Innovating Statistical Capacity Building in Pacific Islands

Statistical Innovation and Capacity Building in the Pacific Islands (PacStat) Project update for PSMB, October 2024

To Improve the quality of welfare data collection and accessibility To Improve the quality of welfare data collection and accessibility to comparable welfare data in the Pacific Island Countries to comparable welfare data in the Pacific Island Countries Component 1: Component 1: Component 2: Component 2: Component 3: Component 3: Support to the Pacific Statistics Method Board Institutional Strengthening and Implementation Support Alternative Data Collection Methods 1.1 PSMB Technical Support & Administration 2.1 Expanding Technical Capacity of SPC-SDD 3.1 Innovation Technical Support 1.2 Dissemination & Training 2.2 Current Staff Support 3.2 Funding for Innovation Experiments 2.3 Implementation Support

Key indicators 4 guidance notes, 1 approved, 10 on the way (target 10) 18 major reports or knowledge products, 10 on the way (target 10) 24 gender indicators published (target 16) 2 commissioned works complete, 4 under way (target 5) 4 innovative experiments under way (target 4) 6 major multi-country collections of harmonised microdata, 2 more on the way (target 5)

The big wins Resolving the way forward on measuring poverty, and starting to do it Full implementation of the move to diaries for HIES Innovative Experiments now starting to generate actionable results Progress in pinning down the tricky methods details like imputed rent Many significant publications on welfare, poverty and other economic issues Major leap forward in availability, quality, harmonisation and use of economic microdata Making possible other work on e.g. gender dashboard Kept PSMB alive during Covid-19

Challenges Over the whole project Duplicate systems e.g. approval of procurements by committees in all of World Bank, SPC and beneficiary Project management under-resourced Over-reliance on distant consultants Not enough technical resource for the broad scope and many outputs Competing motivations between supporting ongoing operations and an investment project Organisational challenges for SPC SDD Covid- 19, shrinking, leadership gaps and changes, growth, under-resourced finance and administrative support Recent Late decision to appoint project manager and recruit technical staff rather than consultants New Caledonia crisis interrupted on-boarding and disrupted SPC overall, especially procurement Commissioned Works and Innovative Experiments in race against the clock

For a successor project? Subject matter Extend to key administrative data sources immigration, health, education and using better for statistics Build on the work on poverty and extend to livelihoods Extend to supply side business, agriculture Extend prices work missing indexes, international comparison (PPP) Systematically review guidance and fill in the gaps on a needs-basis Explicit focus on statistical process modernisation build on Experiment 3 Modernise trade statistics production Statistical population registers build on Experiment 4 and the commissioned work Analytical work on Pacific-specific issues such as the gender dimensions of poverty, or Pacific- specific issues with durable goods

For a successor project? Project management Ensure enough management, finance and administration time built in Budgeting and timesheets to allow easy charging of staff time across all components Continue dual use of PSMB for technical authority / advice and a Project Steering Committee for formal decision-making Continue with the mix of grants for experiments, commissioned work, and expanding capacity Make the most of SPC s comparative advantage with full time staff embedded in the Pacific Simplify procurement choose either World Bank or SPC systems and stop-go points, not both Partner with PFTAC if comes into their area Five years