IAOS-OECD 2018 conference, 19-21 September 2018, Paris. More information at: http://www.oecd.org/iaos2018/

1. Statistics beyond the National Level –
Regional Experiences
Session 3C International Statistics: Beyond the simple
collation of national official statistics
16th conference of IAOS, Paris September 2018
Sabir Al Harbi, Director General
GCC-Stat
10/2/2018 1

2. 10/2/2018 2
Regional Integration and Statistics
• Many forms of regional integration (Free –Trade
Agreement, Customs Union, Common Market,
Economic Union, Political Union)
• Different motivators – dependent on specific circumstances
e.g. economic cooperation, security
• But all forms of Regional integration require
comparable statistics to
• Inform and evaluate common regional policies
• Guide and monitor progress
• Assess impact on developmental outcomes, regional and
national level
• Regional Statistics Agencies
• Key source of regional statistics

3. 10/2/2018 3
GCC-Stat – Regional Statistics centre in the GCC
• GCC Regional framework
• Gulf Cooperation Council, formed 1981, comprises United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
• GCC Secretariat responsible for cooperation, coordination, planning and
programmes for common action, reporting on work undertaken by GCC
• Specialist organisations, under umbrella of GCC Secretariat, e.g Gulf Health
Council, GCC Standardisation Organisation
GCC-Stat established 2012 – role includes “meet statistical requirements at the
GCC level”.
• Regional Statistical requirements:
• Statistics to inform regional policy development and preparation process
• High level indicators on direction of region and showcase region
• Statistical analysis and information to support GCC Secretariat in
monitoring implementation of Leaders’ Decisions
• Statistical analysis and reports to specialist GCC organisations

4. 10/2/2018 4
GCC Statistical System
GCC-Stat
GCC
Secretariat
GCC
Organisations
Country
Statistical
Systems
International
Reporting
(e.g. UN, IMF)

5. 10/2/2018 5
Case Study 1: Improving Regional data to
support Policy process
GCC-Stat
• Reviewed policies, identified
requirements (eg indicators)
• Identified gaps in existing data
• Set up project to identify administrative
data to meet gaps
• Initiated Integrated End to End Platform
to enhance supply, management and
dissemination of statistics
• Strengthened statistical reporting
• Enhanced links between policy needs
and statistical reports
GCC level policies
• Primarily issues at GCC
level, and/or issues
common to all member
countries
• Prepared in GCC
technical committees,
supported by the GCC
Secretariat
• Reviewed, endorsed/
amended by relevant
Ministerial Council, and
annual Supreme
Leaders meeting
Other Impacts on GCC Statistical System
• Shaping requirements for Harmonised projects
• Helping member countries to provide more data

6. 10/2/2018 6
Case Study 2: Statistical indicators to measure
implementation of High Leaders Decisions
• Project has
• Prepared inventory of decisions and mapped shortlist to GCC policy
framework.
• Conducted focus groups with Gulf institutions
• Collected data, with help of NSIs (2017)
• Preparing indicators, to assess extent of compliance
• Provided range of reports, including dashboard for decision makers (2018)
• Impact on GCC Statistical system
• Identifying and including GCC level requirements into Harmonised Projects,
e.g.
 New standard report requirements for Nationality base indicators (Local
Citizen, Citizen of other GCC countries, Non-citizen)
 Identifying GCC multinational companies (working across GCC), with
implications for other economic statistics projects
Helping to move GCC-Stat from Supply driven (Outputs based on adding up
available data) to Demand driven (Outputs that meet the needs of regional
users – high quality, relevant, transparent)

7. 10/2/2018 7
Regional Data Challenges
Examples
• Data not harmonised (e.g. inconsistent, unclear concepts)
• Missing data, Different reporting periods
• Delays in reporting
Impact
• Unable to provide Regional level statistics
• Regional data not timely or relevant
Response
• Harmonised projects for priority topics
• End to End Platform to improve supply, management and dissemination of data
• Administrative based Indicator project to increase supply of data
• Investigating Nowcasting, appropriate Missing data treatment
• Medium term, alternative sources (e.g. Regional Big data sources)

8. 10/2/2018 8
Discussion Points
• Being relevant to Regional Users and supporting Regional Integration
means
• Providing data about the Region, as a entity
• Specific analysis, including adjustments may be required
 Regional totals may not just be the sum of country level data
• Identifying the appropriate data treatment (eg estimation, nowcasting) to
meet user needs
 Country level information in Regional reports may be different in to
what is shown in country level reports
• Discussion Points
1. If Regional agencies need to estimate or revise data, what key steps should
they take to ensure the integrity of the national view of the data is
maintained?
2. To meet their user needs, Regional agencies may need to use statistics not
released or provided by NSIs. Should this country level data be publicly
available?