisis underscored the need PK:841175,00.html for more frequent and rapidly processed information on –– SEDLAC socio-economic conditions of households in order to de- http://www.depeco.econo.unlp.edu.ar/sedlac/eng/ sign appropriate crisis response programs. Nicaragua and Guatemala are exploring options to develop smaller and more agile annual surveys that combine household and employment data. Similarly, in 2010, SEDLAC will focus on expanding coverage to provide harmonized data from labor market surveys, which tend to be carried out more frequently than household surveys. Finally, IBRD (with assistance from the Spanish Trust Fund and other donors) is developing the “Listening to LAC” project (L2L). The aim of this project, which is just unfolding, is to use cell phones for self-administered surveys in order to collect real-time, panel data on life events. By collecting data in real time and skipping data entry steps such as the input of paper surveys into computer databases, L2L is expected to be able to generate panel data that can inform policymak- ers on current indicators, thus helping them to respond more quickly and effectively to trends. In addition, this data collection instrument will help policy makers assess the impact of their programs in real time, as well as to ob- serve evolving household coping mechanisms, related to migration, school attendance, employment patterns, nu- trition, etc.