Requirements for a Regional Statistical System (cont'd)
by: Dr. Gale Archibald , Head, OECS Statistical Services Unit
The RSS Concept
The national statistical system (NSS) represents the ensemble of interdependent elements that interact to identify, prioritise, collect, process, analyse and disseminate official statistics on behalf of a government. The NSS is led by the NSO and operates within the overall administrative, legal and constitutional framework of a country. The regional statistical system (RSS) - the whole - itself a sub-system in a global statistical system, would be the wider structure or space within which the attendant national statistical systems (NSS) operate. Both the RSS and the NSS are concepts, and currently exist neither in legal nor physical terms.
The RSS is more than a collection of the NSSs. As discussed earlier, a system is more than the sum of its parts. Thus, the statistical systems would have externalities, positive and negative, that are unintended consequences of its processes, interactions and information flows. For instance, irresponsible use of statistics such as adjusting values to support an ideology is a negative externality that the system’s processes did not intend. Attracting high levels of investment from development partners is a welcomed and positive consequence albeit destined for a weak statistical system.
The RSS does exist, conceptually, by cooperation with the NSS. In the pursuit of this wider architecture to deliver the requisite evidence to inform and measure progress towards full integration, the OECS Commission intends to use its influence and authority to advocate for and model an empowered, resilient and visible regional statistical system that delivers statistics that are actionable, accessible and available anywhere, anytime, anyhow. As the RSS leader, the OECS Commission will take a holistic view of the RSS to determine its role and value-added proposition. Understanding its role and purpose will help to define and formalise an architecture that is capable of responding to the requirements of government, people and institutions of the Economic Union.
Designing the Regional Statistical System
The desired RSS must deliver trusted, high value quality statistics that are not only regionally comparable, but nationally relevant and internationally obligatory. National relevance acknowledges that as sovereign countries, the Member States would demand of its NSS the statistics to inform, design and measure their respective national development agenda. International obligation comes with an expectation that countries that sign on to global initiatives commit to produce the associated data and statistics - the latest being the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – the SDGs. Given a mandate that covers ten countries, this three-fold requirement may immediately seem insurmountable. However, with a shared vision and good leadership, a formalised regional statistical system is attainable.
The design process will involve a consultative process and answering questions such as what is the authority and purpose of the OECS RSS? What value does it offer that the NSSs do not? Which and whose needs does it fulfil? How will it allow information and resources to flow? What resources does it need? and which resources can be shared? What products or services does it offer? Who are the actors? What types of partnerships are necessary? What data does it need? What role will the Commission play? What feedback mechanisms should be established?
The Utility of Data Comparability
The answers to most of these questions are premised on the utility of data comparability. Data comparability is defined here as an approach of ensuring that there are little or no variations in the technical and programmatic activities for developing, producing and disseminating statistics. When regional data comparability is pursued, the difficulties and costs for the NSS are considerably decreased compared to the NSS pursuing a unique