Fourth Meeting of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians

7:00 am - 7:05 am

Session 1| Opening remarks

• Mr. Stefan Schweinfest, Director of United Nations Statistics Division

7:05 am - 7:10 am

Session 2| Objectives of the meeting

• Aishath Shahuda, Co-Chair of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians and Deputy Chief Statistician Maldives Bureau of Statistics

7:10 am - 7:45 am

Session 3| Measuring Informal Economy in Guatemala

The informal economy is a crucial economic driver in the regions, with digitalization transforming it by leaps and bounds. Leveraging the technological underpinnings (big data generated) of this transformation to measure e-commerce activities in the informal economy, is of great importance to the regions.

• Presentation: Measurement of the informal sector
• Presenter: Stefani María Villeda Guerra, Economic Analyst, Department of Macroeconomic Statistics, Bank of Guatemala

Discussion (15 minutes)

7:45 am - 8:20 am

Session 4| Overview of Outcomes of the Beyond GDP Sprint 2023 and Proposed Next Steps

This session will run through the key issues which emerged from the Beyond GDP Sprint 2023, and outline the Network's recommendations, including the formation of a multi-disciplinary group comprising of experts from the social and demographic statistics, national accounts, environmental-economic accounting, environment statistics and geospatial communities, academia and, where appropriate, the private sector, to explore how to take forward the recommendations.

• Presentation: Progress of the Network of Economic Statisticians on Beyond GDP
• Presenter: Richard Heys, UK ONS and Ivo Havinga, Consultant

Discussion (15 minutes)

8:20 am - 8:55 am

Session 5| Discussion on proposed topics for further work by the Network

This session will provide participants with an opportunity to provide comments on two proposals of work that the Network would like to pursue in the coming year. Mr. Hadi Susanto will briefly speak about the idea of exploring, in collaboration with the Data Science Leaders Network, the potential of employing AI in statistical work. Mr. André Loranger will put forth the proposal to organize some events that will allow national statistical offices to share their ideas on successful data strategies. This idea has emerged from a recent Network Informal meeting where participants showed interest in learning more about each other's experience in this area.

These short introductions of the proposals will be followed by a fulsome discussion with Network members, to seek their comments and suggestions on whether the Network should pursue the work and if so, in what way.

• Presentation: Proposals for new UNNES topics/sprints
• Presenter: André Loranger, Statistics Canada and Co-Chair of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians

• Presentation: Improving the Network's Communication and Outreach Activities
• Presenter: Hadi Susanto, Statistics Indonesia

8:55 am - 9:00 am

Session 6| Concluding remarks

• Aishath Shahuda, Co-Chair of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians and Deputy Chief Statistician Maldives Bureau of Statistics