Transcript Expert Group Meeting to Review the United Nations Demographic Yearbook System 10-14 November 2003 New York The United Nations Demographic Yearbook and the Work Programme for.

Expert Group Meeting to
Review the United Nations Demographic Yearbook System
10-14 November 2003
New York
The United Nations Demographic Yearbook
and the
Work Programme for Social Statistics
Demographic and Social Statistics Branch
United Nations Statistics Division
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Main reasons for presenting the work
programme for social statistics
• To acquaint experts with the proposed work
programme for social statistics, that they may take
it into consideration when discussing the
Demographic Yearbook and their national data
systems
• To get feedback
• general or specific comments
• specific inputs and contributions to any of
the activities listed
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Background
• At its 33rd session, the Statistical Commission
expressed the need for a more systematic
development of social statistics.
• In response, an expert group meeting, “Setting the
Scope of Social Statistics”, was conducted in New
York in May 2003, with the objective of proposing
a programme of work for furthering the
development of social statistics.
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Background (cont’d)
• The expert group meeting came up with a set of
recommendations for furthering the development
of social statistics. These recommendations served
as a guide for drafting a work programme for
social statistics.
• The final work programme will be presented to the
Statistical Commission in March 2004.
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The proposed work programme for
social statistics (2004-2014)
The work programme addresses four main areas:
• Coordination
• International standards
• Data sources
• Promoting the use of statistics
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Planning and implementing the work
programme for social statistics:
Key considerations
• Integrated approach
• Mainstream gender and other special population
groups
• Consider linkages among various social sectors, as
well as between the social, economic and
environmental fields
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Most elements of the work programme for
social statistics are highly relevant to the
Demographic Yearbook system. For example,
Coordination
• Review existing coordination mechanisms among
international organizations with a view to
improving them
• Document coordination among producers of social
statistics at the national level (case studies)
• Create a Social Statistics website with active links
to relevant UN specialized agencies
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Most elements of the work programme for
social statistics are highly relevant to the
Demographic Yearbook system. For example,
International standards
• Make available on the web international standards
relevant to all areas of social statistics
• Promote harmonization of standards, units and
classifications across data sources
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Most elements of the work programme for
social statistics are highly relevant to the
Demographic Yearbook system. For example,
Data sources
• Review the totality of data sources for social
statistics and consider their complementary use
• Workshops to review national metadata systems
used to describe the quality and timeliness of social
statistics
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Data sources (cont’d)
• Strengthen national capacity to conduct censuses
and sample surveys
• Review and supplement the international
recommendations for Population and Housing
Censuses, for Vital statistics and for International
Migration
• Integrated workshops on producing fertility,
mortality and international migration statistics using
all data sources
• Workshops on multi-purpose surveys
• Strengthen national administrative systems for
statistical purposes
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Most elements of the work programme for
social statistics are highly relevant to the
Demographic Yearbook system. For example,
Promoting the use of social statistics
• Maximize the utilization of social statistics for
policy
• Preparation of The World’s Women 2005 (for which
the Demographic Yearbook will be a major source)
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We ask you to
• Consider the recommendations of the expert group
meeting on social statistics and the proposed work
programme in your review of the Demographic
Yearbook, with a view to improving the collection,
dissemination and collection of social statistics
• Comment on the work programme
• Indicate interest in participating or contributing to any
specific activity listed in the work programme
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Discussion points
• How well does the current Demographic Yearbook cover
social statistics? Can new topics be added without
compromising the quality of the Demographic Yearbook?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of combining
various data sources for producing social and demographic
statistics for the Demographic Yearbook?
• How can we maximize the utilization of social statistics
produced by the Demographic Yearbook ?
• What changes need to be made to the current system to
more adequately meet the diverse needs of users of social
statistics?
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