The 14th Conference of Commonwealth Statisticians held in Cape Town from September 5 to 9 has ended.
Its organisation and content were, at least in some ways, a dress rehearsal for the more extensive debates that will take place when statisticians reconvene in South Africa for the 57th session of the International Statistical Institute during August 2009.
The honour bestowed on South Africa in hosting these events is an indication of the growing role Statistics SA plays in the international statistical system and its institutions.
However, questions are sometimes raised as to whether the effort and resources in these gatherings are justified by their outputs and outcomes.
One of our notable guests at the conference was Dennis Trewin, the Australian statistician and head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, generally recognised as one of the finest - if not the best - statistical agency in the world.
In a report summarising his views on the gathering, Trewin noted that because the theme of the conference was "managing statistics for a more equitable society", it was not surprising that there was a lot of discussion on poverty measurement.
However, Trewin questioned whether there was too much of a focus on income poverty statistics (for example $1 per day) and whether a multidimensional view of poverty would be more productive.
There are, as Trewin notes, many other factors relevant to poverty measurement and alleviation, such as access to education, health and basic services. He emphasised the importance of local data to support decisions on planning and resource allocation.
He questioned whether the proceedings placed too much emphasis on the development of indicators for measurement.
[While] these are valuable, they are only part of a good statistical system. You need the underlying databases to support analysis. This will include data on subpopulations, regions and so on.
"Of course, good quality databases rely on good source data and the international community could give this more emphasis in its activities."
On the opening day, the premier of the Western Cape spoke about the importance of sound and transparent statistics. This stimulated a discussion of what comprises trust in official statistics.
Trust, argues Trewin, "is important for: informed decision making; monitoring what is happening in our countries; our people, the economy or the environment; and governments, if the debate is to focus on what the numbers say rather than on whether they are trustworthy".
The last point suggests Trewin may have to be repeated on many occasions if ministers are to be convinced that debating what the numbers reveal, rather than whether they are trustworthy, is of importance.
Interestingly, Trewin suggests that skills development in relationship management should be a focus of training investment. "Not surprisingly in a conference of this type, we heard a lot about capacity building. We heard about building up skills on strategic planning, leadership and communication skills such as managing the media."
Unsurprisingly for an international conference, international activities and initiatives received considerable attention.
The international comparison programme.
"There was strong support for these initiatives but suggestions for important improvements," notes Trewin.
"For example, for millennium development goal indicators, the key concern seemed to be better managing the situation where country data is different to that submitted by the relevant international agency. There may be scope to take a multidimensional view of poverty."
The conclusion of the Australian statistician is that conferences of this nature are of value, especially in bringing together a large number of diverse countries to share knowledge on the issues facing national statistical offices.