United Nations Statistical Commission

To coincide with the 48th United Nations Statistical Commission, PARIS21 is organising this side event which will explore the usefulness and feasibility of open frameworks as an integral part of NSS assessments. The event hopes to catalyse a collaborative effort that will help shape the open framework discussion and ultimately improve measurement and monitoring of statistical development while looking at the specific capacity needs and challenges of developing countries.

Objectives

The objective of this event is to review the practice of deploying NSS assessment frameworks in developing countries and to propose concrete actions that ultimately increase efficiency between partners and sustain co-operation for measuring statistical capacity. Presenters and discussants will attempt to answer the following questions:

• How can NSS assessments be characterised? What are the current practices in NSS assessments? What are the obstacles to sharing assessment methodologies?
• What are the reasons for the emergence of multiple assessment frameworks? How could an optimal situation be described? Advantages and disadvantage of an open framework?
• What are some of the areas that still need more attention? How will capacity assessments need to adapt to the new requirements of the SDGs?
• How can assessment questions be shared and used in an open framework? What is the advantage of an Open Assessment Repository? What are the risks?
• What concrete steps, responsibilities and timelines are needed in moving the agenda of open assessment frameworks forward?

Agenda

1.  1:15 - 1:20pm Welcome
   Johannes Jütting, Manager, PARIS21
2.  1:20 - 1:35pm Setting the scene: NSS assessments
   Mary Strode, PARIS21 Consultant
3.  1:35 - 1:40pm Creating an Open Assessment Repository
   Geoffrey Greenwell, Technical Programme Co-ordinator, PARIS21
4.  1:40 - 2:10pm Roundtable Discussion
   Moderator:
   El Iza Mohamedou, Deputy-Manager, PARIS21
   Speakers: (TBC)
   Aboubacar Beye, Director, Agence Nationale de Statistique et de la Démographie, Senegal (TBC)
   David Vera, Executive Director, INEC Ecuador
   Pieter Everaers, Director, International Cooperation, EUROSTAT
   Grant Cameron, Manager, International Statistical Programs, World Bank
   José Antonio Meijia-Guerra, Inter-American Development Bank
   Oliver Chinganya, Director of the African Centre for Statistics at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
5.  2:10 - 2:25pm Audience Participation
6.  2:25 - 2:30pm Closing
   Johannes Jütting, Manager, PARIS21