Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

MDG Statistical Programme

Activities conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projection Division of ECLAC to asses national versus international MDG monitoring

Prepared for the IAEG Meeting on MDG Indicators

Geneva, December 2010

Introduction

ECLAC -with the support of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA)- has been working different aspects of the Millennium Development Goals, monitoring its indicators for the LAC region, technically assisting its member countries in monitoring and reporting, and developing methodological approaches specific for LAC countries monitoring needs.

This work has been carried out under ECLAC’s MDG Statistical Programme (www.cepal.org/mdg), conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projections Division. The main objective of the Programme is to increase the availability of reliable and good quality statistical information for monitoring country progress towards the fulfillment of the MDGs. Main lines of action include:

§  Capacity-building activities aimed at strengthening MDG monitoring capacities trough regional meetings, seminars and workshops to discuss specific issues on MDG monitoring with players at the national, regional and global level;

§  Development of an MDG regional statistical community (along with NSOs, sectoral ministries, agencies responsible for MDG in the countries, and regional and international agencies for improving coordination en MDG data production and dissemination;

§  Studies on detailed examination of the factors that explain statistical discrepancies between national and international agencies.

As part of this work, ECLAC has produced a detailed diagnosis of data gaps and discrepancies in the values of the MDG indicators between international and national official sources, and has created social ties with the NSOs and the sectoral ministries in charge of the preparation of MDG national reports.

In the following pages, the studies and publication conducted to asses national versus international MDG monitoring are briefly described. Seminars and workshops have also been listed.

Studies and Publications

Activities conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projections Division to assess national versus international MDG monitoring / UN-ECLAC
1 / Title of the study/project
Assessing discrepancies between the values of MDG indicators reported by national official sources and international agencies / 1/2006
2 / Financing
Activity undertaken under the Project: “Strengthening the capacity of Latin American and Caribbean countries to monitor the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, 2005-2007” supported by the Development Account.
3 / Summary
This study analyses data from 32 National Reports covering the status of achievement of MDGs, which were available in Latin America as of September 2006 (including the joint report for the Caribbean), and the indicators contained in the official UN MDG database. It identifies the magnitude of data gaps and the inconsistencies between indicators values from the two different sources.
4 / Papers produced
-  Cecchini, Simone; Azócar Irene (2007). “Indicadores de los objetivos de desarrollo del Milenio en América Latina y el Caribe: una comparación entre datos nacionales e internacionales”. Serie estudios estadísticos y prospectivos N53. Julio 2007, Santiago de Chile, CEPAL.
5 / Website
-  http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/publicaciones/xml/2/29282/P29282.xml&xsl=/deype/tpl/p9f.xsl&base=/mdg/tpl/top-bottom.xslt
-  www.eclac.cl/mdg
Activities conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projections Division to assess national versus international MDG monitoring / UN-ECLAC
1 / Title of the study/project
Diagnosis update of discrepancies between the values of MDG indicators reported by national official sources and international agencies / 2/2007
2 / Financing
Activity undertaken under the Project: “Strengthening the capacity of Latin American and Caribbean countries to monitor the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, 2005-2007” supported by the Development Account. The Inter-American Development Bank also contributed funds for this study.
3 / Summary
During 2007 ECLAC updated the diagnosis on MDG discrepancies, including additional national reports as well as all up to date indicators in the official Millennium Indicators database in order to focus on establishing the causing factors that explain missing data and discrepancies in MDG indicators.
4 / Papers produced
-  Azocar, Irene; Quiroga, Rayén (2007). “Calculando indicadores ODM en países de América Latina y el Caribe: Vacíos y discrepancias estadísticas entre fuentes nacionales e internacionales”. Paper for discusión presented at the Regional Seminar: “Institutional and Statistical Challenges for the Monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals in Latin American and Caribbean Countries” organized by ECLAC, IADB and DANE (Colombia), held in Bogotá, 27 - 28 November 2007.
5 / Website
-  www.eclac.cl/mdg
-  http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/MDG/noticias/noticias/7/30377/P30377.xml&xsl=/MDG/tpl/p1f.xsl&base=/MDG/tpl/top-bottom.xsl
Activities conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projections Division to assess national versus international MDG monitoring / UN-ECLAC
1 / Title of the study/project
MDG Conciliation Pilot Study / 3/2008
2 / Financing
Activity undertaken with the financial contribution of the Inter-American Development Bank trough the project “Improvement of Statistics for Measuring Living Conditions” under the Regional Public Goods Program.
3 / Summary
This study analysis methodological issues and institutional arrangements of nineteen MDG indicators produced by five countries of the region, cross-checking the information with the data provided by the international agencies in charge of collecting and disseminating these indicators. Methodology records and Institutional co-ordination records were sent to the countries to be completed by the NSO or by the corresponding entity to which the requirement was referred. Concurrently, methodology and institutional co-ordination records were sent to the specialized International agencies (9) for each of the official indicators upon which they collect data. Three different sources of information were contrasted for a period of three years (1990, 2000, 2007): UN Millennium indicators official database, MDG national reports, and the official data provided by the NSO in each country. A first proposal is then formulated for reducing differences among indicators values from different sources, based on preliminary findings and on a detailed ordering of factors explaining the statistical discrepancies in national and international agencies.
4 / Papers produced
-  Quiroga, Rayén; Stockins, Pauline (2008). “Towards a regional strategy for statistical conciliation of MDGs for Latin America and the Caribbean”. Santiago, ECLAC. Paper for discussion presented at the Regional Seminar “Towards a Regional Strategy of MDG Statistical Conciliation for Latin America and the Caribbean”, 20 and 21 October, 2008, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
-  2008. “Towards improving MDG reporting: assessment of data discrepancies between national and international sources and possible solutions”. An interregional document prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).
5 / Website
-  http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/MDG/noticias/paginas/1/34331/P34331.xml&xsl=/MDG/tpl/p18f.xsl&base=/MDG/tpl/top-bottom.xsl
-  www.eclac.cl/mdg
UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean -ECLAC.
Activities conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projections Division to assess national versus international MDG monitoring
1 / Title of the study/project
Diagnosis update of discrepancies between the values of MDG indicators reported by national official sources and international agencies and proposal of a working agenda aiming to achieve statistical conciliation in MDG indicator in the LAC countries. / 4/2009
2
Activity undertaken with the financial contribution of the Inter-American Development Bank trough the project “Improvement of Statistics for Measuring Living Conditions” under the Regional Public Goods Program.
3 / Summary
Aiming at knowing the progress made by countries and international agencies in reducing MDG data gaps and improving statistical comparison between national and international sources, a new study was undertaken during 2009. The Millennium Official database was reevaluated including data updated at July 2008, contrasting these data with the one informed in national reports released after 2007. The study included seven Latin American countries with different statistical capacities, which allowed having a broad evolution of the phenomena. This work also focused on proposing a preliminary agenda of action conceived to make possible that both, countries and agencies, make progress in terms of statistical convergence. The results help establishing future regional benchmarks of best practices in the production of statistics for MDG indicators in the region.
4 / Papers produced
-  Quiroga, Rayén; Stockins, Pauline; Azocar, Irene (2010). “Vacíos y discrepancias estadísticas en los indicadores ODM: hacia una estrategia regional de conciliación estadística para América Latina y el Caribe”. Serie estudios estadísticos y prospectivos N70. Abril 2010, Santiago de Chile, CEPAL.
5 / Website
-  www.eclac.cl/mdg
-  http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/publicaciones/xml/8/38288/P38288.xml&xsl=/deype/tpl/p9f.xsl&base=/tpl/top-bottom.xslt
UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean -ECLAC.
Activities conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projections Division to assess national versus international MDG monitoring
1 / Title of the study/project
Evaluating Good Practices in MDG statistical conciliation / 5/2009
2
Activity undertaken with the financial contribution of the Inter-American Development Bank trough the project “Improvement of Statistics for Measuring Living Conditions” under the Regional Public Goods Program.
3 / Summary
This study identifies good practices at national level aiming at improving MDG data quality, availability and reporting, and facilitating comparability of statistical data between among different sources. The selected practices comprise: Institutional Coordination Mechanism for the production of the MDG national reports; Production and publication of MDG indicators metadata; Diffusion of MDG indicators and methodological information trough ICT; National adaption of MDG indicators; Sub national report and publication of MDG indicators.
4 / Papers produced
Stockins, Pauline (2009). “Buenas Prácticas en materia de conciliación estadística”. Paper for Discussion presented at the Regional Seminar “Avances y desafíos en materia de conciliación estadística de los ODM en los países de América Latina”, 5 and 6 November, 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean -ECLAC.
Activities conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projections Division to assess national versus international MDG monitoring
1 / Title of the study/project
Conciliation mechanism intended to reduce differences in MDG indicators values among different sources. Basic framework and thematic approach / 6/2009
2
This activity was undertaken with the financial contribution of the Inter-American Development Bank trough the project “Improvement of Statistics for Measuring Living Conditions” under the Regional Public Goods Program.
3 / Summary
This study establishes a general framework for understanding the types of statistical discrepancies in MDG indicators values among different MDG sources and proposes a thematic approach to face up conciliation mechanism. The need of specialization derives from the different causes that explain the discrepancies between the indicators values, and is related to the heterogeneity of the statistical development in each of the thematic areas involved in the MDGs. That’s way the proposed strategy requires the development of a set of different action according to the area of work involved, even some times according to the indicator that is been treated. This in correspondence with the actors that take part of the indicators production and use, at the international, regional or national level. Undertaken the problematic by specific thematic areas can also facilitate the exchange and discussion in each MDG field, making it possible to build the necessary synergies for countries and specialized agencies to be able to design mechanism that face up the challenges y search for solutions regarding their human and financial resources.
Conciliation mechanism have been proposed in two specific thematic subjects: MDG2 indicator and MDG4 indicators.
4 / Papers produced
-  Stockins, Pauline; Taccari, Daniel (2009). “Tipologías de Discrepancias y Medidas de Conciliación Estadística de los indicadores ODM según áreas temáticas seleccionadas: Marco general”. CEPAL.
-  Bay, Guiomar (2009). “Algunas consideraciones respecto de las tipologías de discrepancias y medidas de conciliación estadística para los indicadores de mortalidad en la niñez de los ODM”. This study was conducted by the Population and Development Division (CELADE), with the support of the Statistics and Economic Projections Division of ECLAC.
-  Taccari, Daniel (2009). “Tipologías de Discrepancias y Medidas de Conciliación Estadística de los indicadores ODM según áreas temáticas seleccionadas: Educación”. CEPAL.
These papers were presented for discussion at the Regional Seminar “Avances y desafíos en materia de conciliación estadística de los ODM en los países de América Latina”, 5 and 6 November, 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
5 / Website
-  www.eclac.cl/mdg
-  http://www.cepal.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/MDG/noticias/paginas/9/37369/P37369.xml&xsl=/MDG/tpl/p18f.xsl&base=/MDG/tpl/top-bottom.xsl
UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean -ECLAC.
Activities conducted by the Statistics and Economic Projections Division to assess national versus international MDG monitoring
1 / Title of the study/project
Strengthening statistical and inter-institutional capacities for monitoring the Millennium Development Goals through interregional cooperation and knowledge-sharing / 7/2010-2011
2
ECLAC, in collaboration with the other four UN regional commissions: ESCAP, ECA, ECE and ESCWA will start the implementation of the project: “Strengthening statistical and inter-institutional capacities for monitoring the Millennium Development Goals through interregional cooperation and knowledge-sharing”
The general objective of the project is to have more up-to-date and comparable MDG data at the national, regional and global levels, improving statistical capacities and institutional coordination to invigorate the production of Millennium Development Goal indicators, decreasing statistical discrepancies between national, regional and global sources on the Millennium Development Goal indicators, and strengthening regional MDG networks.

Seminars and Workshops

/ Activity / Organizer / Location and date / Participants and Target countries / International Agencies invited /
1 / Taller regional
“Las Oficinas Nacionales de Estadística frente a los
ODM”. / Statistics and Economic Projections Division, ECLAC in collaboration with the NSO of Dominican Republic / Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
18 -20 May, 2005 / Countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives of National Statistical Offices.
18 countries and 64 participants. / -  IADB
-  UNDP
-  UNICEF
-  World Bank
2 / Seminario Regional
“Las Oficinas Nacionales de Estadística frente a los ODM: Una Nueva Evaluación”. / Statistics and Economic Projections Division, ECLAC / Santiago, Chile
9 -10 November, 2006 / Countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives of National Statistical Offices and Ministries of Planning.
17 countries and 42 participants. / -  Division for Gender Affairs, ECLAC
-  Social Development Division, ECLAC
-  ILPES, ECLAC
-  UNESCO
3 / Seminario Regional
“Desafíos estadísticos e institucionales para el monitoreo de los ODM en los países de America latina y el Caribe”. / Statistics and Economic Projections Division, ECLAC in collaboration with the NSO of Colombia / Bogotá, Colombia, 27 -28 November, 2007 / Countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives of National Statistical Offices and Ministries of Planning. 26 countries and 46 participants. / -  ECLAC Port of Spain
-  ILO (Regional Office)
-  PNUMA-UNEP
-  UNICEF
-  UNIFEM
4 / Seminario Regional
“Hacia una Estrategia Regional de Conciliación Estadística para el monitoreo de los ODM en los países de América Latina y el Caribe”. / Statistics and Economic Projections Division, ECLAC in collaboration with the NSO of Dominican Republic / Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
20 - 21 October, 2008 / Countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives of National Statistical Offices and Ministries of Planning. 20 countries and 59 participants. / -  ECLAC Port of Spain
-  ILO (regional)
-  PNUMA – UNEP
-  UNESCO
-  WHO
5 / Seminario Regional
“Avances y desafíos en materia de conciliación estadística de los ODM en los países de América Latina”. / Statistics and Economic Projections Division, ECLAC in collaboration with the NSO of Argentina (INDEC) / Buenos Aires, Argentina, 5 y 6 de November, 2009 / Countries from Latin America. Representatives of National Statistical Offices and Ministries of Planning. 15 countries and 79 participants. / -  CELADE – ECLAC
-  ECLAC Port of Spain
-  FAO
-  ILO
PAHO
6 / Taller Regional
“Prácticas para mejorar la calidad de datos de mortalidad y armonización de indicadores del Milenio 4 y 5: dos foros de discusión” / PAHO in collaboration with the Statistics and Economic Projections Division of ECLAC / Lima, Perú, 28 - 29 April, 2010 / Countries from Latin America. Representatives of National Statistical Offices and Ministries of Health / -  PAHO
7 / Taller Regional
“Sexto Taller Regional sobre la medición de la Sociedad de la Información” / OSILAC in collaboration with the Statistics and Economic Projections Division of ECLAC / Montevideo, Uruguay, 21-23 September, 2010 / Countries from Latin America. Representatives of National Statistical Offices and Ministries of Telecommunications / -  ITU

6