EU/PAT 16-19: National Statistics - Sida's contribution: Sweden SCB EU/PAT 16-19: National Statistics Kambodja inledde 2004 en reform med syfte att stärka den offentliga finansiella styrningen (OFS). Reformen har finansierats av flera givare, däribland EU och Sida. I december 2015 fattade EU-kommissionen beslut om att lämna fortsatt stöd till reformen. Beslutet innebär stöd genom två olika finansieringsmekanismer; sektorbudgetstöd till reformens genomförande samt en delegering till Sida för att finansiera insatser som kompletterar sektorbudgetstödet. Det svenska stödet kommer att riktas till aktörer/områden som inte i tillräcklig omfattning inkluderats i tidigare stöd till OFS-reformen, och som inte med automatik kan nås via EU:s sektorbudgetstöd. Lärdomar från tidigare stöd visar att de mest relevanta områdena för additionellt och riktat stöd handlar om anti-korruption, externrevision, statistik och extern granskning av budgeten. Dessutom har betydelsen av att öka skatteintäkterna och effektiviteten i skatteadministrationen understrukits.

Det svenska stödet kommer att omfatta följande kambodjanska myndigheter och organisationer: Statistikmyndigheten, Skattemyndigheten, Transparency International Cambodia, Riksrevisionen och Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia. Den totala budgeten för det program som ska genomföras av Sida, Partnership for Accountability and Transparency (PAT), är 10,342 miljoner euro. EU:s bidrag uppgår till 7 miljoner euro. Det svenska bidraget uppgår till ca 32 miljoner kronor.

Denna insats avser stöd till Kambodjas statistikinstitut, National Institute of Statistics (NIS), genom ett institutionssamarbete med Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB). Sida har sedan 2006 finansierat ett sådant samarbetet mellan de båda statistikorganen, och den nu föreslagna insatsen bygger vidare på tidigare erfarenheter och de resultat som hittills uppnåtts. Sedan samarbetet inleddes har NIS kapacitet och kompetens höjts. Fortsatt stöd fordras dock för att ytterligare stärka kvaliteten och regelbundenheten i produktion av ekonomisk och finansiell statistik.

Efterfrågan på statistik, analyser och statistiska undersökningar har ökat från såväl statens som från parlamentets, civilsamhällets och enskilda medborgares i takt med att NIS kunnat leverera bättre statistik och förståelsen för dess användbarhet stärkts. Den föreslagna insatsen syftar därför till att stärka NIS kapacitet och kompetens att regelbundet producera statistik av hög kvalitet, med fokus på nationalräkenskaperna, årliga hushållsundersökningar, producentprisindex samt användarvänlig statistik för ökad transparens och allmänhetens ansvarsutkrävande. 

Insatsen består av två delar, där SEK 900 000 samt EUR 194 000 allokeras till NIS för genomförande av hushållsundersökningar och framtagande av producentprisindex, och SEK 4 800 000 samt EUR 1 053 000 allokeras till SCB för kompetensöverföring till NIS genom ett institutionssamarbete. Inom ramen för samarbetet kommer SCB att tillhandahålla en långtidsexpert stationerad i Kambodja samt specifik teknisk expertis på korttidsbasis. Insatsen kommer att genomföras under perioden 1 juli 2016 till 30 juni 2019. Den totala budgeten uppgår till ca SEK 17,5 miljoner. Support to National Institute of Statistics to increase its capacity and competence to produce high quality statistics on a regular basis. The focus should be on national accounts, household surveys, producer index, and for using the statistics in a transparent way. National Institute of Statistics (NIS) is responsible for the National Statistical System in Cambodia, which is key to inform and improve government work, public policy, financial management, particularly the budgeting process, and monitoring and evaluation of public policies. As Cambodia moves towards a performance informed budgeting it will be increasingly important to have capacity to demonstrate actual impact of policies by the use of statistics.
National Accounts (NA) are of particular importance and are, amongst other sources, based on socio-economic surveys and producer and consumer price indexes (PPI and CPI). Previous Sida support to NIS through Statistics Sweden has increased NIS' capacity to generate and undertake basic national account statistics and, in particular, Cambodia Socio Economic Surveys (CSES). Further support is however required to improve the quality and timeliness of economic and financial statistical data and to allow NIS to guide the development of statistical systems at sector level.
The overall objective of the intervention is "Improved quality of National Statistics to inform government economic and budget decisions". In order to reach the overall objective, the following eight outcome objectives have been identified:1. GDP and National Accounts are produced with increased relevance and reliability. 2. National accounts are produced in accordance with UN quality standards. 3. Production of Producer Price Index (PPI) for better real GDP calculation.4. Cambodia Socio-Economic Surveys (CSES) produced in line with international standards for improved National Acoounts.5. Business register for Economic Sample survey in place.6. Economic statistics produced with higher quality.7. User friendly dissemination of National Accounts and CSES for increased access to information. 8. Awareness and knowledge built on statistics among stakeholders for increased accountability.
As mentioned, NIS is responsible for the National Statistical System in Cambodia which includes the mandate to carry out a census. A population census plays an essential role in public administration. The results are used to ensure equity in distribution of government services; distributing and allocating government funds among various regions and districts for education and health services; delineating electoral districts at the national and local levels; and measuring the impact of industrial development, to name a few. 
One very important part of a census is the ability to store the collected information electronically. However, the ICT infrastructure within NIS is at a very poor state. With the assistance of Statistics Sweden a quick asessment of the existing ICT infrastructure was made and concluded that the census could proceed, although it would be very risky to do so as the ICT equipment is severely out of date. Moreover, although China has provided much needed equipment in the form of computers and servers, once the equipment arrived it became clear that the hardware is insufficient for the task and not properly programmed.  Following this, UNFPA decided to finance an upgrade of the ICT equipment so it will have sufficient capacity to store all the data related to the census. The costs for this is estimated to 125,000 USD. To complement the support of UNFPA, EU has decided to finance an expert who will be able to assist and advise NIS in regards to ICT issues and to process census related data. Therefore, NIS seeks to engage a senior and experienced Census Data Processing Expert (CDPE) to ensure the census data quality through provision of technical assistance and capacity building to the NIS regarding the 2019 census data collection/capture, transfer, processing and management strategy.
The specific objective for this support is to provide overall technical assistance including capacity building, and oversight towards the full development and implementation of the 2019 census plan to ensure quality data-processing as part of the processing operations of census data including advising the manual editing of the questionnaires after enumeration, data capture, data cleaning and validation, and finally tabulation.