Description: Background and rationale National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and other entities comprising national statistical systems in the Asia-Pacific region are facing ever-increasing demand for statistical products that are timely, frequent, granular, and accurate. The continuous improvement of statistical business processes, including through standardization and automation, is imperative to keep up with this demand while assuring that quality standards are being met. This requires the deployment of IT tools that can be used for a wide range of these processes, are cost effective, and are widely accepted and supported. In R, NSOs in many countries are converging on a programming language and software environment that meets these criteria. Designed for statistical analysis, reporting and visualization, R is a powerful tool for data analysis. R and specific packages developed for it cover many of the processes schematized in the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM).1, 2 R is open-source, which not only makes it free, but also makes it a solution that facilitates sharing and collaboration. And R is used by a worldwide community of an ever-increasing number of users, not only in official statistics, but also in academia, business, and other branches of government. Programme Concept note Objective The objective of the workshop was to strengthen and/or build (whatever the case may be) the capacity of participants in applying R and the packages developed for statistical business processes at their organizations. Specifically, the participants were expected to: Use R and RStudio and gain a sound foundation from which they can continue to learn within their organizations Learn about some commonly used R packages Explore examples of how R can be applied to official statistics Gain an understanding of how business processes for the production and dissemination of statistics can be structured, as reflected in the GSBPM
Description: The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (UNSIAP), in collaboration with the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) are organizing a Regional Training Workshop on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) for the Asia Pacific region. The workshop will be held in Manila, Philippines from 5 to 8 June 2023 and will be conducted in English. The workshop is an opportunity for participants to increase their technical knowledge of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) through exercises, country examples and discussions focusing on ecosystem extent, condition, and services accounts. Participants will learn about the policy relevance of ecosystem accounts and how SEEA EA can support measuring progress towards achieving the targets of national policies and international agreements including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement. Institutional mechanisms, data sources and modelling tools will also be introduced. For additional information on the workshop, please see the concept note and provisional agenda.
Organizer(s): UNWTO Department of Tourism Philippines
Description: Measuring the sustainability of tourism (MST) aims to bring to all countries in the world a common framework to measure the impacts and dependencies of tourism on the economy, society and the environment. This is essential to better understand the role of tourism in sustainable development and to pragmatically monitor progress, especially in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals. With new situations emerging from the unprecedented covid-19 pandemic, tourism restarts with sustainability as the new normal. Being able to properly measure the sustainability of the tourism sector for monitoring relevant policies has become crucial. In the meantime, the tourism industry have shown an increased commitment to implementing sustainability concepts and measures in recent years. These underline the need for the development of the MST. Therefore, UNWTO jointly organizes the UNWTO Asia-Pacific Workshop on Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism with the Department of Tourism of the Philippines. This event is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.
