Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 110

PART 2 FAO FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE IN ACTION Externally, FAO is pursuing improvements in several dimensions of qualit y with RFBs under the umbrella of the Coordinating Working Part y on Fisher y Statistics (CWP) (FAO, 2017i), an international governance body for fisher y statistical standards for which FAO provides the secretariat. Since 1960, CWP members have worked together in developing standard statistical concepts and international classifications, with the aim to ensure coherence and eventually enable consistent regional and global fisheries statistics. Internally, FAO has engaged in a major effort to develop an Organization-wide statistical quality assurance framework, in which quality is defined as the degree to which its statistical outputs fulfil requirements in the following dimensions of quality: relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness and punctuality, coherence, accessibility and clarity. As a baseline, FAO collects data reported by Members through standard questionnaires, collates them and processes them, ensuring application of agreed standards and estimating missing data where necessary. FAO has established a series of mechanisms to ensure that the best available information is submitted, revised and validated, either directly or indirectly (e.g. using consumption surveys or satellite images). Improving fisheries dataset quality has historically meant applying a number of best practices, including: „ „ ensuring the highest possible rate of response by countries through collaboration with national offices whenever possible; „ „ improving the level of species breakdown (the number of taxa reported doubled between 1996 and 2016); „ „ prioritizing the best source of statistical information, including external sources where necessar y; „ „ ensuring consistency through backward revision of catch trends when improvements in national data collection systems result in abrupt changes in reported time series (Garibaldi, 2012); „ „ checking overall consistency across multiple datasets through supply utilization accounts; „ „ fostering use and feedback by increasing the diversit y and accessibilit y of dissemination channels (for example, online quer y panels, the FAO Yearbook of Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics and FishStatJ software, which provides access to a variet y of fisher y statistical datasets) (FAO, 2018a). An example of improvement regards streamlining of arrangements for improving consistency, reducing discrepancies among published global and regional datasets and reducing the reporting burden for countries. Such arrangements include the STATLANT standardized questionnaires (since the 1970s) and formal agreements between FAO and other CWP member organizations such as Eurostat (since the 1980s), tuna RFMOs (since the late 1990s) and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) (since 2007). Further work is now being conducted to expand such agreements to other institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and additional RFBs (e.g. Regional Fisheries Committee for the Gulf of Guinea [COREP], Fishery Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea [FCWC], Regional Commission for Fisheries [RECOFI], Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission [WECAFC]). In addition, best practices on streamlining statistical data workflow are being developed. Formal data sharing agreements among agencies should eventually address the six main lines of activity in FAO’s vision of a streamlined reporting mechanism for fishery statistics: „ „ alignment of calendars; „ „ consistency in concepts, standards and definitions; „ „ mainstreamed data provision ser ving several reporting requirements for Member Countries; „ „ improved accessibilit y through harmonized published formats; „ „ active collaboration for analysis of gaps and discrepancies; „ „ transparency through systematic processing and documentation of sources. FAO’s corporate qualit y assurance framework is now furthering this effort through improved questionnaires, more systematic and standard data processing methodologies, full traceabilit y of decisions made and relevant supporting metadata to ensure transparency. Eventually, qualit y scores will be published for each FAO statistical dataset. | 94 |