Statistics from International Governmental Organizations

Mike McCaffrey

Adjunct Professor

Faculty of Information Studies

University of Toronto

June 8th, 2005

What are IGOS?

• Members are national governments (generally 3 or more)

• Have a permanent secretariat

• Created by treaty action

But there are exceptions….

• International Joint Commission (2 members)

• ILO (parliamentary body comprised of governments, trade unions and manufacturers’ associations)

• G7 (no treaty, no secretariat)

How do we classify IGOs?

•By membership

•By focus

Membership

• Universal (UN, WTO)• Regional (EU, APEC)• Resource/Industrial Capacity Based (OPEC,

Asian and Pacific Coconut Community)• Cultural/Linguistic Based (La Francophonie,

Organization of the Islamic Conference)• Level of Development (OECD, G8)

Focus

• Universal (UN)

• Special Focus (ILO, FAO, World Bank)

Membership and Focus determine the content of the

statistics produced

What, apart from actually publishing statistics, do IGOs

do?

They promote and coordinate international cooperation and

help to set standards

The UN Statistical Commission, for instance, is charged with: • Promoting the development of national statistics• Coordinating of the statistical work of specialized

agencies• Advising the organs of the United Nations on

general questions relating to the collection, analysis and dissemination of statistical information

• Promoting the improvement of statistics and statistical methods generally

Much of this coordinating work involves the development and

promotion of Statistical Classification Schemes

What are Classification Schemes?• They group together and organize information

systematically into a standard format through the creation of an structured set of exclusive categories.

• They can be used to support the implementation of policy (customs regulations)

• They can be used to classify statistical variables (M or F are classifications for the variable “sex”).

International Statistical Classification Schemes• Are generally products of international

agreements.

• Can serve as models for corresponding national classification schemes.

• Custodians of the schemes are generally IGOs

Characteristics of Schemes

• The categories are mutually exclusive (each variable can occur only once within the scheme).

• They are hierarchical with variables being grouped together based on affinity.

• For instance……

…in the ISIC, Rev. 3.1

• Section D groups together manufactured items. (D)

• Within Section D, Division 15 groups together variables relating to the manufacture of food products and vegetables (D15)

• Within Section D, Division 15, Group 155 brings together the manufacturing of beverages. (D155)

• And, within Section D, Division 15, Group 155, the Class 1552 is used for statistics involving the manufacturing of wine. (D1552)

There is often a strong link between policy and classification

schemes

For instance, there is a link between…..• The Harmonized Commodity Description

and Coding System (HS) and customs regulations.

• The International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) and the formulation of treatment programmes.

Generally speaking, there are three types of Classification Schemes

• Reference classifications

• Derived classifications

• Related classifications

Reference Classifications

• Have achieved broad acceptance and are recommended as models for the development of corresponding classifications

• Are often the product of international agreement through the approval of the UNSC or another competent intergovernmental board

• Harmonized System (HS), the International Standard Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) are examples

Derived Classifications

• Are based upon a corresponding reference classification. Groups are obtained by re-arrangement or sub-division of items

• Some divisions may be truncated and others expanded according to the needs of the body devising the derived scheme

• The General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities within the European Communities (NACE) is an example of a derived classification scheme.

Related Classifications

• Provide a set of organized categories for the same variables as the corresponding reference classification

• The categories may only partially refer to those in the reference classification or they may be compatible only at specific levels of the structure.

• The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), for instance, is compatible with the ISIC at the 2-digit level.

Why does this matter to us?

IGO work on Classifcation Schemes• Makes it possible to compile data

containing data from different sources.• Allows for limited comparability of data

published in different sources.• Enables National Statistical Agencies from

developing countries to get on with the task of collecting data using pre-existing classification schemes

Where do I find these things?

The Methods and Classifications page of the United

Nations Statistical Division at: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods.htm Consult this publication for a description of the 100+ classification schemes in existence:

European Communities. Statistical Office. Inventory of International Statistical Classifications. (1999)

What else do IGOs do?

IGOs….

• Gather data.

• Work on it to make it comparable

• Publish it

Why do they do it?

Data is Gathered

• For administrative purposes (grant-making, assessments)

• For policy-making purposes (economic forecasting, monitoring economic trends)

• In the words of the authors of an ILO study,to enable “informed opinion and as a means of making better policy decisions.”

In other words…..

• For their use, not ours.

• Data selection and presentation are a function of the needs of the organization and are not market driven.

How is the Data Gathered?

• A survey is carried out by NSAs at the request of an IGO, possibly with technical assistance

• In extreme cases, the survey is carried out by the IGO itself.

• Existing reports are gathered by IGOs and the data is retabulated.

• Existing data is gathered by IGOs and collated differently, usually with commentary and analysis added to meet their needs.

The downsides are….

• Currency of data can suffer.

• Further disaggregation may be desirable but not available.

• Accuracy can be an issue for political or other reasons.

The upsides, however, are that…

• Data for regions and sectors is brought together in one place.

• Comparability within a publication or time series is generally possible.

Where is this stuff?

• The Union of International Associations database contains 58,861 entries for IOs, of which over 6,000 are IGOs

• Only a handful, however, will be of use to you.

• The selection will be determined by your needs and by the nature of the organization itself.

You can find IGO statistics by…

• Tapping into and monitoring an existing gateway such as the Northwestern University Library’s IGO links page at: http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/resource/internat/igo.html

• Compiling your own list and revisiting your links regularly to familiarize yourself with the page structures.

• Many basic statistics are available in PDF or HTML tables

• Downloadable time series data, however, often costs money.

• Look for flagship publications like the World Bank’s World Development Report

It is better to master a few sources than to risk getting lost in

IGO cyberspace

Some of the better organizations for statistics include…..

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

(OECD)

• Essentially, an organization comprised of “have” nations. A forum for member states to formulate best policies for economic and social development.

• Certain statistics are recurring but coverage of other data varies with the programme of work adopted by the OECD Council for the year.

• Economic Surveys of member states (essentially peer reviews of economic policy with accompanying data) , Outlooks, Main Economic Indicators.

• Largely comprised of member country statistics but some developing nation data appears in the DAC and external trade publications

• Little is free.

World Bank Group

• Universal membership.• Promotes economic and social development by

extending or facilitating loans or other forms of assistance.

• Virtually all of the detailed data concerns itself with the client (developing) nations only.

• Selected material available on developed countries for purposes of comparison

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• Universal membership.• Promotes currency stability by monitoring fiscal

policies, offering technical assistance, and providing temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment.

• All member states undergo annual surveillance under Article IV of the IMF’s Charter. These statistics are available via the IMF website.

• Key time series offered cover direction of trade, balance of payment and government finances.

• The organization’s flagship publication and dataset, International Financial Statistics, is arguably the single most useful source for international economic data currently produced.

There are many other sources….

Regional Development Banks

• African Development Bank

• Asian Development Bank

• Caribbean Development Bank

• Islamic Development Bank

• Inter-American Development Bank

• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Specialized Agencies within the UN System• Nineteen such agencies exist (ILO, WHO,

WIPO and so on).

• All produce some form of statistics.

Commercial Sources

• Global Insight, Datamonitor and Statistical Universe all derive some of their data from IGOs

• Pay careful attention to the value-addeds.

To Summarize…

• Type of organization determines the statistical content.

• Basic data is frequently available to those who know where to look.

• The extent to which commercial vendors rely on government data is such that it may pay to examine the original sources to see what can be found for free or at little cost.

• Mastery of a selected number of sources will lead to efficient data location.

A modified version of this presentation, together with related tutorials and guides, will be available via the web shortly. If you wish to be notified when the material is ready, send an e-mail (with SLA in the subject line) to:

mikemccaffrey@rogers.com