Capacity Building: Achievements and Capacity Building: Achievements and IssuesIssues

of National Statistical System of Sri of National Statistical System of Sri LankaLanka

D. B. P. Suranjana Vidyaratne, Director General, Dept. of Census and D. B. P. Suranjana Vidyaratne, Director General, Dept. of Census and Statistics – Sri LankaStatistics – Sri Lanka

Steering Committee Meeting of UNSD and Leaders of National Statistical Offices of SAARC Countries -

21st July 2008: Colombo

National Statistical System of Sri Lanka

1. The statistical system in Sri Lanka is a mixed system but more closer to a centralized system.

2. Sri Lanka’s National Statistical Agency is the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS)

3. DCS plays co-ordinatory and technical supervisory role over the statistical branch offices in Ministries, Departments and Provincial, District and Divisional administration

4. DCS provides trained statistical cadres required by the branch offices and provincial / district offices etc.

5. The legal authority vested in the DCS under the Census and Statistics Ordinances has enabled the DCS to successfully undertake most of the statistical operations in a coordinated manner.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

1. Provide opportunities for staff to further their studies

2. Increase participation of officers in international training, seminars and workshops

3. Participate in international activities

4. Provide statistical advisory services

5. Use computer assisted technology for survey interviews and coding

6. Set up databases

7. Hold forums to publicize the findings

8. Increase personnel skill training programme

9. Document all job processes for future reference

10. Improve sampling techniques

11. Strengthen Special Studies and Research

12. Set up a statistical training institute

13. Publish statistical journal for articles based on research findings

14. Implement job rotation

15. Provide incentives for personnel who create innovative products and services

16. Form think-tank groups to produce innovative statistical products

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Provide opportunities for staff to further their studies

The staff of the Department is encouraged to further their studies

For selected courses the Department fully funds the course fee and for other courses, partly

Duty leave is also granted for studies

Department fully utilizes the scholarships received from various organizations including the

United Nations agencies to train its staff

DCS recently compiled a resource directory of training institutes

In this directory particulars such as names of the international agencies providing

training, their contact details, course fees etc are included

It is now very convenient to find a place for training whenever we need to train our staff

on specific areas and necessary funds are available

We need to explore the possibility of sharing expertise of our countries in the region by

means of training, exchange programmes etc

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Increase participation of officers in international training, seminars and workshops

DCS is trying its best to get opportunities from donors to send its officers

for international seminars and workshops.

Attempts are also made to increase participation of officers by finding

assistances from donors. A few examples for this are:

Recently assistance were obtained from UNICEF to send few officers

abroad for training on database management.

With the assistance from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, a

group of 30 officers were sent to India for training.

With funds available under the UNDP assisted MDG programme,

several officers were sent out for training.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Participate in international activities

DCS willingly participates at international activities. A few examples for this are

Conducting the Demographic and Health Survey in collaboration with the

Macro International. Under this activity DCS got an opportunity to train its

staff on a wide range of statistical activities covering questionnaire design to

report writing

Sri Lanka is one of the Asian countries participating in the Accelerated Data

Programme implemented in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank.

With this programme DCS commenced archiving all statistical products of

the Department including micro data, publications, questionnaires etc.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Provide statistical advisory services

The Department has set up statistical units in most of the government

Departments and Ministries.

Trained statistical staff of the DCS are posted to these units.

Statistical advisory services to government Departments and Ministries

are provided mainly through these units.

Advisory services are provided to privates sector, UN organizations etc in

a limited way.

Due to staff and other limitations, DCS cannot entertain all requests on

statistical advisory services.

By providing advisory services, DCS get an opportunity to further

strengthen interactions with other agencies.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Use computer assisted technology for survey interviews and coding

The Department is testing computer assisted coding with Household Income and

Expenditure Survey.

Partly, data entry of this survey has been decentralized.

Based on the success of above activities, this technology will be extended to all

other surveys and censuses.

Computer assisted technology is yet to be used for survey interviews.

Initial cost of computer assisted technology for survey interviews is high. But it is

likely to help improving accuracy, reliability and timeliness of statistics.

IMPS software package, which has facilities for computerized editing, validation,

imputations and tabulations is largely used for data entry and processing of survey

and census data at DCS.

DCS is lacking ICT infrastructure particularly on remote data transferring.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Set up databases for internal and external use towards more effective data dissemination system

The MDG database and another few interactive databases have already been

included in the Department’s website.

A Meta database for the Department is being prepared under the Accelerated Data

Programme, with the assistance of Asian Development Bank.

Access to this Meta database will be given to users through the DCS website.

All micro data (of the National Statistical System) will be archived and released to

the users in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Data Dissemination

Policy of the Department.

This is the first systematic attempt that the DCS made to archive its data.

A copy of the Data dissemination Policy is available in the DCS website.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Hold forums to publicize the findings

DCS holds forums to publicize findings.

Frequency of holding such forums are not at satisfactory levels due to

resource limitations.

When DCS estimated poverty indices at lower level administrative units,

large number of such forums were held to publicize the findings. The

government used findings for planning development programmes.

Regular quarterly press briefings are held to release National Accounts,

labour force statistics etc.

DCS staff get an opportunity to meet the press and other users through

these forums.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Increase personnel skill training programme

DCS train its staff not only on the subject matter but also on other skills

such as presentations, administration etc.

DCS does not have enough resource persons for this area.

Sri Lanka Institute for Development Administration (SLIDA) is a

government agency that has been established to train mainly government

officials in many fields including personnel skills.

DCS officers are sent to places like SLIDA for such training programmes.

DCS also invite eminent personnel in this field to conduct programmes to

its staff.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Document all job processes for future reference

Documentation is important in providing a resource for evidence-based

decision making.

In the light of this, the technical divisions are preparing manuals to

documenting all methods, procedures etc. of surveys, censuses and

special studies conducted by them.

Availability of well documented manuals ensure smooth flow of activities

in the divisions even in the absence of officers due to taking leave,

retiring, migrating etc. Any officer taking over can follow the manuals and

continue the work.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Improve sampling techniques

DCS has a Sample Survey Division and qualified samplers.

Well defined household sampling frame has been prepared and sample of

household are drawn using this frame for all household surveys.

Sampling techniques will further be improved for establishment based

surveys.

Sample survey division will be further strengthened to provide advisory

services on sampling which is in high demand from many organizations

who want to conduct studies for their own purposes.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Strengthen the special studies and research

DCS has undertaken several important studies under ‘special studies and

research’. Preparation of MDG reports, Studies on men and women are some of

those studies. Findings of these studies have found to be very useful.

Special Studies and Research should be further improved by identifying and

sending officers for specialized training in methodology and the usage of software

packages for statistical estimation, forecasting and analysis.

Research work on preparation of national accounts including review of

methodologies, estimation of national accounts at sub-national levels have now

become priority areas.

Qualitative studies are very important in analyzing unexpected situations. For

example reasoning of unexpected price fluctuations of food commodities. DCS

staff need to be trained in this area.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Publish statistical journal for articles based on research findings

DCS does not have its own journal, which would have been useful for

publishing the findings of the research work of its staff.

I suggest we launch a journal of NSO’s of SAARC region, encouraging

our staff to engage in research not only in our own countries but also in

the region as well.

At DCS, only a few officers are currently carrying out research work.

It is imperative to expose all the staff officers to this culture as without

research the subject cannot be developed.

This requires training of the officers particularly on research

methodology and report witting skills.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Implement job rotation

Staff get bored by working on the same subject and sitting in the same

place/division over a long period of time.

For duty requirements and based on the availability of vacancies staff is

transferred. Other than this DCS does not have a rotation policy.

DCS is now in the process of preparing a policy for rotation of its officers

among technical divisions.

A committee has been setup to draft this policy.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Provide incentives for personnel who create innovative products and services

A system has been introduced to issue commendation letters for

exceptional contributors.

There are limitations in cash reward system or any other way of

appreciating exceptional contributions.

According to the current system, even in promotions what matters most

is the number of years of experience and not the contributions or

innovations.

Key activities being carried out under capacity building

Form think-tank groups to produce innovative statistical products

Formation of such groups has been commenced from the the National Accounts

Division of the Department.

We need to further improve estimation methodology, verification and interpretation

of National Accounts.

Earlier, both Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the DCS used to compile National

Accounts.

Now the sole responsibility is lying with the DCS.

Therefore, lot of research, innovations etc need to be carried out in this area and

think-tank groups are expected contribute particularly in these areas.

Overall objective of forming think-tank groups is to build a dedicated and

committed workforce over the coming years.

Statistical Capacity Building Project:

Future Plans

Statistical Capacity Building Project: Future plans

With the assistance of the World Bank, DCS is to implement a

Capacity Building Project called STATCAP. It has two components

namely:

1. Capacity Building

2. Construction of a building for the DCS

Capacity Building: Key Performance Indicators - Future plans

Following are the expected outcomes of the STATCAP

1. Improved poverty monitoring, better informed economic and

social policy evaluation and decision-making

2. Annual data collection plans and long-term strategies

produced

3. Training plan established, executed and updated annually

4. Institutional reforms to strengthen capacity of the statistical

system and its autonomy and achieve fuller compliance with

international statistical standards

5. Establishing an integrated meta and database of all major

economic and social statistics and ensure that it is available

for users, measured by increase in number of visitors to

website

6. Reduction of duplicative data collection and compilations

through greater coordination

7. Improved efficiency of data collection methods through

decentralized data entry

8. Developing statistical series which are compatible with

international standards and conform to the needs of

sustained economic development

9. Making effective use of IT to achieve high efficiency in survey

design, data collection, transmission, processing,

management and dissemination

Construction of an office Building: Future plans

Construction of an office building

DCS is presently housed in seven different rented locations. This

situation has and continues to exert adverse effects on the

performance of DCS. It is time consuming and inefficient for the

units in separate locations to work together or even just meet.

That aside, the inconvenience, and cost are considerable. Under

the STATACAP it has been planned to construct a building to

house all the divisions of the DCS.

Conclusion

The ultimate target of the Department is to become a leading

statistical organization internationally while providing

customer-focused official statistical information and

statistical services of international standard, for national

planning and development through well-trained and

competent personnel, use of superior technology and

methodology, adoption of best practices in all statistical

activities and enhanced research and statistical analysis.

Thank You