Sweden's International Cooperation in Statistics

SWEDEN'S INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN STATISTICS

 

Prof. Thomas Polfeldt

Senior Statistical Advisor

Statistics Sweden

 

Paper presented at the International Symposium on Reforms, Achievements and Challenges: China and Its Partners in Statistical Cooperation, Beijing, May 11-13, 2004

 

by Prof. Thomas Polfeldt, International Consulting Office, Statistics Sweden

 

1. Introduction

 

Sweden's international cooperation in the area of official statistics is largely carried out through the International Consulting Office (ICO) of Statistics Sweden. The financing for these operations usually originates from a national or international donor organization. ICO can work with financing from any donor, though in practice, a major part of the funding comes from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. We are therefore well acquainted with the policies and goals of Sida. Section 2 of this paper attempts to summarize the deliberations underlying Sida's support for activities in the area of official statistics. The operations of ICO is the topic of section 3, and this section gives a comprehensive view of the facilities that Statistics Sweden can offer. In section 4, our cooperation with China - dating from 1983 and onwards - is described. Some concluding remarks are found in section 5.

 

 

2. Sida and support for statistics

 

The overriding goal of Swedish international development cooperation is to improve the standard of living of poor people. This is well in line with the international undertaking to halve the proportion of extremely poor people in the world by 2015. The cornerstones of Sida's work are constituted by the six sub-goals laid down by the Swedish Parliament and Government - to promote:

- economic growth

- economic and political independence

- economic and social equality

- democratic development

- sustainable use of natural resources

- equality between women and men.

 

Obviously, statistics have a very important role to play in the work to reduce poverty, and in all of these sub-goals. Access to reliable, valid and impartial statistics is a prerequisite for good planning and monitoring, as well as for a sound public debate, and Sida recognized this important role of statistics early on. Support for the development of official statistics has been provided since the 1970's, and through the ICO of Statistics Sweden since 1983. Initially, projects were focussed on the supply side, that is on the improvement of the production of statistics. After a period in the early 1990's of waning interest for support to statistics, perhaps more in the international arena than at Sida, statistics are now again in the focus for development assistance. A particularly important reason is that statistics are becoming much more demand-driven. In countries all over the world, policies and goals are now often formulated in the manner illustrated by the Millennium Development Goals, where a certain numerically specified level (e.g. of infant mortality) is set as a goal, to be reached within a specified time. Countries requesting debt reduction are required to provide plans, in numerical terms, for social and economic development, and to follow up these plans, in order to qualify for HIPC relief. The measurements that are needed to show how the development proceeds are mostly given by statistical data.

 

This new focus on the demand side also means that projects supporting the development of statistics now often include much larger components directed to the users of statistics, particularly line ministries.

 

 

3. Technical Cooperation with Statistics Sweden

 

3.1. General outline

The International Consulting Office (ICO) of Statistics Sweden is a part of the national statistical office of Sweden. The ICO administrates technical assistance, and the pool of consultants that can be used consists, in principle, of all persons employed at Statistics Sweden. Persons from outside Statistics Sweden may also be engaged. External funding must be found for each project.

 

3.2. About Statistics Sweden

Since almost all employees at Statistics Sweden are potential consultants, it will be of some interest to describe briefly how this institution is composed. It is a government agency with a staff of about 1,400 (in a country of just under 9 million inhabitants). Of these, 140 are interviewers, stationed all over the country; the others are about equally divided between two centres, in Stockholm and in the city of Oerebro in central Sweden. There are rather few employees on the level of assistants; most have an academic degree.

 

Statistics Sweden produces many kinds of statistics. The four subject matter departments are dealing with Labour and Education Statistics, Economic Statistics, Environment and Regional Statistics, and Population and Welfare Statistics. We produce about 430 publications per year, and since October 2002, all new publications are also immediately available on our website (www.scb.se). There are about 2.1 million visitors at our website annually.

 

 Since about 10 years, the Swedish statistical system is decentralized. The system is coordinated by Statistics Sweden. There are 24 other government agencies with a responsibility to produce statistics, and with corresponding funding from government. Many of them commission Statistics Sweden to produce the statistics for them, but they are free to do it themselves, or to engage some other producer. Of our annual budget of 110 million USD, about 50% comes directly from the government, while the rest is income from commissioned work – not least from some of the other government agencies for whom we produce statistics.

 

The vision of Statistics Sweden is simply and proudly "to be a world leader in the development, production and dissemination of statistics." Some areas where we consider ourselves to be strong are quality work, dissemination, international consultancy, use of data from administrative registers and sample surveys such as the Labour Force Survey, the CPI and the Survey of Living Conditions. Work is constantly under way to come closer to the goal expressed in the vision statement.

 

3.3. The International Consulting Office (ICO)

The ICO is a small office of 10 persons. We identify, plan, prepare and administrate technical assistance projects, and we cover all our costs from the projects we run. Some of us also work as consultants, though normally, the consultants are chosen from among those working in their respective fields of statistics. The obvious advantage of this model is that these persons are in the middle of the work in their field of specialization, in a modern and active statistical office, acquainted with the international developments in their field, and sometimes actively engaged in international development work, e.g. within the European Union or the OECD.

 

Statistics Sweden has been engaged in international consulting in the present form since 1983. We have worked in over 60 countries. Right now, we have about 10 persons stationed abroad as long term consultants (usually on 2 year contracts), and we carry out about 200 short term consultancies per year, mostly 2 – 4 weeks long. Many of our experts have a long history of working abroad, and it is a matter of course that all are prepared to be sensitive to the situation in the country they work, and to find solutions that are well adapted to the local conditions. In addition to long term and short term consultancies, study visits to Statistics Sweden, to other national or international bodies or to regional or international workshops are included in most of the projects.

 

One type of technical assistance that we feel is particularly well suited to what we can offer is so-called twinning. This refers to a comprehensive project of assistance, aimed at building the overall capacity and competence of the partner institution, making available the total experience of Statistics Sweden in all fields, on all levels. Twinning projects are usually long term, at least 3 years or more, and there is one or several resident long term advisers.

 

However, we are also running many other projects. They could focus on a particular area of statistics, or on anything related to the operations of a statistical office, such as IT, dissemination, construction of a master sample, management issues, training courses.

 

Twice a year, we produce a Newsletter, available on the website, where it is possible to follow what we are doing. It also includes an overview of published mission reports.

 

3.4. Financing, donors

There are usually three parties to a project of technical assistance – the agency requesting support, the technical consultant, and the financing agency. While we have some examples where a statistical office, or a country, has itself financed the assistance, there is usually a donor agency involved. The majority of our projects are funded by Sida, but we also run or have run projects funded by the World Bank, the IMF, the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and the European Union. Swedish funding is also channelled through UNDP. In the banks, there are Swedish trust funds that can be used, in addition to the wider funding alternatives that the banks provide. There are also various examples of cooperation between several donor agencies over a project.

 

3.5. Some recent trends in our projects

A component in our projects that has been gaining importance in later years is consideration of the entire statistical system of a country and the infrastructure of this system. In the statistical system, we include all the producers of statistics in a country, and also the major users, particularly government and research institutions. Our projects deal with the legal system for statistics; the harmonization of definitions, use of standard classifications, data collection and processing procedures; coordinated publication plans and procedures; improved access to data by local authorities; more frequent user contacts and user sensitising, and in some cases regular courses about the use of official statistics and about "statistical thinking". This feature is closely related to the growing use of evidence-based policymaking and monitoring which was referred to in connection with Sida's outlook. One aspect of this wider outlook is the organisation by ICO, with funding from Sida, of a course, "Statistics in Poverty Policies", directed to users of statistics.

 

The sustainability of the statistical offices is also becoming a part of some projects: aspects such as economic accounting within the organization, salary and promotion structures, competence development, various management issues are gaining importance. All of these may be governed by general government procedures. The first step, if these topics are included, is of course to see what can be done within the existing structure.

 

The link between auditing of government agencies and statistics is coming into focus, and there are discussions about international cooperation projects where Sweden's National Financial Management Authority and Statistics Sweden could work together.

 

4. Projects with China

The first contacts between Chinese authorities and Statistics Sweden over technical assistance date back to the early 1980's. Several Chinese delegations visited Statistics Sweden during 1983 - 1986. In October 1986, a project identification mission was carried out from Statistics Sweden to China, which resulted in a project for a Management and Information Planning System at the State Family Planning Commission. This project, which was funded by Sida, started in 1987 and concluded in 1994, after extensions. During part of this time, a long term expert was stationed in Beijing.

 

A second project concerning Gender statistics work in China 1998–2000 to monitor and evaluate the National Plan of Action for the Development of Women 1995–2000 was initiated in 1998 with funding from Sida. The counterpart was the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Among the results of this project is the booklet "Women and Men in China. Facts and Figures 1999" and a Chinese translation of the book "Engendering Statistics. A Tool for Change", published by Statistics Sweden. One of the conclusions of the project was that it would be useful to produce further gender indicators and fill other data gaps through new sample surveys, in particular a time use survey.

 

A new project supporting the work on a time use survey at NBS has been agreed on recently, and the first study tour to Statistics Sweden on this topic is due in the first half of June this year. The project foresees the preparation and realization of a pilot survey, most likely in at least one province of China, and the analysis of the results. Depending on the outcome, a possible extension of the project will be discussed and determined.

 

5. Conclusion

Statistical data are becoming more important, users more knowledgeable and demanding; and statistics and National Statistical Institutes are being more explicitly considered in a wider context which may be labelled the "statistical system".

 

For Swedish Sida, statistics is a fundamental tool for reaching the overall goals, and therefore its willingness to support statistical development is strong and growing.

 

Through long experience and continuing development in numerous projects, the International Consulting Office of Statistics Sweden is well prepared to discuss the requirements and design of technical assistance in a given situation, and to provide such assistance.