The role of international organizations in statistical standards setting and outreach: An overview of the UNCTAD contribution
1.Introduction
International and supra-national organisations are ideally suited to standards setting. This stems from their ability to convene experts, and through impartial mediation, facilitate debate and discussion, so that a consensus can be reached. In the realm of statistics, this collaborative model has led to the development of a range of long lasting and globally respected statistical frameworks, covering a range of issues from macro-economic, business and trade statistics, to labour force, health and culture and heritage statistics. Many of these frameworks are accompanied by methodological and implementation guidelines, again developed in collaboration with the best national and international experts, to help countries implement those standards.
The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was held in Geneva in 1964. Amid growing concerns regarding the space for developing countries to trade internationally and develop economic policy during the cold war, UNCTAD was established and institutionalized. Today, UNCTAD has 195 member states, and supports developing countries to access the benefits of a globalized economy more fairly and effectively. By providing analysis, facilitating consensus-building, and offering technical assistance, UNCTAD makes a modest but important contribution to the broader development agenda. This paper summarizes UNCTAD’s contribution to statistical standards setting and capacity development in recent years. In doing so, it attempts to highlight the necessity of cooperation and coordination between international organisations.
The UNCTAD statistical programme deals primarily with international trade, commodities, foreign direct investment, maritime and digital economy statistics, but a wide range of other socio-demographic and macro-economic statistics are also disseminated on the statistics portal UNCTADstat.11 A wide range of statistical reports, such as, the annual Handbook of Statistics22 and SDG Pulse,33 thematic reports, like the Development and Globalization: Facts and Figures,44 and bulletins, such as, the Commodity Prices,55Trade in Services,66 and the Global Merchandise and Services Trade Nowcast bulletin77 are published. A wide range of bespoke statistical tools and products are also developed routinely, such as, the Real Comparative Advantage Radar,88the productive capacity index99 or the composite index for inclusive growth compiled for the Eurasian Economic Union [1]. Statistical capacity development is an important aspect of work for UNCTAD statistics, where a range of global and bespoke programmes are implemented at the request of member states. Some of these reports, products and programmes are outlined in more detail in the following sections.
This paper is based on a presentation given to the International Statistics Institute World Statistics Congress 2021 Special Invited Paper Session 184 entitled ‘Effectiveness of the outreach of official statistics standards and guidelines, methodologies and recommendations to developing statistical systems.’ It examines the development of standards and also discusses how international organisations also provide capacity development, and some challenges therein, to help countries improve their capacity to achieve the best international standards. Again, it should be stressed this is done from an UNCTAD perspective – so while many of the examples provided are typical, and many of the points are universal, it is important to understand that the mandate, governing structures and context of each international organization is different. The paper will also highlight the importance of internationally agreed principles and quality standards in this journey. The paper will conclude by briefly examining the changing role of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA)1010 and the Committee for the Chief Statisticians of the United Nations System (CCS-UN),1111 and how a more active and strategic role can improve coordination and outreach.
2.The United Nations and international organizations
The United Nations (UN) and other international and supra-national organisations (IOs) bring the member states of the world together to advance sustainable development and strive for a better future for people and the planet. Many of the issues discussed are international or global in scope and therefore cannot be realized without effective cooperation and coordination between all member states and other key stakeholders. Thus, the UN and IOs use their convening power to bring together governments, businesses, civil society, academia and other international organizations to exchange experiences, identify best practices, develop global or regional standards, and promulgate implementation guidelines. Within the official statistics community, one of the best known, and long-standing fora is the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) convened every spring in New York. The UN World Data Forum is fast becoming another important conference for exchanging ideas. A variety of other official fora, including the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), UNECE’s Conference of European Statisticians (CES) and the International Monetary Fund’s Statistical Forum are complimented by a host of other society conferences, such as the International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress, and conferences and meetings hosted by the American Statistical Association, the IAOS or the Research Data Alliance.
Most of the international statistical standards, such as, the System of National Accounts [2], the International Merchandise Trade Statistics [3], the Balance of Payments Manual [4] or most recently the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting [5] have been endorsed by the UNSC. The UNSC, established in 1947,1212 is the highest body of the global statistical system bringing together the Chief Statisticians from member states around the world. It is the highest decision-making body for international statistical activities, responsible for setting of statistical standards and the development of concepts and methods, including their implementation at the national and international level.
UNCTAD has contributed to the development of many of these international standards and classifications. UNCTAD has also led some of these developments. For example, the designation of small island developing states (SIDS) as a special grouping was pioneered by UNCTAD in the 1970’s [6]. More recently, UNCTAD has played a leading role in developing several new conceptual frameworks and classifications, not least, illicit financial flows, gender-in-trade, or non-tariff measures (see Section 3).
3.New concepts and definitions
IOs play an important development role, conceptualizing new statistical frameworks and classification systems. This role was accelerated with the introduction of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as many of the targets were not supported by established or internationally agreed statistical standards [7]. As noted above, this work has been facilitated by their global convening power, bringing together renowned international, government, academic and civil society experts together to reach consensus on how to define and measure phenomena. In this section some case studies from UNCTAD are provided to illustrate how the UN and IOs work together to develop new statistical concepts to meet new or anticipate policy needs.
3.1Illicit financial flows
The joint publication of the Conceptual framework for the statistical measurement of illicit financial flows by UNCTAD and the UN Office for Drugs and Crime [8] was the culmination of three years of expert consultations that began in Vienna in 2017,1313 and subsequently involved expert working group meetings in Switzerland and Mexico, presentations to the ISI in Malaysia1414 and the Netherlands,1515 to the IAEG-SDG in Addis Ababa1616 and with the onset of Covid-19, webinars for African,1717,1818 Asian-Pacific1919 and Latin American2020 countries. This conceptual framework defines, for the purposes of measuring SDG target 16.4,2121 what illicit financial flows (IFFs) are, what activities are included and what mechanisms or channels facilitate IFFs. Importantly, it also explains how this framework integrates with other existing statistical frameworks, such as, the SNA 2008 and BoPM6. This last point is very important but perhaps not fully recognized or appreciated – the international statistical system aims to build a coherent and integrated measurement system, so that each framework is consistent with existing definitions, classifications and systems.
3.2Gender-in-trade
The conceptual framework on IFFs is a good example of how the UN and international organizations reacted quickly to develop a complex conceptual framework accompanied by practical measurement guidelines.2222 But IOs also proactively develop concepts and definitions, in consultation with countries, to continually develop official statistics. An illustration of forward-looking development is the conceptualization of Gender-in-Trade in Better Data and Statistics for Gender Responsive Trade Policy published by UNCTAD in 2018 [9]. This approach presented a new way of understanding and measuring the role of gender from an economic/trade perspective and helped countries to incorporate a gender dimension into their international trade agreements [10, 11]. Once a concept has been clearly articulated, it often appears obvious in retrospect, but at the beginning of the gender-in-trade discussions, it wasn’t at all obvious what it meant, what would be included or how it could be measured. The 2018 framework addressed those questions. A first analysis, using this conceptual framework, examining gender pay gaps in trading enterprises in Finland [12] provided a concrete example of why this concept was revealing.
3.3Non-tariff measures
Traditional trade policy has focused on the use and elimination of tariffs. However, trade experts have long understood that trade can be restricted in other ways using what are described as non-tariff measures or barriers (NTMs). With the reduction of tariffs globally, NTMs have become increasingly the central focus for market access concerns. Some barriers are directly trade related, such as, import quotas, import surcharges, anti-dumping measures. Other barriers, while linked with trade, are associated more with border controls, such as, labelling, packaging or sanitary standards. Public policy more broadly can also impact. For example. government procurement, investment restrictions or intellectual property rights can also be employed to restrict trade [13]. As noted above, countries can employ a wide range of NTMs. But prior to the development of a harmonized classification system, analyses on the impact of NTMs on trade was greatly hampered. This lacuna was addressed with the adoption of the International Classification of Non-tariff Measures [14] by the UN Statistical Commission in 2019. As the UN center for trade statistics, this work was published by UNCTAD but the classification was developed in close cooperation with several partners.2323 UNCTAD makes the resulting statistics available through the Trade Analysis and Information System (TRAINS) database.2424
4.Adding value
As IOs typically compile several global datasets, it allows the opportunity to add value to these data by linking datasets together, by subsetting them in particular ways or adding other classification or knowledge products that allow traditional data to be viewed in new ways or from new perspectives. They produce innovative analytical indices, reports and visualisations that help users to engage with and use statistical and data products. In this section some examples from UNCTAD are outlined to illustrate how the UN and IOs can add value to existing datasets by developing new datasets or data products.
4.1New datasets
In recent years, UNCTAD has begun developing a suite of new trade related datasets. Notably, Digital economy; Creative Economy; Trade-in-Plastics; Oceans Trade; Bio-Trade; and Transport Costs databases. Other databases, such as, a Healthy Foods Trade database are currently being considered by the WHO and UNCTAD. Some of these databases are still in production, whereas others such as, the Global Transport Cost for International Trade database was published in December 2020. This database was developed in cooperation with the World Bank to support evidence-based policymaking and research in the transport sector. This dataset, publicly available on UNCTADstat,2525 provides detailed product level data, disaggregated by imports and exports, quantity,2626 CIF, FOB, distance,2727 total costs, costs by FOB, costs per unit, costs per 10,000 Km, modes of transport and is accompanied by modern visualization tools.2828 Another example is the development of UNCTAD’s prototype Plastics Life-cycle Trade Flows database, that maps both the upstream and downstream sections of global traded plastics i.e. plastics production, consumption and waste. This database was developed in cooperation with Graduate Institute of Geneva by identifying and classifying products (using the HS – Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System) in the UN Comtrade database as plastics – see [15].
4.2Analyses and visualisation
Over the past 5 or 6 years, UNCTAD has reconfigured many statistical and data products to try and add value, to help users understand what is, sometimes, quite complex content. This reshaping includes a complete redesign of the annual Handbook of Statistics,2929 away from a dense telephone book style report, to a shorter, punchier style with a lot more analytical content. The paper report has now been supplemented by an interactive, online report.3030 Other products, such as the Development and Globalization: Facts and Figures3131,3232 and SDG Pulse3333 have similarly evolved into online, interactive tools that link analyses, infographics with the underlying datasets. A challenging topic to visualize as an interactive tool was the Revealed Comparative Advantage Radar3434 as the visualization had to include export data at detailed product level (SITC 3) and RCA scores for all 195 member states and spanning 25 years (1995–2020).
4.3Statistical products
In 2021, UNCTAD released a new multidimensional composite Productive Capacities Index3535(PCI) [16] to help developing countries understand the status and nature of their capacity development and identify areas where it could be improved. The launch of the index was accompanied by interactive visualisations and maps to provide country specific insights and diagnostics.3636 The index is especially useful for structurally weak and vulnerable economies, including least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) to create and maintain their productive capacities by guiding and informing policy interventions. This important policy tool underwent an extensive series of peer review by academic, statistical and technical experts to ensure the index itself and the conceptual framework was robust. The index is also supported by country specific capacity development to help their understand and also construct their own bespoke versions of the PCI.
5.Capacity development
IOs deliver capacity development all around the world, either focused on or targeting individual countries, regions or in some cases offering global programmes. In many cases, these development programmes are offered in partnership with several agencies together. In Section 6 some further discussion is presented on efforts to better coordinate capacity development by the UN and other IOs. This section provides some examples of capacity development delivered by UNCTAD and partners.
5.1Country: Egypt – SDGs financing strategy
One of the challenges facing many countries is determining how much finance is required to achieve the SDGs by 2030 beyond their current development financing flows. Answering this question, securing additional, predictable finance and mapping it to development objectives is not straightforward. UNCTAD, in cooperation with several other UN agencies,3737 are working in partnership with the Government of Egypt to develop a realistic financing strategy that will address their National Sustainable Development Agenda. The joint programme is expected to catalyze high level dialogues on key aspects of SDG financing in Egypt between the Government and the UN system involving other key stakeholders such as the international financial institutions and the private sector. The ‘Egypt SDGs financing strategy’ has the aim of answering three Egypt-specific questions: (1) how much will it cost to achieve key SDGs? (2) what are the current flows financing SDGs and how are they allocated? and (3) what opportunities exist to increase and better allocate financing flows towards SDGs?
Multiple approaches to costing are available for each of the SDG targets and indicators, each with its own merits and limitations. Data availability, national context and preferences play an important role in selection of specific costing approach. The UN’s costing offer for Egypt includes a mix of methodologies and options for costing. This is with a view to giving the primary stakeholder – the Government of Egypt, a menu of costing options. At the same time, alternate costing approaches, when adopted to similar SDG targets, will also allow for comparison of results. UNCTAD is leading the work to assess Egypt’s financial gaps by gathering Egypt’s investment data and adapting reliable methodologies to predict the cost of achieving the SDGs. This has been done, primarily using two approaches: (1) a cross sectoral approach where a Translog specification is used to quantify the cost of achieving 2030 targets. This approach incorporates multiple fiscal inputs (e.g. per capita expenditure by sector)3838 and their interactions. Projections using both ‘business as usual’ and optimal scenarios are being produced for the years 2021/2030/2040; (2) an approach based on UNCTAD’s global SDG investment gap analysis3939 but adapted to the specificities of Egypt’s circumstances and factoring in the likely impacts of COVID-19.4040 To help Egypt better assess leakages from their own domestic resource base, UNCTAD is also providing guidance and capacity development training on the measurement of illicit financial flows (see Section 3.1).
5.2Regional: Collaborative capacity development – measuring trade in services in West Africa
UNCTAD in partnership with the Statistical Commission of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) have developed a complete ‘cradle to grave’ system for the measurement of trade in services statistics in that region.4141 This was a deep-dive, comprehensive long-term project, that has run over the past 5 years. This project is scheduled to be completed this year – whether and how the final roll-out and training can be completed will depend on COVID-19 restrictions. This project involved statistical capacity building, including, developing harmonized enterprise questionnaires that all eight WAEMU countries will implement. These questionnaires were designed to align with the standards and definitions as set out in the UN Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services 2010 [20], provide data disaggregated by WTO mode, while at the same to minimize survey burden on responding enterprises. The questionnaire was rigorously tested with enterprises in west Africa before finalization. A common, generic, legal instrument was produced for the WAEMU region and countries to provide a sound legal basis to support the collection of the data. Each country can adapt this instrument and tailor it to their own national specificities. Finally, a modular IT survey system has designed, beginning with sample design and concluding with production of standardized reporting tables. Three distinct types of technical capacity development were delivered: (1) trade-in-services; (2) generic statistical training e.g. sample design, data cleaning, weighting and extrapolation etc; and (3) IT training e.g. how to install, operate, use and maintain the IT system.
5.3Global: Blended e-learning
UNCTAD in close cooperation with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) have developed two trade related blended, e-learning based courses: Statistics of International Trade in Services (TFITS) implemented in 2016; and International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) in 2018. UNCTAD applies the blended learning method recommended for United Nations capacity building programmes in technical cooperation projects [21]. Using ‘Distance learning’ allows UNCTAD to offer considerable flexibility in terms of communication and overcomes the barriers of geographical distance, allowing training to be developed to all corners of the world. The only limitation is the availability of Internet access. Offering facilitated, as opposed to self-paced, training, expert subject matter facilitators guide participants through the course material, answer questions, and provide real world examples. The proof is in the pudding. Between 2016 and 2021 more than 5,000 participants from almost 200 countries have benefitted from this training. Average satisfaction rates exceed 85% for both courses and perhaps more objectively, success rates (i.e. those passing the exams) hover around the 80% mark [22].
6.New and evolving roles
The Committee of Chief Statisticians of the UN System (CCS-UN) was established in September 2014 in accordance with Statistical Commission decision 45/112, to help coordinate statistical activities across the UN system. One of the first tasks set out by the CCS-UN was to establish a generic Statistical Quality Assurance Framework [23] to better define quality from a UN perspective. An important contribution of this work was to make a formal distinction between official national statistics and official international statistics. UNCTAD chaired the group that drafted this framework and was one of the UN entities to adopt it formally adopt it [24].
In 2020, the CCS-UN developed a ‘System-wide Road Map for Innovating United Nations Data and Statistics’ [25]. This roadmap is a subset of the wider ‘Secretary General’s “Data Strategy for Action by Everyone, Everywhere with Insight, Impact and Integrity”’ [26], set out 3 overall goals: Goal 1: Create new and timely data solutions; Goal 2: Address emerging policy needs; and Goal 3: Provide coordinated and innovative support to Member States. This roadmap is already leading to the development of a new UN data portal, the development of new data literacy courses in cooperation with the UN System Staff College (UNSSC), and the pioneering of new statistical techniques, such as nowcasting and using geospatial information. These developments were a new departure for the committee. UNCTAD played an active role in this work, contributing actively to the drafting of the roadmap and hosting the first CCS-UN sponsored workshop on nowcasting,4242 and chairing the group preparing the first joint UNSSC – CCS-UN ‘Data Savvy’ course.
COVID-19 acted as a catalyst for the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) to reinterpret their mandate. Central to this reinterpretation was a desire to be useful in a time of crisis. Very quickly, it became obvious that Covid-19 would have an impact on virtually all aspects of life. Consequently, no one UN entity or international organization could present the full breath of the impact. Therefore, 45 international organisations came together to produce, so far, 3 volumes of a new statistical report ‘How Covid-19 is changing the world: a statistical perspective’ [27, 28, 29] which presented the impact of the pandemic across a wide variety of statistical domains. UNCTAD project led the first edition of this report, which involved established report templates, agreeing licensing agreements and editing. For a fuller account of the history behind this report see – [30].
The CCSA has also played an important mediation role in recent years, liaising between the IAEG-SDG (who represent the national statistical systems of member states) and the international organisations. From time to time, tensions arise between national and international perspectives on the role of official statistics.4343 International organisations routinely work with member states to solve disagreements regarding the primacy of nationally submitted estimates (that may not fully adhere to international standards) over adjusted national estimates (to improve coherence with international standards and comparability). The SDG process, and the selection and compilation of SDG indicators, surfaced many such tensions. MacFeely [31] notes that many Member States appeared not to fully understand the distinction between national and international official statistics and the significance or purpose of having both. This misunderstanding extended beyond political circles and included also representatives from national statistical offices (NSOs). Confusion around this issue, and subsequent tensions became most acute during the discussions on formulating the ‘Guidelines on Data Flows and Global Data Reporting for Sustainable Development Goals’ document (IAEG-SDG, 2018). Kapto [32, p. 135] described the situation accurately, noting “A tense debate is taking place on data flows from national to regional to global levels, and on custodian agencies’ role in harmonising national data for global comparability, as countries assert their sovereignty over national data.” The CCSA, working closely with the IAEG-SDG have managed to smooth many of these tensions, facilitating a productive working environment and fostering greater trust between the two statistical communities.
7.Conclusions
The UN and other IOs play an important role in statistical standards setting and also outreach to countries and stakeholders to help adopt those standards. By convening experts and through impartial mediation, regional and global consensus is reached on how best to measure complex phenomena, including everything from globalization, climate change, inequality, wellbeing to drug smuggling or the digital economy. Through ever closer coordination, the UN and IOs, are delivering more targeted capacity development, helping NSOs and other agencies to implement these new or evolving standards.
UNCTAD has played a modest but important role in the developments outlined above. UNCTAD works closely with many partners to develop concepts and frameworks, and to achieve results in the field by helping to develop the capacity of NSOs. UNCTAD is also an active partner at the CCS-UN and CCSA, helping to push for better coordination across the multilateral system.
In recent years, the better coordination between all partner UN and IOs agencies, has led to a more coherent offer to member states. The achievements of both the CCS-UN and CCSA were presented to the UN Statistical Commission in 2021 [33, 34].
Notes
10 The CCSA was established 2002. It is comprised of international and supranational organizations, whose mandate includes the provision of international official statistics in the context of the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities, and which have a permanent embedded statistical service in their organization and regular contacts with countries. It was established to coordinate international statistical activities between international organisations.
11 The CCS-UNS was established 2014. It comprises the statistical services of United Nations funds and programmes, specialized agencies and the Secretariat, as well as the regional economic and social commissions, with mandates to provide international official statistics.
12 See in UN Economic and Social Council resolutions 8 (I) of 16 February 1946 and 8 (II) of 21 June 1946. Available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/documents/ecosoc-resolution-8(I).pdf and https://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/documents/ecosoc-resolution-8(II).pdf.
14 STS-570 Multinational profit shifting and illicit flows: Can we measure them? https://unctad.org/meeting/session-multinational-profit-shifting-and-illicit-flows-can-we-measure-them.
15 https://unctad.org/meeting/illicit-financial-flows-iffs-session-isi-world-statistics-congress-2021.
16 Tenth Meeting of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the Sustainable Development Goal Indicators https://unctad.org/meeting/ unctad-unodc-present-methodology-sdg-indicator-1641.
17 https://unctad.org/meeting/webinar-illicit-financial-flows-afri ca-can-we-track-them-better-policy.
21 SDG Indicator 16.4.1 – Total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows (in current USD).
22 https://unctad.org/system/files/non-official-document/202109 17_IFFsGuidelinesForPilots_en_0.pdf.
23 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; International Trade Centre; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; United Nations Industrial Development Organization; World Bank; World Trade Organization.
26 The unit of ‘quantity’ varies by the product traded, using the standard units recommended by the World Customs Organization, e.g. by weight in kilograms, by length in meters, by area in m2, by volume in m3 or by individual numbers in units.
27 Distance refers to the mode-specific distance between the exporting and importing country in kilometers, as average distance between major cities.
37 Coordinated by the UN Resident Coordinators Office (UNRCO) in Egypt UNCTAD, UNWOMEN, UNICEF, ILO and UNDP are working in partnership.
38 Such as, health, education, electricity, water and sanitation, information and communication, insurance and social protection accommodation and food services and other services.
40 As presented in Global Investment Trend Monitor [19].
41 For more detailed on this project and updates. Please see: https://unctad.org/project/uemoa-strengthening-statistics-internatio nal-trade-services.
42 Details, presentations and other resource materials from the 1
43 As a side note, the UN SQAF set out formally the distinction and roles of national and international official statistics for the first time.
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