5. Going further with strategic partners

Recommendation 5 - Go further with strategic partners

We work in strong partnerships in the statistical community and engage with data providers. Strategic partnerships with other government agencies are critical for the efficient production of official statistics. In engaging in strategic partnerships, be it with public or private organizations, NSOs need to consider possible risks to their professional independence to avoid any loss of trust. Partnerships we engage in should be of mutual benefit and add to the value of official statistics to society. The combination of tight budgets and rapidly increasing data needs, especially for the reporting on SDGs, calls for seeking new partners to leverage expertise and add value. If we fail to team up with the right partners, somebody else will step in to deliver on our behalf, therefore:

• Partnerships with the private sector still represent a largely untapped source of innovation. They could open access to source data that may replace or complement traditional surveys. Partnerships may enable access to new tools and technologies, design knowledge, product ideas, dissemination channels and networks. We should make our data available for use in new products of private companies, thus, increasing the reach of statistics. Effective partnerships with the media could also help to communicate and reach the users of statistics better.
• Experiment with “Statslabs” and new models of international partnerships within and outside the statistical community. For example, set up “Statslabs” with experts from statistical and other offices to work in product and design development. This would help address resource constraints and spread new innovations by “copying and pasting”, thus, increasing our capabilities.
• Look for, and make the most of, opportunities to influence stakeholders’ work. For example, some statistical offices have worked with administrative data providers to adjust their data collection slightly to reduce direct business surveying or to modify their work in a manner that would allow the use of administrative data in a virtual population register to complement or replace the current head count census.
• Get at the centre of decision making, making a reality of strategic partnerships with such users, whether in the public sector with policy making or resource allocation, or in private sector decision making. We can do our jobs well only if we understand the issues facing decision makers and which the information we provide is intended to inform. Such involvement is in no way inconsistent with our professional integrity – to the contrary, it is an important part of our professionalism.