REPUBLIC OF SURINAMEENVISAGED ROAD TOWARDS NSDS 2010-2014

Hyatt Regency Trinidad, July 2009IWAN A. SNO – Director, General Bureau of Statistics

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Introduction Important Preliminaries Envisaged Design structures Terms of Reference for Design Teams Estimated Design Cost and Time table … The initiating launch at a Press conference Current State of Affairs in Suriname

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INTRODUCTION

After being preached to since October 2001 by several colleagues, most notably our colleagues from Jamaica and Bermuda and after a retreat in 2004, during which several executing agencies, involved with the IADB met, we were more or less convinced that Strategic Planning could be a useful tool to a statistical office. The November 2004 SCCS in Bermuda, provided the turning point.

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INTRODUCTION (continued)

In December 2004 we conducted our very first Customer Satisfaction Survey. Even after an extension of the deadline for responding to February 2005, the results (in terms of response rate) were so abysmal that they put off the WOP division completely. The Customer Satisfaction survey prepared for the last Quarter of 2006 was never conducted. (We were supposed to have them every two years).

As of July 2005, the Director, the Deputy Directors and most Managers of the GBS took part in several Management training courses (e.g.: Seven Habits of highly effective people & the Eight Habit; Dealing with Conflicts within an organization, etc.).

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INTRODUCTION (concluded)

In April 2007 the first SWOT was produced for the GBS. Further lessons learned from our colleagues made it clear to us that the first approach (only involving Senior Management and Management staff), however useful was insufficient. The exercise was repeated with all of the GBS staff in January 2009 during a one-day workshop: “Team building and Forward Looking for the GBS”

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IMPORTANT PRELIMINARIES-1

-The previous (July 2000- August 2005) and present (September 2005- to date) Minister of Planning and Development Cooperation (with Statistics in his portfolio) have always been very supportive to the GBS and pushed for capacity building and improved status. Under the previous minister the GBS became semi-autonomous and under the present minister it was decided that the Director of Statistics cannot have a status less than a Permanent Secretary. (Please (Please note, that not everything is “portable” as Guyana had its worst note, that not everything is “portable” as Guyana had its worst time under Planning and Suriname prospered most under time under Planning and Suriname prospered most under Planning)Planning)

-Since July 2006 the proposed RSWP is integrated into the Annual work plans (effectively overlapping 18 months plans) of the GBS and it helped tremendously to focus on critical statistical issues and also served as a stepping stone towards long-term statistical planning.

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IMPORTANT PRELIMINARIES-2

-While the previous Minister rightfully concentrated on the GBS (after all, it makes sense that one needs to strengthen the Coordinator of the System first), since 2007 the present Minister made it clear that indeed the Coordinator may deserve most of the attention, but more attention should be devoted to other parts of the System.

-In July 2008 the GBS submitted a long-term plan of activities 2010-2021 to the Commission for Statistics, which was approved with minor amendments.

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IMPORTANT PRELIMINARIES-3

-In the first Quarter of 2009, we had several NSDS discussions with the Minister of PLOS and after we returned from participating in the 40th session of the UN Statistical Commission, the Minister of PLOS requested a proposal towards achieving an NSDS in the last Quarter of 2009 (preferably by Mid October, but no later than Mid November 2009)

-On 4th of May the Minister repeated his request and on 22 May we submitted a first draft, which was extensively discussed on 28th May and a revised proposal was submitted on 18 June 2009.

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ENVISAGED DESIGN STRUCTURES critical issues influencing our proposal

High level political support Broad based support Representation from the main producers and

users Contribution towards the MDG

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ENVISAGED DESIGN STRUCTURESNSDS core Design Team and Alternates/assistants.-1

The Core Design Team comprises:

The Minister of PLOS (Chair) The Director of the GBS (Deputy Chair) Director Monetary and Economic Affairs of Central Bank (Secretary) Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MOIA) PS of the Ministry of Health (MOH) PS of the Ministry of Labour (MOL) PS of the Ministry of Education (MOE) PS of the Ministry of Transportation, Communication and Tourism (MOTCT) PS of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) PS of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing (SOZAVO)

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ENVISAGED DESIGN STRUCTURESNSDS core Design Team and Alternates/assistants.-2

The Alternate (or Assistant) team comprises:

The GBS Deputy Director for Statistics (Co-Chair) Head of the Research Department of Central Bank (Co-Chair) Director Bureau for Public Health Coordinator National Health Information System Head of the Department of Research and Planning, MOE Head of the Department of Labour Statistics, MOL Head of the Department of Research and Planning SOZAVO Head Agricultural Statistics Head Traffic Instruction, Education and Statistics of the Police Force

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Monitoring of activities

The activities of both teams during the design phase will be monitored by the Commission for Statistics, the governing board for the NSS in general and the GBS in particular. The Commission for Statistics will also be responsible for monitoring the actual implementation of NSDS 2010-2014.

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR DESIGN TEAMS

CORE TEAM TOR-1 Assess and if necessary adapt the proposed time

table , to ensure that all proposed activities are included and can be achieved, reckoning with a “Presentation date” somewhere between 16 and 27 November 2009

Submit a plan with indispensable elements of a Media Campaign to guide both the Design and the Execution Phase of the NSDS

Design the instruments to be used for the diagnosis and assessment of Suriname’s National Statistical System (SSS)

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR DESIGN TEAMSCORE TEAM TOR-2

Make an inventory and assess all legal instruments of relevance to the SSS

Design the questionnaire(s) for the Customer Satisfaction Survey(s)

Design the NSDS Road map 2010-2014, reckoning with: The Existing National Multi-Annual Development Plan, Capacity building for all parts of the SSS, proper balance between demand for and supply of Statistics, Optimum Mix between: Administrative data, Surveys and Censuses, Respondent and Interviewer burden, Optimum Coordination of the SSS

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR DESIGN TEAMSCORE TEAM TOR-3

Based on the Road Map, Cost the NSDS 2010-2014

Conduct all activities following naturally from the above-mentioned, which are in line with Core team membership.

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR DESIGN TEAMSAlternates/Assistants TOR-1

Collecting, processing and organizing data and documentation for the benefit of the NSDS Core Design Team, as well as archiving data and documentation

Conduct visits and all other activities in connection with the diagnosis and assessment of the SSS

Conduct the Customer Satisfaction Survey(s)

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR DESIGN TEAMSAlternates/Assistants TOR-2

Assist with budgeting the NSDS 2010-2014

Stand in for a relevant Core Design Team member when absent

Conduct all activities following naturally from the above-mentioned, which are in line with Alternate/Assistant team membership

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Estimated Design Cost(To be paid by Ministry of Planning)

In the estimated design cost we reckoned mainly with:

Office materials and accessories, cost of advertisements, cost of Customer Satisfaction surveys (pick-up / drop-off), assessment work visits, a small compensation for the design teams and a Presentation Workshop, all amounting to circa:

52,000 USD.

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Estimated Design CostImportant note: … It was made clear to everybody that this is a

minimum budget, applying only to the design phase as participating institutions will certainly have to bear some of the actual design cost. It was also emphasized that the actual NSDS cost will be a multitude of the Design Cost, as for instance for the GBS only we would have to reckon at least with cost for strengthening capacity, 2011 Census and the 2012/2013 Household Budget Survey.(p.s. we shall include LAMP)

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Estimated Design CostImportant notes: … Reliable Statistics are important: we need them for

Developing and Monitoring Policy, for adequate Planning purposes and for Research. The importance of Statistics is often acknowledged in wide circles but still, when times come for budgetary cuts, Statistical Offices are among the first to suffer!

“When the reasoning may point in the direction of budgetary cuts in statistics that is precisely the time when we need the figures to guide us out of our economic and social problems that challenge the level of living of our countries” (Busby, 1996)

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TIME TABLE

ACTIVITY January February March April May June July August September October NovemberFirst Preliminaries (Teambuilding and forward looking activities GBS)Secure (national and international) support for Suriname NSDSInitial inventory regarding plans and capacity building per data producerSensitizing the Minister of Planning (with Statistics in his portfolio)Sensitizing the Commission for Statistics and share proposed Vision*Minister of PLOS will sensitize especially colleagues with statistics unitsCommission members will sensitize the Organizations they representSubmit budget proposal for design phase to PLOS

Launching of the decision to develop an NSDS ▓Instate NSDS Design teams (See TEAM) ▓NSDS Core Team, adjusts and expands time table in accordance with TOR ▓NSDS Core Team Develops Road MapFollow-up inventory and require assessment (SWOT) of each data producerAssessment of the System as a whole and of the constituent partsEach data producer conducts a (harmonized) Customer Satisfaction SurveyDevelop NSS VisionKey Producers and Users of Statistics develop and cost implementation plan

Present the Suriname NSDS (2010-2014) Document (President or Minister) ▓

NSDS PREPARATORY AND DESIGN ACTIVITIES 2009

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THE INITIATING LAUNCH AT A PRESS CONFERENCE

On 25 June 2009, there was a Press conference with invitees from:

Parliament (Standing Committee for Planning and Development Cooperation), Private Sector, Government institutions, Autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, NGO’s, Trade Unions, International Organizations, the Press.

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THE INITIATING LAUNCH AT A PRESS CONFERENCE(continued)

Registration took place between 8.30 and 9.00 and at 9.05 the MC issued her welcome remarks.

From 9.10 to 9.30 the Director of Statistics had a short presentation entitled: “Enige Opmerkingen over Strategic Statistical Planning met nadruk op CARICOM en SIDS”.

Translation: (Some remarks concerning Strategic Statistical Planning with an emphasis on CARICOM and SIDS”).

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THE INITIATING LAUNCH AT A PRESS CONFERENCE(concluded)

From 9.30 to 9.45 the Minister of PLOS made his remarks regarding the importance of Statistics (for Policy, for Planning, for efficient and effective allocation of means, for Research), Sources for Statistics, and the importance of a proper mix between sources as well as the indispensable role an NSDS has to play in this process. The minister also referred to why the launch was taking place in that particular period, called upon the press to guide the process critically but constructively so that within 15 year (Hopefully, Suriname’s 3rd NSDS round), the SSS may proudly rank among the top in the world. He finally stated that he had officially initiated the process towards the development of Suriname’s NSDS 2010-2014

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CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SURINAME-1

Although the Minister of PLOS sensitized his colleagues and other Stakeholders on this matter, after the letter inviting the organizations to formalize their nominations were sent out between 29 June and 3 July 2009, stipulating Wednesday 15 July 2009 as the deadline for nominations, by Friday 17 July 2009 the Ministry of PLOS had only received a small subset of the nominations.

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CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SURINAME-2

It seems, as happens ever so often, that we are again confronted with lip service, resistance to change and extremely slow movement.

We shall prevail!!!!!

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TH??? !!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND PARTICIPATION.