United Nations Statistical Commission
Overview 53rd Session (2022) Side Events
Concept Note
Following the moderation of an extensive consultation on the future of economic statistics by the Friends of the Chair (FOC) Group on Economic Statistics from 2019 to 2021, the UNSC established the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians (Network) in 2021. The Network has been charged with:
- Promoting the networking of the economic statistical system to coordinate statistical programs and identify and leverage good practices.
- Enabling the global statistical system and thereby facilitate the regional and national statistical systems to pivot in producing integrated socio-economic, environmental, and geospatial data and statistics.
- Facilitating global partnership with academia and private sector in co-investment and co-production for shared and trusted use cases.
- Promoting the experimentation and testing of inclusive working methods, data solutions and methodological frameworks with the objective of leaving no one behind.
The Network functions by carrying out thematic sprints which provide the opportunity to explore statistical issues of priority and formulate next steps towards solutions.
The event will consist of two main interactive segments and a concluding session:
Programme
- the completed Organizational Sprint presenting its purpose and expected contribution to the ecosystem of committees and groups, working and collaborative arrangements, membership, user consultations, and programme of work for 2022
- the ongoing Data Access Sprint on global facilitation of data access to privately held data for which a dialogue has been initiated on supply chains and value chains with representatives from statistical agencies of countries, regional, and international agencies, and selected multinational companies to establish an initial inventory of national, regional, and international initiatives and identify areas of co-production and co-investment in innovative methods and data solutions
- the upcoming Beyond GDP Sprint that will run in the Spring of 2022 and consider the measurement of modern capitals, distributional accounts and extensions, and the extensions to population, society, and wellbeing aspects in support of broader measures of progress, wellbeing, and sustainability
An introduction of the past, present and future activities of the Network will be provided covering:
Mr. Greg Peterson, Statistics Canada and Co-chair of the UN Network of Economic StatisticiansMr. Rob van Kan, Statistics Netherlands, and Lead of Data Access Sprint
Mr. Erich Strassner, US Bureau of Economic Analysis and Mr. Richard Heys, UK Office of National Statistics, Co-leads of Beyond GDP Sprint
A panel of experts will discuss how the Network can contribute to finding new methods, data solutions, working methods, and partnerships for some of the key issues and challenges facing the statistical system. Topics covered will be: facilitating access to privately held data, enabling the sharing of knowledge across national statistical systems (develop once use many times), consensus building around the development of definitions and frameworks for measuring sustainable development, the digital economy, and other emergent themes.
Moderator:Mr. Stefan Schweinfest, Director, United Nations Statistics Division
Panel of members of the Network:
Ms. Jacqui Vitas, General Manager, Macroeconomic Statistics Division, Australian Bureau of Statistics
Mr. Juan Daniel Oviedo, Director General, National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), Colombia
Ms. Aishath Shahuda, Deputy Chief Statistician, Maldives National Bureau of Statistics, and Co-Chair of the UN Network of Economic Statisticians
Mr. Dominik Rozkrut, President, Statistics Poland
Mr. Mohammad Hassan, Executive Director, Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority of the United Arab Emirates
Mr. Stefan Schweinfest, Director, United Nations Statistics Division
Mr. Greg Peterson, Assistant Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada, and Co-chair of UN Network of Economic Statisticians