Document of
The World Bank
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Report No: PP1943
Project Paper
ON A
PROPOSED SMALL RETF grant
In the AMOUNT OFUS$ 0.91 MILLION
FROM THE
ECASTAT: Program to Support Statistical Capacity Building in
Eastern Europe and CIS Countries
TO THE
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
FOR THE
Enhancing Coherence and Integration of Economic and Social Statistics in Support of the Implementation of 2008 SNA PROJECT
March 31, 2017
This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization.

CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS

(Exchange Rate Effective February28, 2017)

Currency Unit

SDR 1 / = / US$ 0.74

FISCAL YEAR

January 1 / – / December 31

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

2008 SNA / System of National Accounts, 2008
CIS-STAT / Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States
ECA / Europe and Central Asia
ECASTAT / Programmatic Multi-donor Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in ECA
EECCA / Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia
Eurostat / Statistical office of the European Union
GRS / Grievance Redress Service
ISWGNA / Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts
NSO / National Statistical Office
OECD / Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
PDO / Project Development Objective
ROSSTAT / Russian Federal State Statistics Service
SDG / Sustainable Development Goals
TFSCB / Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building
UNECE / United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
UNESCAP / United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
UNSC / United Nations Statistical Commission
UNSD / United Nations StatisticsDivision
WB / World Bank
Regional Vice President: / Paul M. Romer
Global Practice Senior Director: / Haishan Fu
Practice Manager: / Grant James Cameron
Task Team Leader: / Maurice Nsabimana

World

Enhancing Coherence and Integration of Economic and Social Statistics in Support of the Implementation of 2008 SNA (P157752)

TABLE OF Contents

Page

I.STRATEGIC CONTEXT

A.Country Context

B.Sectoral and Institutional Context

C.Higher Level Objectives to which the Project Contributes

II.PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

A.PDO

Project Beneficiaries

PDO Level Results Indicators

III.PROJECT DESCRIPTION

A.Project Components

B.Project Cost and Financing

IV.IMPLEMENTATION

A.Institutional and Implementation Arrangements

B.Results Monitoring and Evaluation

C.Sustainability

V.KEY RISKS AND MITIGATION MEASURES

VI.APPRAISAL SUMMARY

A.Other Safeguards Policies Triggered

B.World Bank Grievance Redress

DATA SHEET
World
Enhancing Coherence and Integration of Economic and Social Statistics in Support of the Implementation of 2008 SNA (P157752)
Small RETF Grant Project Paper
.
WORLD
0000000566
.
Basic Information
Date: / Sectors: / Public Administration, Law, and Justice - General public
administration sector
Country Director:Haishan Fu / Themes: / Economic management - Analysis of economic growth; Economic statistics, modeling and
Forecasting; Macroeconomic management
Practice Manager/Global Practice Senior Director: / Grant James Cameron / Haishan Fu / EA Category: / C - Not Required
Project ID:P157752
Instrument:Investment Project Financing
Team Leader(s):Maurice Nsabimana
.
Recipient: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Executing Agency: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Contact: / Carsten Boldsen / Title: / Chief, Economic Statistics Section, Statistics Division
Telephone No.: / 41-22-917-3370 / Email: /
.
Project Implementation Period: / Start Date: / 02-Jan-2017 / End Date: / 31-Dec-2020
Expected Effectiveness Date: / 01-Jan-2017
Expected Closing Date: / 30-Jun-2021
.
Project Financing Data(US$M)
Total Project Cost : 0.91 / Total Financing : 0.00
Financing Gap : 0.00
.
Financing Source / Amount(US$M)
Multi-Donor Programmatic Trust Fund to Support Statistical Capacity Building in Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States ("CIS") countries ("ECASTAT") / 0.91
Total / 0.91
.
Expected Disbursements (in USD Million)
Fiscal Year / 2017 / 2018 / 2019 / 2020
Annual / 0.23 / 0.23 / 0.23 / 0.23
Cumulative / 0.23 / 0.46 / 0.68 / 0.91
.
Project Development Objective(s)
The overall objective of the project is to increase statistical capacity in compiling national accounts and supporting statistics according to the recommendations of the 2008 SNA and other relevant international standards in the 12 EECCA countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan).
.
Components
Component Name / Cost (USD Millions)
Workshops/Expert Group Meetings on methodology and compilation techniques of the 2008 SNA / 0.23
Workshop/Expert Group Meetings on Price statistics / 0.14
Workshop/Expert Group Meeting on statistical business registers / 0.12
Technical assistance on expanding the use of household surveys for estimating the informal sector and remittances / 0.25
.
Compliance
Policy
Does the project depart from the CAS /CPS/CPF in content or in other significant respects? / Yes / [ ] / No / [ X ]
.
Does the project require any exceptions from Bank policies? / Yes / [ ] / No / [ X ]
Have these been approved by Bank management? / Yes / [ ] / No / [ X ]
Is approval for any policy exception sought from the Board? / Yes / [ ] / No / [ X ]
Does the project meet the Regional criteria for readiness for implementation? / Yes / [ X ] / No / [ ]
.
Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project / Yes / No
Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 / X
Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 / X
Forests OP/BP 4.36 / X
Pest Management OP 4.09 / X
Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 / X
Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 / X
Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 / X
Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 / X
Projects on International Waters OP/BP 7.50 / X
Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 / X
.
Legal Covenants
Name / Recurrent / Due Date / Frequency
Description of Covenant
.
Team Composition
Bank Staff
Name / Title / Specialization / Unit / UPI
Maurice Nsabimana / Statistician / DECDG / 000311366
Madhavan Balachandran / Sr Financial Management Specialist / Financial Management / GGO20 / 000200947
Nikolai Soubbotin / LeadCounsel / LEGCF / 000077725
Snezana B. Mitrovic / Adviser / GGO02 / 000021405
Benedicta T. Oliveros / Procurement Officer / Procurement / GGO03 / 000086930
Non Bank Staff
Name / Title / Office Phone / City
.
Locations
Country / First Administrative Division / Location / Planned / Actual / Comments
.

I.STRATEGIC CONTEXT

  1. Country Context
  1. At its 40th session in 2009 the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) supported the Global Implementation Strategy for the System of National Accounts, 2008 (2008 SNA) proposed by the Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA), and requested to pay particular attention to improving basic economic statistics and to the need for consistency and harmonization across sectoral statistics from other macroeconomic frameworks. The UNSC recognized the role of UN regional commissions in facilitating coordination and regional cooperation towards the implementation of 2008 SNA[1]. Following the decision of the UNSC, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) requested that regional commissions develop regional implementation plans and establish Steering Groups to guide and coordinate activities.
  2. On this background, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has actively been working to support the implementation of 2008 SNA and supporting official statistics in the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) since 2010.
  3. As a follow-up to the request of the UNSC, UNECE developed a regional plan for implementation of 2008 SNA in close cooperation with EECCA and South-East European countries. The regional implementation plan follows the global strategy adopted by the UNSC and includes a set of detailed recommendations for 2008 SNA implementation.
  4. The regional implementation plan has been discussed and agreed at special sessions in conjunction with the regular biennial Expert Group meetings on national accounts in Geneva, organized jointly with the statistical office of the European Union(Eurostat) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As part of the process, all participating countries have been asked to develop and periodically update national implementation.
  5. Sectoral and Institutional Context
  6. Coherent, timely and internationally comparable socio-economic statistics are crucial for the monitoring of social and economic progress of a country. Official statistics are essential tools for evidence-based policy making: They ensure transparency and accountability in the process of economic and social reforms, and enable decision makers to formulate policies and monitor and evaluate their deliveries. Over the last decade, national statistical offices of emerging economies in the EECCA region have made progress in producing reliable social and economic statistics. However, besides the necessity to migrate from the former SNA to the new standard (2008 SNA), recent global assessments of national statistical systems in the region identified outstanding issues where improvement is needed to enhance the coherence and exhaustiveness of important statistics supporting the compilation of national accounts. Furthermore, in some cases, available statistical information from traditional economic sources (e.g. business surveys) was not systematically cross-checked and validated with other reliable data sources like household budget surveys, migration statistics or administrative data, thereby missing the opportunity to improve the quality of national accounts aggregates.
  1. Higher Level Objectives to which the Project Contributes
  1. Not applicable.

II.PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

  1. PDO
  1. The project aims to strengthen the capacity of the 12 EECCA countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, jointly referred to as “Participating Countries”) in compiling national accounts and supporting statistics according to the recommendations of the 2008 SNA and other relevant international standards. Specific objectives include:

(a)Further developing and enhancing national plans for the implementation of the 2008 SNA and supporting statistics. Improved availability and quality of statistics in priority areas identified in the regional and national implementation plans;

(b)Improving the quality, comparability and consistency of price statistics for inflation measurement and for compiling national accounts aggregates at constant prices;

(c)Improving the quality and coverage of national statistical business registers;

(d)Improvingthe coverage and exhaustiveness of national accounts statistics by compiling statistics on the informal sector and remittances through extended use of household surveys.

Project Beneficiaries

  1. The expected immediate beneficiaries areexperts from national statistical offices/committees (NSOs) of the region and, where relevant, experts from other domestic agencies involved in the production of official economic statistics, such as ministries of finance and central banks from Participating Countries.

PDO Level Results Indicators

  1. The project outcome indicators are described in “Annex 1: Results Framework and Monitoring.”

III.PROJECT DESCRIPTION

  1. Project Components
  1. The proposed ECASTAT project will build on the activities and progress achieved so far in the work to support implementation of 2008 SNA and supporting economic statistics in Participating Countries.
  2. The project will have the following four key Grant funded activities, from 2017 to 2020:

(a)Carrying out workshops and expert group meetings on methodology and compilation techniques of the 2008 SNA aimed at further developing and enhancing national plans for the implementation of the 2008 SNA and supporting statistics to expand the availability and quality of statistics in priority areas identified in the regional and national implementation plans;

(b)Carrying out workshops and expert group meetings on price statistics aimed at improving the quality, comparability and consistency of price statistics for inflation measurement and for compiling national accounts aggregates at constant prices in Participating Countries;

(c)Carrying out workshops and expert group meetings, aimed at improving the quality and coverage of national statistical business registers in Participating Countries; and

(d)Developing training materials and manuals in both Russian and English, and providing technical assistance aimed at improving the coverage and exhaustiveness of national accounts statistics in Participating Countries by compiling statistics on the informal sector and remittances through extended use of household surveys.

  1. The project activities will involve participation of experts from Participating Countries in the regular biennial Expert Group meetings that UNECE are organizing in cooperation with other international organizations. This includes the Expert Groups on national accounts, consumer price indices and business registers. The Expert Groups discuss a wide range of methodological issues in the respective areas with focus on practical implementation of international standards and recommendations and sharing of best practices.
  1. Project Cost and Financing
  1. The table below sets forth the project cost, the amount to be financed out of the proceeds of the Grant, and the percentage of expenditures to be financed:

(in United States Dollars) / Project Cost / Grant Financing / % of
Expenditures to
be Financed
Training/Workshops, Consultants’ Services and Operating Costs / 912,000 / 912,000 / 100%

IV.IMPLEMENTATION

  1. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements
  1. This is a recipient-executed grant that will be implemented byUNECE through its Economic Statistics Section, located in the Statistics Division. UNECE works towards raising member countries’ capacity in official statistics by helping national statistical offices/committees and other stakeholders to coordinate their work and fill statistical gaps by developing common definitions, methods and practices, and promoting them across the UNECE region. UNECE has successfully managed related activities through the 2010-2012 Capacity Building Program on New Challenges in Economic Statistics in Central Asia and Eastern European Countries (TFSCB Grant No TF094148).
  1. UNECE will be responsible for liaising with the institutions of the 12 EECAA countries (depending on the country, National Offices/Committees for Statistics) to select national focal points for national accounts.
  1. Synergies with other ongoing projects, particularly UN Development Account initiatives to implement international recommendations and standards in prices, national accounts and indicators of the post-2015 Development Agenda, will be created in order to use efficiently and effectively the available human and financial resources.
  1. A Project Implementation Team will be created within the UNECE Statistical Division under the supervision of the Regional Adviser. In the framework of the project, the Implementation Team will ensure the overall organization of work and seek advice and expertise from the Steering Group on National Accounts, partner organizations in Participating Countries, and in particular from the WB, UNESCAP, the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (ROSSTAT) and the Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS-STAT).
  1. Results Monitoring and Evaluation
  1. Monitoring of the project and the budget will be provided by the Statistics Division/Economic Statistics Section of UNECE. UNECE will report on the progress and results of the project activities.
  1. Sustainability
  1. The project will build on existing UNECE programs to support the implementation of 2008 SNA and supporting statistics in the region, as well as the global assessments ofnational statistical systems. It will draw on established partnerships with national and international statistical agencies involved in statistical capacity building activities in the region, and in particular, depending on the modules, the World Bank (WB), UNESCAP, IMF, Eurostat, OECD, EFTA, ILO, ROSSTAT, CIS-STAT and other relevant multilateral and bilateral partner organizations.
  1. Moreover, UNECE will provide an in-kind contribution of approximately USD $346,000 that includes the staff time of professional staff and support staff, in addition to the cost of logistics, operating costs and equipment used. The project team is aware of complementary activities by CIS-Stat financed by the Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (Project ID: P151151), and will therefore ensure there are no overlaps between the proposed ECASTAT project and CIS-STAT’s project P151151.
  1. Thus the project will avoid overlap and duplications and build on synergies with existing and planned capacity building activities in Participating Countries. Coordination will be ensured through the UNECE Steering Group on National Accounts. To ensure the effective implementation of the project, activities will encourage the exchange of national good practices, undertake benchmark studies and stimulate the establishment of an active network of experts from Participating Countries.
  1. All activities, documentation and training materials will be provided in Russian and English.

V.KEY RISKS AND MITIGATION MEASURES

  1. There is negligible or low risk associated with the Grant financed activities, because UNECE - the implementing agency - has proven capacity in implementing similar activities and also has prior experience in managing World Bank grants.
  1. This project is demand driven, based on findings and recommendations provided in global assessment reports that were requested by national statistical offices of the EECCA countries. Most of these recommendations, and in particular the implementation of the new system of national accounts, have been incorporated in national strategies and master plans for the development of statistics. For two countries, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, no such global assessments have been requested and it is therefore possible that the project is not going to get full support from their governments and statistical authorities.
  1. In general, the capacity of national statistical offices/committees in Participating Countries is reasonable; however, in some countries of Central Asia it is rather low. The main risk lies in the high turnover of experienced staff mainly because of low salaries. This might cause delays and slow implementation of project activities. There is also the risk that important data providers for the compilation of the 2008 SNA such as the National Bank and the Ministry of Finance, decide in some countries not to participate in the project. Nevertheless, this risk seems to be minimal since the UNECE has already organized training seminars and workshops with the full and active participation of these important partners.
  1. In order to mitigate the risks, the objective of the project will be explained at the level of Directors/Chairpersons of the relevant national statistical offices/committees in the region. UNECE will address this message during high-level seminars organized in the framework of its regular activities and in the Conference of European Statisticians.UNECE will maintain close communication and collaboration with partner organizations in Participating Countriesand other agencies (WB, UNESCAP, ROSSTAT and CIS-STAT) in order to ensure the availability of their resource persons for workshops. No potential conflicts of interest are foreseen.

VI.APPRAISAL SUMMARY

  1. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of Participating Countries in compiling national accounts and supporting statistics according to the recommendations of the 2008 SNA and other relevant international standards. There is negligible or low risk associated with the Grant financed activities regarding financial management, procurement and safeguards issues. UNECE - the implementing agency - has proven capacity in implementing similar activities and also has prior experience in managing World Bank grants. UNECE will maintain close communication and collaboration with regional commissions and other UN offices in order to ensure the availability of their resource persons for workshops.
  1. The team confirms that all goods, non-consulting services and consulting services required for the Project and to be financed out of the proceeds of the Grant shall be procured using fit for purpose procurement arrangements and methods that are set out in the World Bank Procurement Regulations for Borrowers under Investment Project Financing dated July 1, 2016. In accordance with the Regulations, a Short Form Project Procurement Strategy for Development (PPSD) shall be prepared for the purpose of identifying the most appropriate procurement approach for the project. A Simplified Procurement Plan shall also be prepared for the Project based on the recommendations of the Procurement Strategy.
  1. OtherSafeguards Policies Triggered
  1. Classification of the project is as a Category C. As the project is focused on training activities, it will not have environmental or social impacts that trigger the Bank's safeguards policies.
  1. World Bank Grievance Redress
  1. Communities and individuals who believe that they are adversely affected by a World Bank (WB) supported project may submit complaints to existing project-level grievance redress mechanisms or the WB’s Grievance Redress Service (GRS). The GRS ensures that complaints received are promptly reviewed in order to address project-related concerns. Project affected communities and individuals may submit their complaint to the WB’s independent Inspection Panel which determines whether harm occurred, or could occur, as a result of WB non-compliance with its policies and procedures. Complaints may be submitted at any time after concerns have been brought directly to the World Bank's attention, and Bank Management has been given an opportunity to respond.For information on how to submit complaints to the World Bank’s corporate Grievance Redress Service (GRS), please visit information on how to submit complaints to the World Bank Inspection Panel, please visit

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