The Statistics Newsletter for the Extended OECD Statistical Network
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The Statistics Newsletter for the extended OECD statistical network Issue No. 58, February 2013 www.oecd.org/std/statisticsnewsletter Outcomes of the 4th OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy: Measuring Well-Being for Development and Policy Making by the OECD Statistics Directorate Highlights from the 2012 OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators by the OECD Statistics Directorate International Seminar on National Accounts in 2012: Implementation of the 2008 SNA in Asia and the Pacifi c Region and its Challenges by the Bank of Korea Czech Statistical O ce PROCESSINGIS ACCELERATING OF ELECTION ALL RESULTSTHE TIME 50 YEARSStatistics of Luxembourg STATEC 2 THE STATISTICS NEWSLETTER - OECD - Issue No. 58, February 2013 CONTENTS 3 Outcomes of the 4th OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy: Measuring Well-Being for Development and Policy Making Martine Durand, Director, OECD Statistics Directorate 8 Highlights from the 2012 OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators Anita Wölfl and Julien Dupont, OECD Statistics Directorate 12 Statistics Luxembourg Celebrates its 50th Anniversary Nico Weydert, Deputy Director, Statistics Luxembourg 15 Processing of Election Results is Accelerating all the Time Jiří Prox, Unit for Processing of Election Results, Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) 17 International Seminar on National Accounts in 2012: Implementation of the 2008 SNA in Asia and the Pacific Region and Its Challenges Young Bae Kim, Director-General of Economic Statistics Department, Bank of Korea 19 Recent publications 20 Forthcoming meetings The Statistics Newsletter is published by the OECD Statistics Directorate. This issue and previous issues can be downloaded from the OECD website: www.oecd.org/std/statisticsnewsletter Editor-in-Chief: Martine Durand Editor: David Brackfield Editorial and technical support: Sonia Primot For further information contact: the Editor, the Statistics Newsletter, [email protected] Readers are invited to send their articles or comments to the email address above. Deadline for articles for the next issue: 30th April 2013 Issue No. 58, February 2013 - THE STATISTICS NEWSLETTER - OECD 3 4TH OECD WORLD FORUM OUTCOMES OF THE 4TH OECD WORLD FORUM ON STATISTICS, KNOWLEDGE AND POLICY: MEASURING WELL-BEING FOR DEVELOPMENT AND POLICY MAKING Martine Durand, Director, OECD Statistics Directorate easurement of well-being sub-themed sessions involving has come a long way since speakers from different horizons. Mthe 1st OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy The following conclusions are based held in Palermo, Italy, in 2004. The on a presentation made by Martine Istanbul Declaration, endorsed by Durand, OECD Chief Statistician, in several international organisations at Initiative, the main objectives of the the final session of the Forum, and the 2nd OECD World Forum in Turkey, Forum were to further the discussions have been amended in light of the in 2007, gave impetus to discussions, on the different aspects that make comments and feedback provided leading to the establishment of a for a good life today and in the future by participants in the weeks following broad-based initiative for measuring in different countries of the world, the Forum. progress. The 3rd OECD World and to promote the development and Forum in Busan, Korea, spelled out use of new measures of well-being the OECD commitment to respond for effective and accountable policy We are witnessing to a strong political demand for making. a“ convergence in our developing metrics that go beyond understanding of well- economic production to better The four-day Forum gathered around being. reflect people’s well-being. 900 participants from all over the Martine” Durand world, including policy-makers These events have helped raise the as well as representatives from visibility of the notions of well-being, international organisations, national Achievements progress and sustainability in policy statistics offices, government discussions at the domestic and agencies, academia and civil society. Much has happened in the field of international levels, and helped in It included a combination of keynote well-being over the past few years. anchoring the measurement agenda addresses, round tables and themed At the OECD, in 2011, the OECD associated to these notions in the sessions on material conditions; Secretary-General launched the work programme of the national and quality of life; gender, minorities OECD Better Life Initiative, combining international statistical agencies. & life course perspectives; and data and research from across the Further progress remains necessary, sustainability. Each themed session Organisation and beyond to provide however, to advance the statistical was organised around parallel the first collection of internationally agenda. Even more important today comparable well-being indicators is putting well-being information tailored to the needs and concerns of to use in decision making, in developed countries. This initiative, particular in the perspective of the based on a framework drawing from ongoing discussions on the future the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report, of development policies. has served as a basis to develop a common language for the many well- On 16-19 October 2012, the being initiatives undertaken around OECD organised, jointly with the world, proposing a core set of the Government of India, the 4th universal well-being dimensions OECD World Forum on Statistics, that could be adapted, through the Knowledge and Policy under the inclusion of more specific items theme “Measuring Well-Being for and indicators, to the priorities of Development and Policy Making”. Martine Durand, Chief Statistician and different countries and regions of Building on the OECD Better Life Director of Statistics, OECD the world. 4 THE STATISTICS NEWSLETTER - OECD - Issue No. 58, February 2013 A series of OECD regional well-being Programme, building on over 20 • In the field of quality of conferences in Latin America, Asia- years of experience in preparing its life, OECD guidelines on Pacific and Africa, jointly organised “Human Development Report”, has measuring subjective well- with the OECD Development Centre, been stressing the importance and being, classifications to be have taken place over 2011-2012. power of more appropriate measures used in time-use surveys and The outcomes of these conferences of progress to advance towards an recommendations to develop have informed the agenda of the equitable and sustainable future for common metrics for non-fatal 4th OECD World Forum by identifying all. More recently, a Bhutan-led UN health outcomes by various UN regional priorities and concerns, they Resolution has called for greater City Groups. have helped to develop a shared importance to be paid to happiness sense of common purpose and and well-being when implementing • In the field of sustainability, the direction towards a core set of well- measures to spur social and new UN standard for a System being dimensions where improved economic development, while the of Economic and Environmental metrics are both important and Rio+20 outcome document calls Accounting (SEEA) and the feasible. These conferences also upon the UN Statistical Commission indicator set proposed by helped build strong ties with UN and to launch a programme of work to the UNECE/OECD/Eurostat other regional agencies working on develop measures of progress Taskforce. these issues. Finally, these regional complementing GDP. initiatives have fed the web-platform Notwithstanding this progress, a Wikiprogress, which has established Statistical work significant statistical agenda on well- itself as a critical reference source of being, progress and sustainability information for initiatives in this field. The 4th OECD Forum has allowed still lies ahead. This agenda has taking stock of some key initiatives both a short-term and a medium- This work has acted at a catalyst for where significant progress on the term horizon, and in both cases it is many countries to bring well-being statistical front has been, or is being, important to maintain momentum. In to the forefront of their policies. achieved. These include: the short term, it is important to make Individual countries around the better use of the data that already world have launched national well- • In the field of material conditions, exists, so as to bring information on being programmes and established OECD work to develop the many facets of people’s life to consultative roundtables and guidelines for the measurement the attention of decision makers and parliamentary commissions, with a of household wealth, to citizens. This requires improving the view to developing better well-being, integrate inequalities in the comparability of existing data while progress and sustainability metrics household national accounts, drawing on non-official sources for – and to place them at the heart countries' surveys assessing those domains where quality official of decision-making. While these the economic conditions of statistics are currently lacking. In initiatives have involved countries in specific minorities. the medium term, there is a need all regions of the world, participants to develop statistical guidelines and to the 4th OECD World Forum had the standards for those concepts that opportunity to hear about some of the most important experiences in this field, from Australia to Bhutan, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco and the United Kingdom. These initiatives