Interoperable Data Formats and National Platforms for SDG Reporting

Building the solution for NRPs: innovative approaches and technologies Interoperable data formats: SDMX National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018 1

Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange SDMX is an international initiative that aims at standardising and modernising ( industrialising ) the mechanisms and processes for the exchange of statistical data and metadata among international organisations and their member countries. Launched in 2002, SDMX is governed by a Sponsors Committee and a Secretariat. The Technical and Statistical Working Groups manage the definition and updating of the technical standard and publish statistical guidelines National platforms for SDG reporting 2 New York, 22-24 January 2018

Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange SDMX is an ISO standard (ISO 17369) designed to describe statistical data and metadata, normalise their exchange, and improve their efficient sharing across statistical and similar organisations. It provides an integrated approach to facilitating statistical data and metadata exchange, enabling interoperable implementations within and between systems concerned with the exchange, reporting and dissemination of statistical data and their related meta-information. National platforms for SDG reporting 3 New York, 22-24 January 2018

Why SDMX? ISO standard (ISO 17369) Number of organizations using SDMX has risen significantly in the last 5 years Mature technology According to Gartner s Hype Cycle chart presented in the Global Conference 2017, SDMX is in the slope of enlightenment towards the plateau of productivity SDMX Information Model helps streamlining your data model Tools available to use SDMX with low investment Global artefacts facilitates data exchange agreements Several formats: e.g. SDMX-ML, SDMX-json, SDMX-csv New York, 22-24 January 2018 National platforms for SDG reporting 4

Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange Technical Specifications The SDMX Information Model Guidelines to Harmonise Content Tools IT Architectures for data exchange SDMX compliant tools Content-oriented Guidelines (COG) SDMX is not just a data transmission format National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018

SDMX Information Model Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange Image source: Metadata Technology National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018 6

DOING SDMX vs. USING SDMX MITH: SDMX is too complex! SDMX looks complex and intimidating if you try to understand all its detailed documentation, but Have you ever read the IEEE 802.11 documentation? and so Do you have difficulties to use WiFi? You don t need to develop an SDMX interface to use SDMX as you are not supposed to build your own wireless Ethernet adapter to use WiFi National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018 7

Information Model (metamodel) Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange Dimensions (ex: country, variable/topic, year) Data Structure Definition (DSD) Code lists Attributes (ex: unit of measure) Structural Metadata Dataset Structure Metadata about an individual value, a time series or a group of time series Identify/Describe Data Provides a way of modelling data, metadata and exchange processes National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018

Deriving a Data Structure from a table VARIABLE AGE ATTRIBUTES Concept Name Role Dimension Dimension REPRESENTED_VARIABLE CL_REPRESENTED_VARIABLE Dimension SEX Dimension AGE Dimension TIME_PERIOD Measure Attribute UNIT_MEAS Attribute OVN_C6 Attribute MET_S3 Attribute MET_S4 Attribute MET_I11 Attribute MET_T2 Attribute MET_T3 MET_T5 Attribute Identifier Code list OBS_VALUE COUNTRY COUNTRY VARIABLE SEX AGE TIME OBS_VALUE UNIT OF MEASURE NONSTANDARD AGE REFERENCE_PERIOD GEO COVERAGE BREAK IN SERIES MINIMUM AGE MAXIMUM AGE UNEMPLOYMENT DEFINITION Attribute SOURCE SEX TIME PERIOD CL_SEX CL_AGE CL_UNIT_MEASURE CL_NOTE_C6 CL_NOTE_S3 CL_NOTE_S4 CL_NOTE_I11 CL_NOTE_T2 CL_NOTE_T3 CL_NOTE_T5 CL_SOURCE ATTRIBUTES SOURCE MEASURE DIMENSIONS National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018 9

National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018 10

Conclusions Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange TheInformation Model which forms the core of SDMX has been developed to support statistics as collected and used by statistical organisations Thestatisticalguidelinesaim at providing general statistical governance as well as common ( cross-domain ) concepts and code lists ManyITtoolshave been developed to support the use and implementation of SDMX, most of them are of an opensourcenatureand can be used as componentsfor building IT systems in statistical organisations. Taken together, the technicalstandards, thestatistical guidelines and theIT architectureandtoolscan support improvedbusinessprocessesfor any statistical organisation as well as the harmonisationandstandardisationof statisticalmetadata. 11 National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018

Conclusions Everyday we use different toolsand appliances to be more efficient in our activities. We learn how to use them with a quick reading of a guide; or we simply know how to use them, because it is like any other similar tool (standard). But for most of these tools, we don t have any idea on how they have been designed, or how they work. You can use SDMX-based tools and applications in the same way, and they will certainly make your work more efficiently. (especially if your work is data reporting!) National platforms for SDG reporting New York, 22-24 January 2018 12

Thank you ! Edgardo Greising Head of Microdata and Knowledge Management Unit STATISTICS - ILO greising@ilo.org 13