REGIONAL TRAINING COURSE ON THE NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATISTICS (NSDS) AND THE ADVANCED DATA PLANNING TOOL (ADAPT) Date 21-23 November 2023 Virtual Training
Information Bulletin
1. Rationale
Better national, regional, and global development policies underscored the need for resilient and trusted public data systems in evidence-based policymaking. Building back better from the pandemic and other crises, many public statistical systems need to develop adequate capacities to cope with these new and rising data demands and coordinate strategically across the new data ecosystem: Firstly, data producers need to coordinate efficiently to close data gaps at national level. Smart planning, monitoring and evaluation, and service delivery measures require highly disaggregated data. Yet, for low and middle-income countries, limited statistical capacity threaten response and future resilience. For instance, administrative data systems including sectoral and local data are often inefficiently coordinated. Secondly, entering a decade of action, governments need to align global, regional and national policy objectives. This in turn, requires an in-depth mapping of data availability vis-à-vis data requirements. The heightened demand for data to monitor progress and inform policy and development choices necessitate a comprehensive data assessment and mapping at national level, which support better alignment of the national strategy for the development of statistics (NSDS) to data demand. Thirdly, statistical offices need to improve coordination with national and international partners to attract funding efficiently. Prioritisation and increased coordination of statistical activities, for instance through a national strategy for the development of statistics, can be conducive to attract more domestic funding as well as external resources. At the same time, there is ample scope to strengthen coordination between and among development cooperation partners and partner countries and promote south-south cooperation to make the status quo of funding for statistics more cost-efficient. The Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21 st Century (PARIS21) in collaboration with the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) developed a unique training course for NSS, NSO leaders and national planning senior managers to improve strategic planning for data and statistics development, using innovative tools and methods. The course will give a thorough introduction to the NSDS design process and introduces the data gaps assessment and planning using ADAPT. In addition, this course will feature special topics on gender statistics, climate change data as well as fragility and resilience of NSS in crisis context. 2. Quick overview over the proposed toolbox: NSDS, ADAPT and special topics National strategies for the development of statistics (NSDS) PARIS21 provides support to developing countries in the design, implementation, and monitoring of the NSDS to enable their national statistical systems to better respond to increased demand for data. An NSDS provides a country with a vision of the development of statistics consistent with national development plans. NSDS is a strategic planning framework and process that enables developing countries to build a reliable statistical system capable of producing and disseminating quality data and statistics necessary to formulate, implement, and monitor national, regional and global development policies and programmes.  The NSDS design and implementation process provides an opportunity for engaging both data producers and data users in making strategic choices to properly rationalise resources for statistical development.
Advanced Data Planning Tool (ADAPT)
PARIS21 developed the Advanced Data Planning Tool (ADAPT), an innovative web-based planning tool for National Statistical Offices, national planning agencies and other data producers to adapt data production to the priority data needs for policy, planning and monitoring.  ADAPT is a means to inventory data and capacity gaps in the national statistical system, specifically the inventory of indicators required for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of key policies at sub-national, sectoral, national, regional and global levels. It also supports an analysis of data demand and supply by matching those data demand indicators to the existing indicators at national level.
NSDS and gender
The workshop will pay special attention to the topic of gender statistics in the NSDS process. As part of its collaboration with UN Women, PARIS21 developed a comprehensive framework to assess data and capacity gaps linked to gender statistics. The framework, aimed at national statistical offices, proposes methods, activities and tools for conducting assessments related to gender statistics to support the mainstreaming of gender statistics in national statistical systems (NSS). The assessment report resulting from the application of this framework is meant to inform national strategies for the development of statistics (NSDS).
NSDS and climate change data
As the climate crisis moves from hypothetical to real, the global community is only starting to discover the myriad of impacts it is having. For various reasons, traditional approaches to gathering data do not produce the data and statistics that countries and international organisations need in order to tackle climate change. PARIS21’s “ecosystem” approach provides a framework that can help gather and analyse data across different entities and departments who do not have a systematic approach to collaboration. A number of small islands who are on the frontline of the climate crisis are eager to adopt this approach to data to improve their resilience and adapt to climate change.
NSDS and fragility
The NSDS process has to adapt to the vulnerability of fragile states. According to the OECD “a fragile region or state has weak capacities to carry out basic governance functions, and lacks the ability to develop mutually constructive relations with society. Fragile regions or states are also more vulnerable to internal or external shocks such as economic crisis or natural disaster".  Fragility refers to a wide array of situation: countries in crisis, countries at war, reconstruction context, humanitarian and natural crises, situations of extreme poverty. In a first attempt to address the specific situations of fragile states, PARIS21 issued the NSDS for Small Island Developing States in 2018 (available here ).
3.  Objectives and expected results
The objective of the training course is to strengthen the capacity of NSOs and national planning agencies senior managers to a) undertake strategic planning for statistical development and prepare data plans; b) learn new tools to aid in the coordination of the NSS and to identify data gaps; and c) design and implement responsive NSDS, taking into consideration the evolving needs arising from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and national development priorities. The training course will provide a brief overview of the NSDS framework and strategic planning processes for statistical development and an introduction on ADAPT to familiarize participants in the key functionalities of the tool and its usefulness in statistical and national development planning. More specifically, participants will: . . . Learn about the challenges in aligning global, regional and national development agendas Understand the modern NSDS lifecycle, including the review of strategic planning concepts related to NSDS; Understand the purpose and benefits of using ADAPT in statistical planning, including a hands- on exercise to input information in the ADAPT system . Discuss special topics of gender statistics, climate change data, and fragility, and their implications for the NSDS lifecycle . Share country practices and experience in designing and implementing the NSDS as well as gender statistics and special context of NSDS in crisis situation.
4. Participants
The training course is targeted at senior managers of NSOs and national planning agencies in Asia- Pacific: a.  NSO – responsible for the overall planning and design of the NSDS/strategic plan on statistics and/or implementation of the NSDS; committed to carry out and lead in coordinating the NSDS activities and processes; have knowledge and/or involved in the preparation of national indicator monitoring framework. b. National planning agency – responsible for the preparation of the national development planning framework specifically in designing the indicator monitoring framework for the national plan / SDGs and has keen understanding of data and statistics Participants are expected to share/present country practices and experiences in national development planning and strategic planning in statistics to enrich cross-country learning. Please be prepared to participate in interactive breakout sessions during the training. Participants who successfully completed the course will receive a certificate. We will send a link to the certificate after the course. 5. Date and venue 21-23 November 2023 . . Virtual sessions: 90 minutes for each day. 6.  Proposed Training Agenda