Poverty monitoring
In this area, the Bratislava team addresses a wide range of challenges related to Human Development (HD) and Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) statistics. The team targets both the supply side and the demand side—the former to help organizations produce better and more relevant data, and the latter to help users (particularly policy makers) better understand HD/MDG statistics. The poverty monitoring support offered by the Bratislava team does not substitute the national government’s budgetary commitments to monitor poverty and produce relevant data, but instead, takes into account the budget limitations that prevent the government from piloting new methodologies. Thus, the team devotes its resources in the field of poverty monitoring to complement the government’s efforts to produce HD/MDGs data. The following is a list of the team’s goals, and a description of the activities being carried out to support those goals. - Improve the capacity of data producers. The team conducts on-demand regional and national workshops and trainings to help national statistical offices and various administrative data producers regularly collect and disseminate HD/MDG and social inclusion data in accordance with EU best practices, as well as calculate Human Development Index (HDI) and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in countries where the monitoring mechanisms do not exist or existing data is out-dated.
- Increase data-sharing and broaden access to data. The team helps data producers consolidate and publish data from various sources (e.g. administrative records, line ministries, statistical offices) to improve the cooperation between national and international statistical organizations.
- Enhance the skills of data users. The team conducts on-demand regional and national workshops and trainings to help data users properly use statistics for targeted policy-making and monitoring, and for evidence-based budgeting and planning. The team also helps data users analyze disaggregated statistics in national development strategies and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). Under this component, the team focus on the analytical skills of staff from think-tanks and government ministries.
- Improve data dissemination. The team offers on-demand support to help national organizations establish DevInfo, which allows organizations to disseminate HD/MDG and/or social inclusion data more easily, and improve their monitoring of national and local development strategies.
- Establish a repository for poverty data. The team is helping to design a structure of poverty mappings (spatially-disaggregated database) with additional disaggregations, for example by sex or ethnicity where possible.
- Establish national and regional databases. The team is helping statistical organizations develop and maintain a national database of HD/MDG data, which can then be integrated with regional databases, thus creating a "one-stop shop" on HD/MDG statistics. The database should be enhanced with additional levels of detail to allow organizations to monitor progress toward sustainable humand development and the MDGs at sub-national levels, which is essential for targeted and evidence-based policy-making.
- Promote the production and use of statistics in policy-making. The team focuses on developing innovative methods of collecting data to provide a realistic picture of vulnerable groups so that policy-makers can use the data to make informed recommendations. The team is especially interested in addressing issues facing vulnerable groups, such as Roma, people living with HIV/AIDS, disabled people, refugees and internally displaced people.
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