Concept note for the side event on ICT statistics to the 3rd session of the Committee on Statistics of ESCAP

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1 Concept note for the side event on ICT statistics to the 3rd session of the Committee on Statistics of ESCAP 1. Context On the back of their increasing ubiquity and the number of aspects of life they are impacting, ICT have become a key potential accelerator of development. Mobile phone penetration rates in the ESCAP region have jumped by 215 per cent between 2005 and 2011, increasing from 25.7 to per cent. This growth has been even more significant in developing countries of Asia and the Pacific, where for the first time, mobile phones provide even the more vulnerable members of societies with the potential access to modern communication facilities. The digital divide however remains a concern for access to other ICTs, in particular broadband Internet, for which the region has the largest gap in the world between rich and poor nations. ICTs have come to play a vital role in societies, transforming ways people socialize, interact with administrations, learn, play, and work. The production of ICT goods and services has also developed into a major source of economic opportunities and benefits in the Asia-Pacific region, as it now concentrates the world s leading exporters of ICT goods and ICT-related services. In light of the increased role these technologies play, ICT policies have naturally grown in importance in terms of their development impact. ICT policy makers and analysts have realized how significant a transformative impact their actions can have, especially on the most vulnerable segments of societies. However, as is often the case in new areas of policymaking, ICT policymakers have been confronted with a severe lack of data which hampers international comparisons and benchmarking of policy impacts and achievements. More data would also be necessary to obtain a clearer picture of investment needs in infrastructure, or in human capacity building, among other things. In this context, the international community has requested international agencies to coordinate the development of a system of statistical indicators to allow for ICT measurement for development policies. With the endorsement of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development was created in 2004 to improve the availability and quality of ICT statistics and indicators, particularly in developing countries 1. The Partnership helps measure the information society by: 1. Defining a core list of ICT indicators and methodologies to collect these indicators; 1 For a general presentation of the Partnership see: D/ict/partnership/material/Brochure_partnership_2012_E_web.pdf 1

2 2. Helping developing countries collect ICT statistics, particularly through capacity building and hands-on training for national statistical offices; 3. Collecting and disseminating information society statistics in a number of formats, including global reports and databases. The Partnership membership has consistently grown since 2004 and now reaches 12 international organizations, including ESCAP 2. One of the key achievements of the Partnership has been the identification of a core list of indicators 3. This list of over 50 indicators, which was agreed upon through a consultation process involving governments and international organisations, covers basic infrastructure and access indicators as well as ICTs in households, enterprises, education and government. The list, which is revised regularly, was identified to help guide countries in measuring the information society. In 2007 and again in 2012, the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) endorsed the core list of indicators on information and communication technologies (ICT). In particular, in the outcome report of the 43 rd session of the UNSC, the Commission congratulated the Partnership on the work carried out, agreed with the recommendations on approaches to enhance ICT statistics, fully endorsed the revised and extended core list of ICT indicators and asked the Partnership to continue reviewing the indicators in light of rapid technological advances and widespread use of ICT technology. Finally, the UNSC agreed to include ICT statistics in its multiannual work programme and requested the Partnership to report on progress made at the session of the UNSC in The core list of ICT indicators is composed of over 50 indicators in the following areas: - ICT infrastructure and access (10 indicators); - ICT access and use by households and individuals (12 indicators); - ICT use by businesses (12 indicators); - ICT sector and trade in ICT goods (4 indicators); - ICT in education (8 indicators). - ICT in government (7 indicators) The Partnership recommends the core list as a basis for ICT data collection in countries. The indicators included in the core list are clearly defined and associated with statistical standards, which allows comparability across countries. The Partnership also provides technical assistance and capacity building to developing countries in measuring ICT. 2 The members of the Partnership includes the following organizations: Eurostat, ITU, OECD, UIS- UNESCO, UNDESA, UNESCAP, UNECA, UNECLAC, UNEP (Secretariat of the Basel Convention), UNESCWA, UNCTAD, and the World Bank 3 For the core indicators see: 4 Report of the UNSC 43rd session (E/CN.3/2012/34): Report-E.pdf 2

3 Within the Partnership, ESCAP and other Regional Economic Commissions ensure the coordination between the region and the other partner organisations. This includes ensuring the region s voice is heard during the definition of core indicators, as well as coordinating capacity building efforts and the collection and dissemination of data. Some of the core indicators provide information on internationally agreed goals. Target 8-F of MDG-8 make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications can for example be evaluated through core indicators on access and use of ICT. Moreover, the international community has entrusted the Partnership with the definition and collection of indicators on the WSIS targets. The Partnership has produced various publications in this regard, including Measuring the WSIS Targets - A statistical framework 5. The availability of the data for the core indicators varies within and across regions. Schematically, availability tends to be lower for lower income countries and higher in more advanced ones. Within the ESCAP region, the availability of the ICT core indicators is growing but remains rather low by international comparison (table 1) 6. Table 1: Availability of the core indicators of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development Indicators average availability for the region (Percentage of countries reporting data, see Partnership for indicators list) Africa Asia and Pacific Central Asia and South Eastern European Countries Latin America and Region and period A1- A10 HH1- HH12 B1- B12+ICT1,ICT2 ED1- ED N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A the Caribbean For background information see: 3

4 N/A N/A Western Asia Other countries N/A N/A (mainly OECD) Total N/A N/A N/A N/A Source: ESCAP, based on Report of the Partnership on Measuring Information and Communication Technology for Development, background document for the forty-third session of the United Nations Statistical Commission. See E/CN.3/2007/30. Therefore efforts must be enhanced in the region to spur data production and dissemination, especially in light of the growing development impact of ICT. A key success factor in this regard is improving national coordination in the collection and dissemination of ICT statistics. Given the cross-cutting nature of ICTs, permeating all sectors of the society, statistical data collection and dissemination is often fragmented. In most countries, ICT statistics are produced from a variety of sources, involving different national institutions and private organizations, including national statistical offices, national telecommunication regulatory authorities and sector Ministries. Coordination and cooperation among these data producers are fundamental to the production of highquality official statistics, otherwise, there is a risk that published data are inaccurate or inconsistent, leading to wrong policy decisions. Other benefits of coordination include reduction of the overall response burden for data providers, avoidance of duplication of effort and optimization of the efficient use of resources. Given its importance, the topic of National Coordination of ICT Statistics was featured in the high-level segment of the ITU 10 th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Meeting, which took place in Bangkok, Thailand, in September The high-level segment included representatives of ICT Ministries, telecommunications regulatory authorities, National Statistical Offices, and ESCAP. The objective of the panel was to address ways and means of establishing a national coordination mechanism to ensure the efficient and timely production of ICT indicators. The high-level panel debate showed that national coordination is central to the production and dissemination of ICT statistics in view of the different stakeholders that are involved in both the identification of ICT indicators needed for policy-making and the collection of data for these indicators. In its final report, the meeting recommends that countries put in place a coordination mechanism which brings together national stakeholders to discuss issues related to the collection, dissemination and analysis of ICT statistics. Participants agreed that the NSO should play an active role in coordinating the collection and dissemination of ICT statistics and indicators See Conclusions and recommendations and final report of the 10 th ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Meeting (WTIM), available at 4

5 The ESCAP Committee on Statistics included in its 2010 session an information item on ICT statistics. ITU, on behalf of the Partnership, submitted a report on Recent developments in information and communication technology statistics 8. The report highlighted that there are considerable gaps in the availability of comparable ICT data in the region and proposed that ICT statistics be one of the areas that the ESCAP Committee on Statistics should consider in its future work. The report also recommended that the ESCAP Committee on Statistics consider the following: Identifying ICT statistics as one of the items that should be further discussed in order to increase the availability of ICT indicators in the region and to harmonize them. This will provide policy makers with improved evidence on ICT developments, to develop effective policies on the ICT sector and the information society. Establishing a working group on ICT statistics that will report to the Committee on a regular basis on progress made. Including ICT statistics in national statistical strategies and master plans. This will accelerate the production of ICT statistics needed for a review of progress in the implementation of the WSIS targets and the MDGs by Harmonizing methodologies for ICT measurement based on international standards developed by ITU and the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development to ensure international comparability of data. The ESCAP secretariat has therefore decided to dedicate the 2012 side-event of its Committee on Statistics to the topic of ICT statistics, to identify good practices and a way forward with regards to the above. This side-event will take place 3 weeks after the third session of the ESCAP Committee on Information and Communication Technology (CICT-3 to be held in Bangkok, November 2012). Item 6 of the CICT-3 will discuss issues related to measuring ICT, as relevant from an ICT-policymaking perspective. This will be an excellent opportunity to draw the attention of ICT policymakers to the importance of statistical indicators on ICT, and to the crucial issue of coordination across various actors of the National Statistical System involved in the production and dissemination of ICT statistics, including National Statistical Offices. 2. Objective of the side-event to the Committee on Statistics The side events overall objective will be to promote ICT measurement issues with a view to increase the availability of ICT statistics in the region, in line with internationally agreed recommendations. The meeting will therefore aim at: - Identifying good practices in terms of ICT measurement in the region, with a particular focus on the issue of the national coordination of ICT statistics - Facilitating discussions and decision making by statisticians on ICT measurement issues, including with respect to the work of ESCAP and the 8 5

6 possible integration of ICT statistics into the work of the Committee on Statistics 3. Expected impact The side-event should result in enhanced knowledge in the region of the international standards and mechanisms in place to measure ICT. It should also contribute to a better understanding of underlying causes for data gaps with regards to ICT indicators in Asia- Pacific. It will result in the identification of good practices with regards to how ICT statistics are coordinated within National Statistical System. Recommendations with regards to the integration of ICT statistics into the work programme of ESCAP could be proposed. Finally, the side-event is expected to help enhance ICT data availability in countries of the region necessary for evidence-based policy-making. 4. Participation The side event will be open primarily to the participants to the Committee on Statistics of ESCAP, which are chiefly high level representatives of National Statistical Offices (NSOs), and of Statistical coordination institutions. The event will also bring together representatives of the Statistics and ICT divisions of ESCAP, as well as representatives of agencies of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development. 6