2.19 Infrastructure and resources

Operating an NSO or a similar unit of production of official statistics requires building space, equipment as well as human and financial resources. An NSO does not need a very specialised space and infrastructure other than computer equipment. The basic needs are for office space and meeting rooms with the usual inventory of desks, chairs and the like as well as space outside the proper offices for a reception area and library with a study area for visitors, such as journalists, researchers and students. The NSO will also need facilities for storing its archives safely as well as space for servers of appropriate quality and security, fire-proof if possible.

The NSO has quite extensive requirements for computer equipment. An NSO cannot function without modern computer equipment, such as servers, networks workstations, laptops and/or tablets as well as printers. A minimum requirement for workstations is one per staff member. Laptops may be needed to work remotely, and tablets, and mobile phones for both communication and data collection. All equipment must be connected to a local area network requiring both wired connections and appropriate software. But the NSO does not thrive on hardware alone. It requires various software tools such as operating systems, basic office ware, database software, software for communicating, including running the website of the NSO, and a host of applications for the various production processes. The software should also include virus protection. For security reasons, the NSO also needs to apply standard protocols for data exchange, both within the NSS and for outside delivery and reception of data.

All computer equipment (hardware), and software alike, must be regularly updated. It is recommended that the NSO formulates and implements a medium-term IT strategy, perhaps of some 4-5 years, including plans for updating the hardware and software in specific instalments. This is recommended with a view of spreading the cost of renewal and updating as well as evening out the burden of maintaining the equipment. Care should be taken that upgrading benefit all employees using computer equipment. A few years ago, many NSOs preferred to use software and systems specialised for their particular use. The conditions for acquiring software and systems, however, have changed markedly in the last few years. Many systems and software can now be bought off-the-shelf at a much lower cost than having them tailor-made, and much of the available software is now open-source, generally free of charge and free to use and adapt to the needs of users. Using open-source and off-the-shelf software usually saves much money and greatly adds to the flexibility of IT operations. Computing and storage “in the cloud” have also involved dramatic additions to capacity and removed IT operations constraints.

NSOs and the other producers of official statistics are very specialised agencies. To operate a modern NSO and satisfy domestic and international requirements for compiling and communicating statistics, the office needs staff with mixed but relatively high professional skills and expertise. The mixed skills include very specialised staff such as methodologists, IT specialists and highly trained statisticians, subject matter experts as well as assistant staff, administrators etc.

Many NSOs require field workers for data collection. All staff should receive training regularly. It is recommended that the NSO runs a continuous multi-annual training programme spelling out how the office intends to satisfy the training needs and training interests of staff. New staff members should receive introductory training about the nature and requirements of official statistics, the rules for confidentiality, the office’s operations, etc. It is further recommended that the training organized by the NSO be offered to other producers of official statistics and staff in regional offices. Allowing staff members to enhance their soft and hard skills such as working methods, computer skills, languages, and project positively impact staff satisfaction and motivation.

It goes without saying that NSOs and other producers of official statistics need financial resources to finance their operations. Salary and wage cost are usually by far the largest cost components. In most countries, the NSOs and other producers are financed through the central government budget. In some countries, the annual budget allocation is basically for use by the NSO within the normal confines of its original budget proposal or budget request. This is the recommended mode of financing official statistical activities. In some countries, although the budget of the NSO is set out specifically in the government budget and approved as such, the budget allocation to official statistics is still subject to particular scrutiny and approval by the relevant ministry, often the Ministry of Finance. This implies that the NSO cannot be sure that it will receive all the funds approved on the budget, receive it regularly or evenly over the fiscal year. This practice is considered much inferior as it involves great uncertainty about the operations of the NSO, the conduct of its survey programme, and prevents all flexibility in the operations and spending.

It is a sad thing to relate that most NSOs in the world are underfunded. The same applies to other producers of official statistics in MDAs. NSOs and official statistics are not very popular phenomena; they are not held in high esteem, are considered un-sexy, to use the popular speech. In many countries, wage and salary levels in NSOs are lower than in other government agencies, in some countries much lower.

This has severe implications for official statistics as it gets challenging to hire skilled staff, difficult to retain good employees as they will seek higher-paid jobs elsewhere, both within and outside the public sector. Unfortunately, despite their obligations – internally to ensure that reliable and regular official statistics are produced and externally to ensure that the provision of official statistics meets the country’s international commitments – governments in many countries fail to provide adequate funding to official statistics. In the developing world, many NSOs rely on donor funding for essential parts of their operations. This is not a sustainable situation as it entails that the NSO does not have full control of its operations and cannot formulate and implement its statistical programme in accordance with national priorities.

It seems clear that the technical transformation and modernisation of statistical activities will continue unabated in developed countries. This will not happen in developing countries at present funding levels. The main tasks ahead in this respect are bringing the technical and organizational advances to the developing world. Without substantial digital and infrastructural advances in the developing part of the world, their official statistics will remain poorer and not sufficient for constituting the basis for economic, social, and environmental planning and advancements.