The
Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) and the
United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) are organising the conference, “New
approaches to capacity development for better data: How to scale up
innovation?”.
The conference, on 13 – 14 January at the OECD La Muette Conference Center in
Paris, France, introduces new approaches to capacity development in national
statistical systems and highlights the need for stronger institutions and
better innovations for making the data ecosystem serve all citizens.
It brings together representatives from national statistical offices,
development cooperation agencies, governments, and the private sector to share
their experiences of implementing new approaches towards statistical capacity
development. In particular, it seeks to answer the following questions:
• Why do we need new approaches to capacity development in data and statistics
and how do they contribute to transforming the NSSs?
• What kind of country experience do we have for implementing new approaches
and how can the new PARIS21 Guidelines best support this process?
• How can the new approaches help to better measure and monitor the SDGs and
contribute to the implementation of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for
Sustainable Development Data?
Key speakers include:
• Joshua Blumenstock (University of California, Berkeley)
• Alan Atkisson (Head of Department for Partnership & Innovation, Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency)
• Prof. Dr. Samuel Kobina Ammin (Government Statistician, Ghana Statistical
Service)
• Shaida Badiee (Managing Director, Open Data Watch)
• Carol Coy (Director, General Statistical Institute of Jamaica)
• Dr. Stephan Klingebiel (Head of Global Policy Programme, UN Development
Programme)
The conference builds on past UN World Data Forums (2017, 2018) and conferences
organised by PARIS21 and UNSD. The 2017 PARIS21 Annual Meeting spurred further
reflection on new approaches in capacity development and endorsed the creation
of a task team. The work of the task team was presented in a “Workshop on New
Approaches to Statistical Capacity Development” in Paris during December 2017.
In 2018, PARIS21 worked with the High-Level Group for Partnership, Coordination
and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development and UNSD to publish draft results of a survey on new approaches to
capacity development. The results were presented during the 49th Session of the
UN Statistical Commission (March 2018). Furthermore, PARIS21 introduced
mechanisms to measure statistical capacities at the 50th session of the UN
Statistical Commission (March 2019).